Concert Review: A Journey Into Mystery

Louis Lortie Plays Liszt

Louis Lortie and friend.

The three books of Franz Liszt's Anneés de la pèlerinage constitute a musical autobiography, chronicling the composer's busy life as a travelling virtuoso. Played together, the three volumes (or "years") comprise two hours and 45 minutes of difficult, virtuso pianism. Playing them all in the course one evening was an unheard-of feat, even in Liszt's day when programs could run for four hours.

On Thursday night, as part of Lincoln Center's TullyScope Festival, (designed to demonstrate the versatility of the newly refurbished Alice Tully Hall) French-Canadian virtuoso Louis Lortie did just that. Mr. Lortie has enjoyed a long steady climb into the elite echelon of virtuoso touring pianists, a profession created by Liszt himself.

Liszt's so-called "recitals" (he invented the term) were the rage during the composer's career as a touring virtuoso. His playing inspired women to throw undergarments, jewels, and even house keys as part of the peculiar syndrome that became known as "Liszt-o-mania." Everywhere he went, Liszt was the first rock star, a reputation that remained secure as he retired (at 35) to teach a whole new generation of pianists his secrets.


In this modern age, playing like Mr. Lortie's might inspire both genders to engage in such behavior. While no objects (intimate or otherwise) were flung on Thursday night, Mr. Lortie played at a very high level indeed. His performance, in two acts with a 30-minute break, was a fearsome show of prodigious memory and manual dexterity.

From the opening bars of the La chapelle de Guillaume Tell, the pianist took his audience on a detailed tour of Liszt's travels in Switzerland, the focus of the first Année. Mr. Lortie played with careful amounts of rubato, stretching and elongating the notes. He drove the piano, playing from his shoulders, crossing hands for the most difficult passages and ranging across his instrument as Liszt traversed the Alps, stopping at mountain lakes, weathering a fierce storm and celebrating the bells of Geneva at night.

The next stop was a visit to Liszt's last years, depicted in the third volume of the Années. Published in 1883 near the end of Liszt's life, these works are far more experimental in character and reflect the black depressions that afflicted the composer in his old age. By splitting the program in this way, Mr. Lortie was able to conclude the first half of his recital with the shimmering, rippling Les jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este, a composition in which Liszt practically invented musical impressionism, inspiring both Debussy and Ravel.

Mr. Lortie's visit to Italy in the Deuxième annéee seemed to fly by. He led off with a sweetly phrased, intimate account of Sposializio, inspired by a Raphael painting. The three Petrarch Sonnets, (re-workings of earlier songs) impressed. But the real gem was the crowd-pleasing Dante Sonata, played by Mr. Lortie with hell-fire in his fingers and delicate use of pedal. There was a definite whiff of sulphur coming from the Steinway.

The travels of Liszt did not exhaust the enthusiastic, piano-loving audience. They clapped hard for an encore, and Mr. Lortie obliged with a shimmering, rippling account of Die Forelle ("The Trout"), Liszt's piano-only version of the Schubert lied. The concert was followed by an engaging onstage dialogue between Mr. Lortie and Dr. Alan Walker, the Liszt scholar and author of the definitive three-volume biography of the composer-pianist.

The Superconductor Top Ten: Obscure Composers

This is one of only two pictures
 taken of Alkan. Paris, ca. 1850.

In the world of classical music, there are the big names--the three "B's" (Bach, Beethoven, Brahms) and reliable operatic favorites like Verdi, Wagner and Puccini. And then there are the "other" guys. The obscure composers who, for whatever reason, never had the same lasting impact on Western musical culture as their more famous contemporaries.

So here's my list of ten lesser-known composers. I'm always willing to be passionate about them (and others) in the pages of this blog and in the material world as well. Some may be new to you. Some may be old hat. All are worth your attention. Alphabetical order.


1) Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)
One of the greatest piano virtuosos of the 19th century. Alkan's music rivals Liszt in complexity and harmonic invention. But unlike the flamboyant Hungarian, he was a recluse who avoided the spotlight. He is remembered for writing a symphony and a concerto (both for solo piano), and his Grand Sonata, ("The Four Ages") which attempts to encapsulate the experience of a lifetime in four dizzying movements.

2) Franz Berwald (1796-1868)
A Swedish composer, and one of the earliest important composers to be active in Scandinavia. Berwald is known for four cheerful symphonies that have cool nicknames (Sinfonie singulere, Sinfonie serieuse) and a warm compositional style that recalls the middle period of Beethoven. Under-performed and underrated.

3) Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
A predecessor of Johann Sebastian Bach, Buxtehude was an important Danish composer whose works for voice, organ, and chamber ensemble contain brilliant counterpoint and great beauty. In 1705, a young Bach walked 250 miles (from Arnstadt to Lübeck) to meet Buxtehude and hear him play. (All you have to do is get some CDs). Start with the organ music.


4) Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
One of many post-Wagnerians who sprang up in late 19th-century Paris, only to fall out of fashion with the ascent of Impressionism and Claude Debussy. Chausson is remembered for Le Roi Arthus, a chromatic, gorgeous opera based on the legend of King Arthur. He is the epitome of the French late Romantic style, and his music deserves more attention for its rich orchestrations and sweeping melodies.

5) Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)
Korngold is one of the great prodigies in music history, writing operas like Violanta and Die tote Stadt ("The Dead City") to great acclaim. He fled the Nazis and wound up in Hollywood, where he became one of the fathers of modern film music. He won Academy Awards for his scores to The Adventures of Robin Hood and Anthony Adverse. Today, his best known piece is the moving aria "Gluck, das mir verblieb" from Die tote Stadt.



6) Max Reger (1873-1916)
Some composers never fall out of fashion. Reger belongs to the category of those who never fell in. In the late 19th century, this German composer went back to the complex contrapuntal ideas of Bach and Telemann for inspiraton, writing impressive chamber music and works for solo piano that require a tremendous keyboard technique. Check out his piano works, particularly his sets of variations.

7) Josef Suk (1873-1935)
A Czech symphonist best known for his dark-tinted Symphony No. 2, a sweeping, majestic work that examines man's place in the cosmos and makes Asrael (the Islamic representation of the Angel of Death) its protagonist. Suk was a famous violinist in his own right, and a pupil of Antonín Dvořák. He later went on to marry his mentor's daughter, and dedicated the Asrael Symphony to Dvořák's memory.

8) Sir Michael Tippett (1905-1998)
One of the more important British tonal composers in the second half of the 20th century, Tippett is remembered for complex operas like The Midsummer Marriage and The Knot Garden. His work is melodic and rewarding, written in a rich, satisfying musical language. Start with the Four Ritual Dances from The Midsummer Marriage.

9) Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944)
Ullmann is best remembered for being part of the Collegium Musicum, an arts colony in the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt. While incarcerated, Ullmann composed Der Kaiser von Atlantis, a biting, satiric opera that offered a skewed take on the Nazi madness. (The work was banned by the camp administrator.) Ullmann was killed in Auschwitz. His opera survived, and received its world premiere in 1975.

10) Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942)
The lover of Alma Schindler (before she met and married Gustav Mahler), Zemlinsky was an influential figure in Vienna, a composer of sensual, expressionistic works that seethe with harmonic invention. (They were banned by the Nazis.) In some ways, he is the bridge between Brahms' conservative, Romanticism and the outright experimentation of the Second Viennese School. (Schoenberg was one of his pupils, as well as his brother-in-law.) Thanks to the efforts of conductors, programmers and singers, the operas (including Der Zwerg), songs, and orchestral works of this great composer have returned to the repertory.

Piano Pleasures: John Ogdon and the Busoni Concerto

Ferruccio Busoni. From the Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Division, George Grantham Bain Collection

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) was a titan of the early 20th century. He stands at a crossroads: the end of Romanticism and the start of modern neo-Classicism. Italian-born but German-trained, Busoni was a virtuoso composer/pianist, armed with a colossal technique forged in the fiery furnaces of Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. His music is often complex to the point of obtusity, necessitating repeated listens to assimilate everything this Faustian artist was trying to say.


There are some big piano concertos in the concert repertory. But the Busoni work, like its creator, was a real original-- a five-movement megatherium lasting an hour and ten minutes. Busoni required a huge orchestra, a nimble soloist, and even a male chorus, in the final movement. This last had never been done in a piano concerto. When Busoni fell out of fashion following his death, the concerto went with him. It was long seen as a white elephant, a work whose very complexity defied performance. Worst of all, its solo part is hellishly difficult, but not flashy, Virtuoso players still avoid it today.

John Ogdon (1937-1989) was a titan among pianists. Throughout his erratic career, this ebullient virtuoso specialized in "unplayable" composers like Scriabin, Sorabji, Alkan and of course, Busoni. He played with a mix of delicate filigree and elemental power, and was ideally suited to champion the composer's lone piano concerto. Ogdon recorded this work at Abbey Road Studios in June of 1967 studios. It was an exciting session. Pink Floyd occupied one recording studio, working on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Ogdon and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra had to face a series of musical challenges. Not the least was having the session's conductor, Daniell Revenaugh, "temporarily borrowed" by Paul McCartney to complete orchestral parts on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

John Ogdon recording at Abbey Road Studios, 1967.
© 2007 The John Ogdon Foundation

In the middle of all this psychedelic activity, Ogdon, Revenaugh and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra worked their own kind of magic. Ogdon skates through the first four movements with jaw-dropping ease. He plays with power and restraint, working with and not against the orchestra, blending into the thick contrapuntal textures before soaring above the orchestra in a burst of virtuoso fireworks. Revenaugh (who made no other major commercial recordings as a conductor) leads the huge score in a stirring, confident performance. The wordless choral finale (sung by the male voices of the John Alldis Choir) is a stunning final effect.

Happily, this recording is still in the EMI catalogue. It is available as a stand-alone piece on a single budget disc. Better yet, the Ogden recording was reissued in 1998 as part of a two-CD set, Vol. 72 in the Great Pianists of the 20th Century . (This is a series of 100 two-disc DigiPaks celebrating the importance of piano music. Mostly, it's pretty good.) Here, the Busoni Concerto is accompanied by the Variations and Fugue on Chopin's Prelude in c minor, a playful, yet technically challenging work. Recorded in 1960, its inclusion here proves to be an entertaining prelude to the Concerto itself. The set also includes an interesting performance of the Alkan Concerto pour piano seul along with works by Scriabin and Rachmaninoff.