Imogen Cooper - Franz Liszt & Richard Wagner: Piano Works (2017)

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Imogen Cooper - Franz Liszt & Richard Wagner: Piano Works (2017)

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Richard Wagner is often cited as the chief innovator of chromatic harmony in late Romantic music, mostly because of his tonally ambiguous Prelude to Tristan und Isolde. Yet the strongest influence on Wagner's harmonic ideas came from Franz Liszt, who ventured further afield than Wagner dared to go. Imogen Cooper's 2017 release on Chandos explores a group of piano works by Liszt, as well as the transcription of Wagner's Prelude to Tristan und Isolde by Zoltán Kocsis, and Liszt's arrangement of the Liebestod, and the program demonstrates the use of unresolved dissonances to create atmosphere and heighten tension. Compare Liszt's Nuages gris with Wagner's Elegie to hear the similarity of approach, and sample La lugubre gondola I and the Bagatelle sans tonalité to hear Liszt go to the far edge of tonality. Somewhat subtler in effect are the Valse Oubliée No. 2, Gretchen (transcribed by Liszt from his Faust Symphony), and the Four Pieces from Années de Pélerinage, Deuxième Année: Italie, which still reflect conventional tonality but share the ambiguity of the rest of the pieces in their subtle use of chromaticism and harmonic coloration. Cooper's playing is suitably delicate and restrained, and she avoids Liszt's flashier displays of virtuosity to emphasize his reflective and darker side. Chandos' recording is clear and reasonably close, with natural resonance.

Review by Blair Sanderson, Allmusic.com

Cooper’s keyboard mastery is as searching as the music itself…her way of balancing chords mesmerises the ear – both in the consonant close of Sposalizio (whose poised opening is exquisitely delivered)…

Review by BBC Music Magazine (May 2017 Instrumental Choice)

The lyrical refinement that typifies Imogen Cooper’s finest recordings suits this selection of Liszt original works and transcriptions. She may underplay the Second Valse oubliée’s climax but her pointing up of the quirky broken rhythmic motif and sensitive shading of the bitonal moments compensates. She holds Liszt’s piano version of the Faust Symphony’s central ‘Gretchen’ movement together by shaping the melodic narrative in fluent arcs and never letting the left hand sag for a moment. Because the overall effect is conversational rather than dramatic, the performance winds up sounding far faster than its 19-minute running time implies.

Of the four pieces from the Italian book of Années de pèlerinage, ‘Sposalizio’ and ‘Il penseroso’ stand out for Cooper’s sonorous rhetoric and digging into the big bass-lines, while she really gets into the slightly naive swagger of the ‘Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa’. By contrast, the ‘Sonetto 104’ is a tad held back; the climactic filigree and double notes lack the poetic abandon of pianists as disparate as Horowitz, Bolet and Arrau. Cooper weighs the gnawing dissonances of ‘Nuages gris’ perfectly, although I prefer Paul Lewis’s foreboding textural haze and wider dynamic spectrum (Harmonia Mundi, 10/04).

Cooper’s straightforward reading of Wagner’s original Elegy in A flat leads into the Tristan und Isolde Prelude in the late Zoltán Kocsis’s arrangement. The pianist takes care not to exaggerate the big build-up’s acceleration, yet her notey upward scales lack a sense of sweep; listen to Kocsis’s own recording to hear what’s missing (Philips, 9/82 – nla). A stark and forthright performance of La lugubre gondola bridges the Prelude and the Wagner/Liszt Liebestod. Cooper doesn’t quite match the shimmer and sheen of Bavouzet’s gorgeous MDG traversal but she voices the counterpoint scrupulously. The final selection, Bagatelle sans tonalité, gets off to a crisp and characterful start, only to grow heavier and less scintillating as it unfolds; no match for Brendel’s cutting-edge bite (Decca). On the whole, this release is more persuasive than Cooper’s relatively underplayed Chandos Chopin recital (7/16), if not so magically memorable as her Avie Schubert series (9/09, 1/10, 7/10).

Review by Jed Distler, Gramophone

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Imogen Cooper - Franz Liszt & Richard Wagner: Piano Works (2017)

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Imogen Cooper - Franz Liszt & Richard Wagner: Piano Works (2017)

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