Here’s another remarkable young Liszt player for your consideration. I first heard the Ukraine-born Alexei Grynyuk via recordings made during the 2005 Van Cliburn Competition preliminary rounds, which included an exciting if facile Mephisto Waltz No. 1. His newly recorded interpretation retains the earlier reading’s extraordinary speed and lightness (his right- hand leaps easily rival Ashkenazy’s legendary achievement), but with more color, carefully scaled dynamics, and stronger characterization all around. La Campanella is similarly fleet, flexible, and absolutely effortless here.
Vladimir Horowitz used to complain about young virtuosos who’d show off everything in bravura writing and neglect to sing in introspective episodes. That emphatically is not the case with the three Petrarch sonnets, which emerge as ravishing tone poems in Grynyuk’s hands. He resists any temptation to overbuild long-lined octave passages, shaping the lyrical writing with meaning and proportion.
Even in a catalog that abounds with many superb recent Liszt sonata recordings, Grynyuk’s ranks among the most persuasive I’ve heard. Take Arrau’s burnished tone and generous rhetoric, Argerich’s pulverizing octaves (if anything, Grynyuk’s controlled velocity generates greater intensity!), Brendel’s freedom from sentimentality in the potentially cloying episode prior to the Fughetta, and Fleisher’s pinpointed voice-leading in the Fughetta. Then synthesize these qualities into a personal, three-dimensional and stylistically sympathetic interpretation. In addition to Andrew Keener’s beautifully lifelike engineering, Grynyuk provides informative, well-written annotations that not only discuss the music intelligently but also reflect his heartfelt affinity for Liszt’s multi-faceted creative personality. A most impressive Liszt debut, not to be missed.
