Having recorded Liszt’s two-piano arrangements of his symphonic poems, Leslie Howard and Mattia Ometto now bring their considerable duo expertise to Liszt’s Faust and Dante Symphony transcriptions. In the Faust Symphony’s long first movement, the pianists favor tempos that mirror the original orchestral score, allowing for the motivic interplay between pianos to take characterful shape. The central Gretchen movement’s lyrical flow and sensitive ensemble repartee contrast to several relatively static and meandering renditions I’ve heard on disc and in concert. Having performed the two-piano Faust Symphony years ago, I know all too well how easy it is to lose control over Mephistopheles movement’s scurrying woodwind passages and repeated notes. Fortunately Howard and Ometto value clarity, articulation and centered rhyth, over sheer speed, which, of course, makes the music sound faster than it actually transpires. They even impart maximum transparency to passages where both pianos are busy in the same register, avoiding any sense of thickness or clotting.
Similar directness, variety in color and effortless synchronicity prevail throughout the Dante Symphony. Perhaps the absence of singers helps minimize Paradiso’s cloying tendencies, while the extensive tremolos of Purgatorio’s opening pages convey a billowy, almost hammerless impression. Two accomplished young Italian pianists, Leonora Armellini and Igor Roma, join Howard and Ometto for Liszt’s two piano/eight hands arrangement of the Rákóczi March, based upon his 1865/1870 setting for large orchestra. Although I prefer Liszt’s shorter and pithier Rákóczi March treatment via his 15th Hungarian Rhapsody, it’s good to have this novelty in a world-class performance.
However, the duo’s frequently square and immobile phrasing in the Beethoven/Liszt Ninth Symphony does not make a compelling case for their measured tempos in the first two movements. The Allegro simply lacks forward momentum, and while the Scherzo is well balanced, louder passages tend to bog down and thicken. The Adagio, though, totally succeeds, due to the pianists’ genial give and take, not to mention their reasonable tempos! They also unify the Finale by way of carefully considered tempo relationships and astute contrapuntal awareness, although there are more inherently dramatic and scintillatingly virtuosic renditions to be had (Paul and Matthew Kim on Centaur, Alain Planès and Georges Pludermacher on Harmonia Mundi, along with the Contiguglia brothers’ long-out-of-print pioneering recording on Connoisseur Society). In sum, acquire this release for the two Liszt symphonies.
