Liszt/Wagner: Wagner without Words

Liszt/Wagner: Wagner without Words cover $35.00 Out of Stock
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FRANZ LISZT / RICHARD WAGNER
Liszt/Wagner: Wagner without Words
Llyr Williams (piano)

[ Signum Classics / 2 CD ]

Release Date: Tuesday 26 August 2014

This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.

Pianist Llyr Williams explores Wagner's rich and evocative sound-world from a less well-known angle.

Featuring insightful arrangements of Richard Wagner's operas by Franz Liszt and Glenn Gould (as well as Williams' own arrangement of music from 'Parsifal'), at the centre of the programme is a selection of Wagner's own piano pieces - many of which were written earlier in his compositional career, hinting at the grand operatic masterworks which were yet to come.

"It's a totally convincing collection, and technically superb; Williams is equal to the toughest challenges that Liszt presents, but always puts Wagner first...everything has a sense of dramatic purpose, as well as power and tonal beauty; the colours Williams creates from the keyboard in Siegfried's Rhine Journey and the Parsifal suite are radiant and entrancing." (The Guardian, Aug 2014)

'In Pictures at an Exhibition there's a question-mark about Llyr Williams's willingness to depart from Mussorgsky's autograph with rather more than the occasional bass octave doubling or re-spaced chord … Debussy's Estampes (Etchings), likewise, explore a Mussorgsky related world of sharp outline and atmospheric colour. Williams allows the music's brand of sophisticated spontaneity to speak memorably for itself' (BBC Music Magazine)

Tracks:

Liszt:
Spinnerlied aus Der fliegende Holländer S440
Elsa's Bridal Procession (from Lohengrin), S445, No.2
Isolde's Liebestod (after Wagner), S447
Walhall aus Der Ring des Nibelungen S449

Wagner:
Fantasia in F sharp minor WWV22, Op. 3
Song without Words
Zuricher Vielliebchen-Walzer, WWV 88
Albumblatt 'In das Album der Fürstin M.', WWV 94
Eine Sonate für das Album von Frau M.W. WWV85
Albumblatt für Frau Betty Schott, WWV 108

plus:
WAGNER/LISZT: Entry of the Guests from Tannhäuser
WAGNER/GOULD/WILLIAMS: Siegfried's Rhine-Journey from Götterdämmerung
WAGNER/WILLIAMS: Scenes from Parsifal: Transformation Music, Parsifal & the Flower Maidens, Good Friday Music
WAGNER/LISZT: Santo spirito cavaliere from Rienzi

WAGNER/GOULD/WILLIAMS: Prelude to The Meistersinger from Nürnberg