Liszt : Etudes d'exécution transcendante [CD de audio] Franz Liszt and Mariangela Vacatello

After winning several prizes in prestigious competitions such as the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels, the Busoni in Bolzano, the Liszt in the Netherlands and the Van Cliburn, the Italian pianist Mariangela Vacatello (born 1982) embarked on a first-rate international career that took you to Berlin, London, Milan, Salzburg or New York, and this is just the beginning! Here he offers us his very energetic, very singing, very Italian interpretation of Liszt's Transcendental Studies, a collection of such difficulty that Schumann, at the time, estimated that only a handful of pianists in the world could manage it. The first version of the studies dates back to 1826, when Liszt was only fifteen years old and already had a diabolical technique; a second version was published in 39, and the latter, more often performed, not only because it is a little less diabolical, but also because of its greater musical coherence and its greater interest in terms of piano technique of 1852. In fact, Liszt realized after 35 years of experience that the economy of means can sometimes achieve greater objectives; while the pianist has more expressive freedom, less grinding of busy notes. We are far away here from Liszt's sometimes superficial salon works, too often considered the essence of his piano production by some pianists who need manga effects. Vacatello gives us, on the contrary, a vision of great purity of tone. ©abeille musique 2011