[DSD][OF] Nareh Arghamanyan, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin - Liszt - Piano Concertos 1&2, Totentanz, Fantasy - 2015 (Classical)

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat
1 - Allegro maestoso, tempo giusto 5.24
2 - Quasi adagio – Allegretto vivace 9.10
3 - Allegro marciale animato 4.14
Piano Concerto No. 2 in A
4 - Adagio sostenuto assai 5.10
5 - Allegro agitato assai 7.38
6 - Allegro deciso 2.56
7 - Marziale, un poco meno allegro 6.07
Totentanz
(Dance of Death, paraphrase on “Dies irae”)
For Piano and Orchestra
8 - Andante – allegro 2.00
9 - Variation 1& 2, allegro moderato 1.33
10 - Variation 3, molto vivace 0.33
11 - Variation 4 (canonique), lento 3.22
12 - Variation 5, vivace.fugato-presto 3.59
13 - Variation 6, sempre allegro, ma non troppo 4.11
Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Tunes
14 - For Piano and Orchestra 15.33

During his stay in the French capital, the German poet Heinrich Heine wrote a series of articles for the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung, entitled “Musikalische Saison in Paris” (= musical season in Paris). These articles still make for fascinating reading, with Heine providing a highly ironic and personal account of musical life in Paris. And, of course, he repeatedly dealt with composer Franz Liszt. This was again the case in the article devoted to the year 1841. That year, Liszt had given two piano recitals based on the music of Beethoven. Heine writes the following: “Despite his genius, Liszt meets with opposition here in Paris, which usually consists of serious musicians and crowns his rival, the imperial Thalberg, with laurels. – Liszt has already given two concerts in which he has played all by himself, against all tradition, without involving other artists. He is now preparing a third concert in honour of Beethoven. This composer must indeed appeal most to the taste of someone like Liszt.”
Franz Liszt: Totentanz
Context
Completed in 1849, Totentanz (‘Dance of the Dead’) is a fiery work for solo piano and orchestra by Hungarian composer, Franz Liszt. The work is primarily based on the Dies irae melody, which Liszt takes and develops into a powerful set of variations. Liszt was known for being strangely obsessed by death, with him visiting hospitals, asylums and prisons to see those condemned to die. This fascination is reflected in a number of his works such as La lugubre gondola and Totentanz.
The Music
Opening with dissonant, percussive chords from the piano, the lower brass enters with the original Dies irae theme. The foreboding aspect of this opening has become iconic within Romantic repertoire, with Béla Bartók using a very similar formula for the start of his Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, written some 100 years later. The harshness from the piano mixed with the steady trombones and tuba makes for a really exciting introduction to Liszt’s Dance of Death. Stabs from the orchestra set off flourishing runs from the piano, as well as Liszt exploring the very bottom end of the instrument.
Totentanz is often commended and admired for its very modernistic style, which was well ahead of its time. Liszt’s quick changes from more Medieval-sounding passages that explore counterpoint and the theme, to the highly dissonant and dramatic full-scale sequences, makes the work rich in content for the listener. Liszt utilises every instrument in the orchestra to their full potential, with the brass being used to show the diabolical side of the theme of death and the shrill woodwind following suit. The big orchestral swells that lead into short piano interludes lets us see the many sides to Liszt’s creativity. The soft lyrical central section opposes the harsh toccata and full orchestra blasts. Totentanz’s variation structure has been described as “disclosing some new character – the earnest man, the flighty youth, the scornful doubter, the prayerful monk, the daring soldier, the tender man, the playful child.”
The last couple of minutes of Totentanz begins to tie loose ends up and brings the orchestra back together. The bold piano interludes resemble a collection of the variations, which also begin to speed up. Totentanz comes to its epic conclusion with another lower brass and horn call of the Dies irae theme, before the piece finishes with orchestral tutti chords.
Final Thoughts
The dark temperament of Franz Liszt’s Totentanz is what makes it stand out for many of his other orchestra works. Liszt’s handling of the Dies irae theme as part of a set of opposing variations mixes the old and new styles of classical music. The iconic dissonant and aggressive opening remains one of Liszt’s namesakes.
Review:
Audiophile Audition
Armenian pianist Nareh Arghamanyan, who has been playing since the age of five, has been making an impressive round of performances with noted orchestras all over the world.
She shows amazing maturity and restraint in these two warhorses. Arghamanyan takes a lyrical and more sedate style into her soul with readings that are just loaded with flexible and soaring flight-of-fancy finger work that focuses on Liszt’s inimitable sense of rhapsodic invention. These are not hell-bent-for-leather performances but instead those that seek a chamber music intimacy within the confines of a large orchestra whole - and it works.
One could argue that a piece like Totentanz, maybe the composer’s most devilish orchestral score, would not respond to the melodic musings of a light touch, but you would be wrong. This work, a series of variations on the Gregorian Dies irae, achieves its percussive effects on its own with little help needed from the pianist, and holds her own in a splendid reading. The Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Tunes, that originally featured conductor Hans von Bulow as the pianist at the premiere, is one of two arrangements Liszt made of his Hungarian Rhapsody No. 14. It is an enthusiastic and fun piece of work taken for what it is — an audience-pleaser and rousing work of great invention. Again, Arghamanyan is at the top of her game, as is the splendid Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and their young conductor. Pentatone provides wondrous surround sound.
Steven Ritter