COMPOSERS: Liszt
LABELS: BIS
ALBUM TITLE: Liszt - Piano Music
WORKS: Piano Sonata in B minor, Vallee d'Obermann, Rapsodie espagnole, Funerailles
PERFORMER: Arnaldo Cohen
CATALOGUE NO: CD 1253
Panache and poetry brilliantly fuse
when Arnaldo Cohen plays Liszt, as
borne out by the Brazilian pianist’s
earlier recorded efforts on behalf of the
composer, including a fine B minor
Sonata issued by Carlton in the early
1990s. Cohen’s remake of the Sonata
benefits from BIS’s roomier, more
three-dimensional sonics, along with
the pianist’s increased fluidity and
commitment. Like Claudio Arrau,
Cohen fully savours the dramatic
implications within slower, rhetorical
sequences, yet raises the scintillation
factor threefold in the infamous
octave passages enough to run neck
and neck alongside Martha Argerich’s
molten temperament (DG).
Note, too, how Funérailles acquires
a rarely achieved unity by virtue of
Cohen’s controlled freedom and longlined
phrasing, and the tumultuous
central section truly emerges from the
desolate music that precedes it, rather
than sounding like a tacked-on octave
étude. Similar comments apply to the
narrative mastery with which Cohen
sustains Vallée d’Obermann. He shares
Arrau’s patience in how he shapes the
brooding opening section without
pushing ahead or fidgeting. And for
all the surface flash and imaginative
colorations characterising Cohen’s
dazzling romp through the Rapsodie
espagnole, the pianist’s carefully
considered tempo relationships and
transitions direct your ears to the
music behind the glitter.
Cohen is that rare Lisztian whose
interpretations both illuminate and
entertain, and one hopes that BIS will
keep this under-recorded keyboard
master busy for years to come. A firstclass
release in every way. Jed Distler