The scintillation and sparkle that distinguish Jeanne-Marie Darré’s superb shellac-era Saint-Saëns concertos and Liszt recordings are curiously missing from an all-Liszt program she recorded for Vanguard in 1965. Part of this stems from her frequently slow tempos and a kind of push-pull rubato that lacks the long-lined conviction and rhetorical impetus you hear in, say, most of Claudio Arrau’s performances of these works. Darré’s B minor Sonata, Feux Follets, Harmonies du soir, and the Petrarch Sonetto substantiate my observations. However, Valse Oubliée’s direct, dry-eyed treatment proves far more convincing.
A collection of Hungarian Rhapsodies recorded by Alfred Brendel comprises the set’s other disc. (Classicstoday.com reviewer Mike Gray’s enthusiastic review of its previous CD incarnation can be found by typing Q492 in Search Reviews.) Brendel’s Lisztian renown may not extend to the composer’s “flashier” repertoire, yet he yields to few in the Second, Eighth, and 15th rhapsodies for bravura, color, and suppleness. Moreover, he achieves these qualities without monkeying around with the text à la Cziffra and Horowitz. The same holds true for the stranger, more introspective Third and 17th rhapsodies, plus the equally cryptic Csardas obstine. Vanguard’s excellent sonics barely reveal their age.
