Record collectors may have encountered Martin Berkofsky via his two 1970s recordings of Max Bruch’s previously lost Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, although much of his recent activity has focused upon Alan Hovhaness’ music and a considerable amount of charity work. The 67-year-old pianist also happens to be a colossal Liszt player, whose colorful sonority and formidable dynamic range are made for Arts Music’s full-bodied surround-sound engineering.
Berkofsky’s innate affinity for Liszt’s long-lined rhetoric and boundless tonal shadings allow him to sustain unusually broad tempos and rhapsodic yet judiciously proportioned rubatos to mesmerizing effect. Imagine the slow-motion intensity and elemental power of Ervin Nyiregyhazi’s astonishing live 1973 St. Francis Légendes, but with all the right notes in modern sound, and you’ll know what to expect from Berkofsky. He’s even more spacious than Arrau in “Harmonies du Soir” and “Vision” from the Transcendental Etudes, and every bit as emotionally engaged.
Similarly, the Twelfth Rhapsody coda gains in nobility and harmonic tension to compensate for its lack of surface panache. The two religious pieces also are projected to their fullest, most resonant potential, with bass lines and low-register chords that both fill up and light up your listening room. If you buy this disc, you’ll be supporting a good cause: all of the proceeds from this recording will benefit Assistance in Health Care, an organization founded by Berkofsky, in its mission to give financial aid to cancer patients and their families who face unexpected difficulties which arise with extended medical care.
