Eloquence Classics

A collection of some of Liszt’s most symphonic piano works, this recording by Lilya Zilberstein includes the Ballade in B minor, which openly acknowledge Liszt’s debt to Chopin and the two Légendes of 1863, which bear witness to a period in which Liszt (then 52) became almost obsessed with the religious life. The six Consolations, published in 1850, celebrate the virtues and rewards of solitude and meditation. Liszt’s fascination with chromaticism and indeterminate tonality found particularly prescient expression in the Prelude and Fugue on the name B-A-C-H which he composed for the organ in 1855, revised in 1870, and arranged – or in certain details thoroughly rearranged – for the piano in the same year, now calling it Fantasia and Fugue.  This is a work of major significance in the history of 19th-century keyboard music and shows us Liszt’s re-creative genius at the very height of its powers.