Three of Alfred Brendel’s long-out-of-print Vox Liszt LPs manage a tight squeeze onto two CDs. One selection had to be omitted for lack of space: the Wagner/Liszt “Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde, but you can obtain it in the six-disc compilation Young Brendel: The Vox Years. There’s some marvelous stuff here. Years ago I played an old LP copy of Brendel’s Liszt Operatic Transcriptions for my piano connoisseur buddies and had them guess the pianist. Their jaws dropped at the sheer bravura and scintillation throughout the Liszt/Weber Oberon Overture, or the Norma Fantasy’s powerful climaxes. Further looks of disbelief registered when I finally identified Brendel. Listeners to this set should start with these tracks, rather than the tight-lipped and foursquare Sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor that opens the disc.
Of Liszt’s six Paganini Etudes, only the A minor Theme and Variations really come to life as Brendel suffuses their technical hurdles with poetry and showmanship. The three Petrarca Sonetti receive ardent, lyrically flowing readings that sing more spontaneously than Brendel’s Philips remakes. Steady tempos and integrated drama rather than surface flash dominate the pianist’s Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli. Likewise, he eschews the notion of Funerailles’ middle section as an octave etude, notwithstanding his solid and powerful left hand work. The other selections from Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses fare beautifully through Brendel’s forward-moving phrasing and keen harmonic awareness. Hear, for example, how gorgeously he weighs and times the chords in the final pages of the Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, or the opening section’s soaring melodic arches. Whatever ambivalence Brendel may feel toward his Vox output, the best of his early Liszt efforts (sonic deficiencies and all) easily withstand time’s cruel test.
