Italian pianist Michele Campanella has become renowned as a Liszt specialist, but with customary modesty and respect for the composer’s music he has chosen to wait until now to record the seminal Années de pèlerinage. The desire to get to grips with these pieces dates back fifty years to when Campanella was first starting to play Liszt’s music, but he waited, recognising that maturity and experience would bring him closer to Liszt’s own state of mind as he composed these pieces. Liszt’s dazzling virtuosity is often emphasised, but in this recording Campanella has accentuated the composer’s more introspective tendencies, making this a unique and truly insightful interpretation. © Odradek Records