Approaches to Liszt
Of the ten contemporary piano pieces that deal with Franz Liszt in "Listen to ...", the one by Mathias Rüegg is perhaps the most successful.
To mark the Liszt Year 2011, the Doblinger publishing house invited composers from a wide range of styles to write a statement about the composer in the form of a short piano piece. The result was a collection of ten compositions which could not be more different and which, of course, usually tell us more about the composers themselves than about Liszt ...
There is Johannes Berauer's poetic-pathetic but the birds still sing or Rainer Bischof's parodistic (or already sarcastic?) Dreamed out: A Liebestraum No. 3which mutates into a nightmare. Radical then the Late work by Bernd Richard Deutsch for prepared piano. Witty and grateful to play Tristan Schulzes For Franz, the Lisztianas well as the Fugato by Wolfram Wagner, which heats up the opening theme of Liszt's first piano concerto. Johanna Doderer, the only female composer in this group, writes a short dance of death that whets the appetite for more. Then, somewhat poorly Dédicace tardive by Peter Planyavsky. A soft-pop nocturne in the style of Richard Clayderman, which does not betray the level of this otherwise so original musician.
The highlight of the collection is probably A personal view on the 4th movement of Liszt's Dante Symphony by Mathias Rüegg. In just six pages, the composer whips us through a rollercoaster of emotions and styles with fire and wit. The master himself would probably have approved!
Liszt to: Hommage to Franz Liszt, pieces by Johannes Berauer, Rainer Bischof, Bern Richard Deutsch, Johanna Doderer, Peter Planyavsky, Mathias Rüegg, Helmut Schmidinger, Tristan Schulze, Erich Urbanner, Wolfram Wagner, D 01684, € 20.65, Doblinger, Vienna 2011
