Contents:
Franz Liszt:
Transcriptions and Paraphrases
Artists:
Earl Wild piano

Recorded Date:
January 1985 at the Manhattan School of Music, New York City, piano: Baldwin
Producer:
Michael Rolland Davis
Engineer:
Kelly Higgins
Piano Technician:
Alexander Ostrovsky
Mr. Wild can match fingers with any pianist alive. Of course technique is demanded in the music of Liszt. But no composer is more at the mercy of his interpreters than is Liszt. To play him convincingly and with style, a flexible, aristocratic, singing approaach is mandatory, and that is precisely what the virtuosos of the younger generation lack. Primarily it is a matter of sound. There is a difference between a real technique and the mere ability to get over the keys. Technique as demonstarted by Mr. Wild means a union of finger, foot, and ear. He almost never punches the keyboard. He colors each tone, each phrase, with a canny use of the pedal. He is awfully good. When he plays such pieces as the E flat Paganini Etude, it is not only supervirtuosity but also sheer pianistic elegance. You will not hear clearer voice-leading than in the Bach/Liszt g minor Fantasy and Fugue. In the ‘Rigoletto’ paraphrase, Mr. Wild resists the temptation to make a virtuoso stunt of the piece and keeps everything within sensitive pianistic and musical proportions. One can honestly say that everything on these discs is played with authority.

Har