Les introuvables de Cziffra

Issued in 1991 by EMI France to celebrate Cziffra's 70th birthday this 8 CD boxed set is a bargain. The first CD is all Liszt and contains some of the most spellbinding playing you are ever likely to hear. Fire and brimstone reign as Cziffra tears up the keyboard in the Dante Sonata's demonic moments; surely a whiff of sulphur as he spontaneously combusts during the Mephisto-Valse; the Rhapsodie espagnole and Grand Galop chromatique {see him sweat playing this on Philip's `Great Pianists of the 20th Century video.}. As a contrast, be seduced by his heart-melting rendering of the third Liebestraume; the caprice of the Valse-Impromptu; and have the waters of `Les Jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este' ever cascaded so onomatopoeically and with such a transcendental variety of touch and nuance. More diablerie follows on disc 2 with transcriptions by Liszt and those {in} famous ones by Cziffra himself. I have never heard a more demonic Gounod/Liszt ` Valse de Faust'; Auber/Liszt `Tarantelle de bravura'; or Tchaikovsky/Liszt Polonaise from `Eugene Onegin'; as for Cziffra's playing of his own transcriptions and paraphrases, especially the Strauss `Tritsch-tratsch polka' and Rimsky-Korsakov `Flight of the Bumble-bee; well, they are in a class of their own. Both Katsaris and Volodos recorded the latter pieces but I'm afraid they cannot compare with Cziffra's sheer electricity and panache. You will now need an ice pack as disc 3 opens with Balakirev's Islamey which starts steadily enough compared to say Simon Barere's famous account {now on APR} but increases in excitement as Cziffra adds all kind of gypsy embellishments as he builds to a fiery conclusion. Excitement is also the key to the next piece; Schumann's Toccata, which Cziffra plays with effortless abandonment and joie de vivre as he also does Mendelssohn's Rondo Capriccioso. Cziffra loved to play Baroque music and the rest of this disc is taken up by mainly short but characterful pieces by Couperin, Lully, Rameau and Krebs. Many were recorded in the 1980s and sound better if played back at a reduced volume level as they were obviously too closely miked. Cziffra once said that he couldn't play Beethoven so preferred to leave it to others who could. He did record a number of sonatas and this selection includes very fine accounts of the `Pathetique'; No. 13 in E flat Op27/1 {companion to the `Moonlight'};and Op. 26 in A flat. He brings a full cantabile to the latter works opening movt. and to the Adagio of the `Pathetique'. Elsewhere he plays with refinement and elegance; everything is in the best possible taste and there is nothing to offend, but those who like their Beethoven a bit more rough and gruff could be a bit disappointed as they might also be with Cziffra's Brahm's Paganini Variations which are technically stunning but find Cziffra musically out of sorts. The Schumann disc finds him on top form. Like many great artists Cziffra loved to play Schumann and he was equally at home with Eusebius { the dreamer} as he was with Florestan { the impetuous side of his character} and this is self evident in his brilliantly characterful accounts of Carnaval, Fantasiestücke, and Carnaval de Vienne - the latter piece highly praised by Cortot after he heard Cziffra during a Paris radio broadcast in the late 1950s. Discs 7 and 8 are all concertante works and show Cziffra at the very height of his stupendous powers. Again Cziffra has his demon up in the most astounding Liszt Totentanz ever recorded; a Hungarian Fantasy with all the improvisational colours of a band of gypsy fiddlers and an ideally recreative performance of the second concerto to make all others sound four-square . To cap this there is a fabulous Grieg concerto in which Cziffra dares to improvise the end of the Lisztian style cadenza; a meltingly beautiful slow movt with an excitingly brilliant finale. Last but certainly not the least, a very poetic reading of Franck's Symphonic Variations and a Tchaikovsky first concerto which combines thrilling virtuosity with all those individual touches that only a genuinely recreative artist can bring to such a familiar masterpiece. This collection is a splendid tribute to one of histories greatest pianists - an artist who knew the authentic meaning of ` bravura'.