Having won first prize in both the Budapest 2011 and Utrecht 2017 Liszt Competitions, Alexander Ullman’s superb qualities as a Liszt interpreter come as no surprise. His technique abounds with bravura and suppleness, counterbalanced by the utmost subtlety.
The First concerto’s effortlessly dispatched opening octave flourishes, for example, convey uncommon melodic shaping, while the Quasi Adagio’s recitative-like sequences are articulated with a degree of rhythmic point and rhetorical focus that make nearly every other pianist sound thick by comparison. The Second concerto’s martial finale is weightier and more deliberate than usual, imbuing the music with a welcome gravitas and dignity.
Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony offer well integrated ensemble work, abetted by characterful first desk soloists. The brass don’t quite match the ferocity and cutting edge of the London Symphony’s players in Kondrashin’s early 1960s recording with Richter, but then again, who does?
The concertos bracket Ullman’s deeply musical and intelligently paced reading of the B minor sonata. Although differing in detail, Ullman shares Marc-André Hamelin’s predilection for phrasing the lyrical D major theme’s decorative flourishes more-or-less in tempo while stretching out the principal melody. He also takes plenty of time for the slow music to register before launching into a brisk and nimble fugato. The recapitulation’s climaxes are carefully gauged, with a sense of inevitability. One might describe Ullman’s Liszt Sonata as the cooler and leaner version of Garrick Ohlsson’s comparable yet more dramatic traversal, or as an antipode to Joseph Moog’s rhapsodic volatility. Highly recommended.
