An hour with Cziffra is like a day at the circus. You behold his fanciful phrasing and roller-coaster technique, gape at those souped up rhythmic surges and accentuations, and wonder what’s going to happen next. Sometimes Cziffra will leave well enough alone, spinning out Liszt’s lyrical “Un Sospiro” with unmannered simplicity, or he’ll face the gothic grandeur of the B.A.C.H. fugue or Second St. Francis legend head on. Cziffra fidgits too much with the basic Poloniase rhythm in Liszt’s E Major and Chopin’s “Heroic.” Conversely, his unbridled temperament shines to thrilling effect in the Chopin Etudes, to the point of retooling the text at times (this is also true of the Liszt selections). The pianist’s lean, flinty sonority isn’t flattered by the rather thin miking, but who listens to party records to register an audiophile report? Fun stuff!
