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Rating:
This is, indisputably, a "Christmas" review. After all, the holiday in question has always had a privileged relationship with music, if we think about the many songs written specifically for it or the large number of instrumental compositions inspired by it. So, perhaps at the sight of our decorated Christmas tree, we put on the headphones, turn on the player, and listen to a... "Christmas Tree" sound. Yes, because that's exactly what this suite by the great Hungarian Franz Liszt is called, masterfully interpreted by Leslie Howard.
I've already delved into the characteristics of the composer (and the skill of the interpreter who has practically recorded every single piano note of his) in a previous review, so I won't repeat myself: I just want to emphasize that I came back to it with pleasure because I've got a great fondness for him: the reason can be found in the words of music critic Giorgio Pestelli, who wrote in his beautiful book called "Gli immortali":
"In a gallery of immortals Franz Liszt would deserve to enter, first of all, for his extraordinary human and artistic generosity; he never left anyone without help, support, or encouragement (Wagner himself acknowledged the debt) and when it came to raising funds for charitable and cultural works, Liszt was the first to roll up his sleeves and get on with tours and concerts; a river of money passed through his hands, but in the end, he was left with the piano and a few books. The same in art; contemporary of the romantics, he was not a romantic, but an early decadent, an intellectual who felt the split between ideals and formal processes; yet of all the 19th-century music, he was an inventor, prophet, mirror, commentator, and great reporter."
Got the gist? And when he reaches the peaks of this suite, one can only listen in admiration: the twelve piano miniatures that compose it are absolutely fabulous, small masterpieces of architecture and expressiveness: within them, you can really find a vast array of elements, from the romantic yearning (never languid in this circumstance) of his colleagues Chopin and Schumann to the acrobatic virtuosity (here perfectly blended with the sound structure) that characterized the artistic activity of the Hungarian. Certainly, listening to this wonder raises a couple of spontaneous questions: how is it possible that such a jewel of piano literature has not been frequented by the great interpreters? And how would Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli or Sviatoslav Richter have interpreted it? Alas, the answer to these questions is destined to remain a great silence, but it is a silence in which, by counterpoint, Leslie Howard's sound becomes deafening, this artisan of the keyboard perfectly renders the atmosphere of the suite right from its first notes: the "Ancient Christmas Song", taken from a work by the 17th-century composer Michael Praetorius, introduces us with a slow and solemn march into the atmosphere of December 25 and its surroundings, before giving way to "Holy Christmas", a melody also based on an old undefined song and perfectly executed: almost a "pastoral" for the climate of absolute peace and serenity it transmits to the listener. "The Shepherds by the Crib" arrives accompanied by a sweet piano gallop, with great work by Howard's left hand. "The March of the Three Magi" is a splendid arrangement of the well-known hymn "Adeste Fideles". And the scherzo "Lighting the Tree" is an extraordinary sound representation of the Christmas balls lighting up and dimming on the tree in question, just as the fragment "Bell Concerts" is an equally incredible sound representation... of its very title. But Liszt is a great poet of the keyboard, and bear witness to this are the dreamy "Berceuse", the evocative lullaby "Evening Bells", and the superb ballad "Ancient Times", pieces that are marvelously constructed also from a harmonic point of view. I've been a bit lengthy, but I assure you it was worth it...
P.S. And I haven't even spent two words on the other composition present on the disc, the "Via Crucis" originally written for organ and choir and here presented in a dry and rigorous piano version that already hints at the musical Twentieth Century: after all, Debussy drew from the Lisztian source, regarding the very final part of his production.
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