Kenneth Hamilton - Kenneth Hamilton Plays Liszt, Volume Two: Salon and Stage (2023) [Official Digital Download]

Prima Facie presents Salon and Stage, the second volume of Kenneth Hamilton's internationally acclaimed Liszt series. In contrast to the first album, Death and Transfiguration, this recording offers a life-enhancing selection of virtuoso transcriptions from song and opera. But it happily shares with its predecessor Hamilton's passion for these pieces. He has sought out Liszt's oft-ignored recommendations on their interpretation and studied the reminiscences and recordings of his students. He has, in effect, tried to think like a Liszt pupil, and to immerse himself in a performance tradition that goes well beyond the printed text.

His rendition of Schubert's haunting "Leise flehen meine Lieder", for example, includes a captivating cadenza composed by the elderly Liszt forty years after first arranging the song. His Soiree de Vienne no.6 features piquant revisions written for Sophie Menter, Liszt's favourite female student; while his touchingly unsentimental performance of the famous third Liebestraum adopts authentic variants passed down by Frederick Lamond, one of Liszt's very last pupils, and is played with an attentive ear to the composer's own advice on interpretation.

Hamilton's approach has met with truly rewarding critical resonance. For Andrew Clements (The Guardian) Volume 1 was "liberating and totally refreshing". Jeremy Nicholas (Gramophone) wrote, "I cannot recommend this release too highly". Guido Krawinkel (Klassik Heute) commented, "without too much overloaded ballast, the music, immaculately realized, takes centre stage", while David McDade (Music Web International) concluded, "Just as I was beginning to despair of ever hearing Liszt that really set the heart racing, along comes Kenneth Hamilton". The release was among the Gramophone Best Classical Albums of 2022, a BBC Radio 3 Record Review Recording of the Week, and a Music Web International Recommended Recording.

Described by the Moscow Kommersant as "an outstanding virtuoso - one of the finest players of his generation", by Tom Service in The Guardian as "pianist, author, lecturer and all-round virtuoso", and by Stefan Pieper in Klassik Heute as a "pianist, scholar, radical thinker and philosopher", Kenneth Hamilton is well known as a recitalist and recording artist of emotional depth and striking originality. His CDs have attracted both critical acclaim and a large number of listeners worldwide.

Tracklist:
CD1
01. Richard Wagner/Franz Liszt: Overture to Tannhäuser (S442)
02. Wagner/Liszt: “Song to the Evening Star” from Tannhäuser (S444)
03. Franz Schubert/Liszt: Soirée de Vienne no. 6 (revised version: S427/6ii/6b)
04. Schubert/Liszt: “Leise flehen meine Lieder” (with late cadenza: S560/7a)
05. Wagner/Liszt: “Am stillen Herd” from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (S448)
06. Eduard Lassen/Liszt: “Ich weil’ in tiefer Einsamkeit” (S494/2)
07. Lassen/Liszt: “Löse, Himmel, meine Seele” (S495)
08. Felix Mendelssohn/Liszt: “Auf Flügeln des Gesanges” (S547/1)
09. Wagner/Liszt: “Spinning Song” from Der fliegende Holländer (S440)
10. Charles Gounod/Liszt: Hymn to St Cecilia (S491)

CD2
01. Peter Tchaikovsky/Liszt: Polonaise from Eugene Onegin (S429)
02. Hans von Bülow/Liszt: Dante’s Sonnet (S479)
03. Giuseppe Verdi/Liszt: Rigoletto Paraphrase (S434)
04. Giacomo Meyerbeer/Liszt: “Illustration” No. 1 from L’Africaine (S415/1)
05. Verdi/Liszt: Aida Paraphrase (S436)
06. Liszt: Liebestraum no. 1, “Hohe Liebe” (S541/1)
07. Liszt: Liebestraum no. 2, “Seliger Tod” (S541/2)
08. Liszt: Liebestraum no. 3, “O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst” (S541/3)
09. Verdi/Liszt: Ernani Paraphrase (S432)
10. Clara Schumann/Liszt: “Geheimes Flüstern hier und dort” (S569/10)
11. Gounod/Liszt: Waltz from Faust (S407)


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