Urania SP 4255, 68:52 (Distrib. Qualiton) ****:
Inscriptions 1956-1957 by Hungarian virtuoso Gyorgy Cziffra (1924-1994), a volatile artist of temperament and tempestuous digital authority, too often dismissed for his unorthodox pedagogy. The opening Beethoven group should dispel any doubts either of Cziffra’s digital or scholarly prowess. Rare enough as the Op. 89 Polonaise is, the C Minor Variations exhibit any number of colors and harmonic nuances that elevate this music to the upper echelons of Beethoven’s oeuvre. Cziffra plays the burlesque Rage over a Lost Groschen as a precursor of Flight of the Bumblebee. The ensuing Carnaval nicely balances virtuosity and poetry, the “Dancing Letters” of the Schumann and “Asch” anagrams in ever-sympathetic motion. The introspective moments reveal Cziffra entirely beguiled by the muse of Eusebius. The leggierissimo and staccato applications by Cziffra deserve mention, and those familiar with his Liszt Transcendental Etudes are well familiar with his capacity for quicksilver colors. The Chopin episode has moonlight dripping off the lilacs. A coy Valse Allemande leads to a Paganini who clearly had no compunctions about the state of his soul. The March Against the Philistines might well include Cziffra’s detractors. Connoisseurs still await Universal’s reissue of Cziffra’s Symphonic Etudes and Toccata LP on CD.
A solid, even rollicking collaboration with French conductor Pierre Dervaux (1917-1992) of the Liszt First Concerto, a Cziffra specialty. The opening, whiplash chord from the Paris Conservatory players tells you it’s going to be a seat-belt performance. A delight in Liszt’s alternately passionate and bombastic rhetoric suffuses this beautifully mounted rendition, which often moves from ferociously aggressive march-toccata to limpid nocturne. The Quasi Adagio makes several references to the Sonata in B Minor. Whimsical, aerial acrobatics after the entry of the triangle; and from there it’s all Cirque du Soleil. Cziffra possessed a trill that would not quit!
Recorded in ADD mono, the acoustics on these performances is a bit thin and distant, but they do not diminish the effect of our being privy to a master keyboardist.
– Gary Lemco
