Although no audience appears to be present throughout this Liszt recital recorded in Tokyo’s Aoyama Tower Hall on June 11 and 12, 1972, both the sonic ambience and spontaneous nature of John Ogdon’s performances convey a “live” sensibility. Save for La Campanella and the Mephisto Waltz, the repertoire is unique to Ogdon’s discography. His erratic artistry wavers between sloppy and brilliant, sometimes within the same piece. For example, Ogdon tosses off Mazeppa’s interlocking octaves in staggering fashion, yet labors over some of the double-note inner voices. Similarly, the Tarantella, Feux Follets, and Au bord d’une source alternate between gossamer lightness and pushy stridency. The Grand Galop Chromatique is rather foursquare and tonally hard, but La Campanella often replicates the insouciant flair of Ogdon’s extraordinary live 1962 Moscow traversal. However, the kinetic sweep Ogdon achieves in the Mephisto Waltz and Hungarian Rhapsody (replete with the pianist’s own boisterous cadenza) makes it easy to overlook occasional rough edges. The pianist’s stark phrasing and overall bleak outlook add up to an unmemorable Il Pensieroso. All told, this is not an essential Ogdon release, yet the pianist’s admirers no doubt will welcome this rarity, courtesy of Arkivmusic.com’s “on-demand” reissue program.
