Franz Liszt, the piano's answer to the virtuosic violinist-composer Niccolò Paganini, differed from his counterpart in terms of the variety of music he produced. While the vast majority of Paganini's works were overtly virtuosic showpieces designed to push the limits of violin technique, Liszt also had a sentimental side and even a religious sentiment to much of his vast output. Much of this album's program is dedicated to the sheer feats of virtuosic acumen, including the flamboyant Rhapsodie Espagnole, the treacherous Mephisto Waltz, and the brutally demanding Tenth Transcendental Etude. At the heart of all of this, however, lies the repertoire-changing Sonata in B minor, which all but threw out the rule book on how to compose a sonata. True, there's plenty of flashy, ostentatious passage work to be heard, but there are moments of utter beauty and introspection to be found in the near 30 minutes of non-stop playing. Delivering this ambitious program is French-born pianist
Patrice Laré. One can hardly speak of a Liszt performance without taking technical accuracy into account.
Laré is a strong player to be sure, but there are regrettable moments where the music's considerable demands get the better of him, resulting in noticeable extra notes slipped into the rapid chord passages.
Laré's voicing is not always desirable, either, with a tendency to over-emphasize the middle range of the piano to the exclusion of the lows and highs. Interpretively,
Laré does not offer listeners anything terribly new or moving; coupled with the occasional technical blemishes, this yields an album that is sufficient but certainly not a must-have addition.