Georges Cziffra plays the Piano Concertos of Grieg and Liszt
£12.83 £10.26
save £2.57 (20%)
special offer ending 25/06/2024
In stock - available for despatch within 1 working day
Despatch Information
This despatch estimate is based on information from both our own stock and the UK supplier's stock.
If ordering multiple items, we will aim to send everything together so the longest despatch estimate will apply to the complete order.
If you would rather receive certain items more quickly, please place them on a separate order.
If any unexpected delays occur, we will keep you informed of progress via email and not allow other items on the order to be held up.
If you would prefer to receive everything together regardless of any delay, please let us know via email.
Pre-orders will be despatched as close as possible to the release date.
Label: ICA Classics
Cat No: ICAC5079
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Release Date: 3rd September 2012
Contents
Works
Piano Concerto in A minor, op.16Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Themes, S123
Piano Concerto no.1 in E flat major, S124
Gavotte en rondeau in D minor
Keyboard Sonata in D major, K96
Artists
Georges Cziffra (piano)Orchestre National de l’ORTF
Conductors
Georges TzipineAndre Cluytens
Works
Piano Concerto in A minor, op.16Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Themes, S123
Piano Concerto no.1 in E flat major, S124
Gavotte en rondeau in D minor
Keyboard Sonata in D major, K96
Artists
Georges Cziffra (piano)Orchestre National de l’ORTF
Conductors
Georges TzipineAndre Cluytens
About
In 1950 Cziffra was arrested after he attempted to escape from Hungary’s Soviet-sponsored regime and was severely tortured. When he was released in 1953, Cziffra started to record for the Qualiton and Supraphon labels (ICAC 5008) which began to circulate in Western Europe, propelling him to legendary status. When Russia invaded Hungary, Cziffra fled to Vienna, making his debut there in November 1956 with outstanding success. Debuts elsewhere in Europe followed. Cziffra gained international stardom not without critical disfavour, adhering to a nineteenth-century approach to music that allowed for taking ‘liberties’ with the texts.
Cziffra settled in France. He retired from recording in 1986 and left the concert platform in 1988. In the same year, France named him a cultural ambassador to a newly liberalised Hungary. He set up the Fondation Cziffra with his wife who runs it today.
These live recordings have never been issued commercially before.
The Grieg Concerto is typical of Cziffra’s ‘startling and mercurial quality’ while the Liszt Concerto and Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Themes are very much in the style with which Liszt ‘loved to tease and astonish his adoring audiences’. (Bryce Morrison). ‘Cziffra always held miniatures in special affection’ – the Lully Gavotte and Scarlatti Sonata K.96 are ‘infused with all of his unique tangy brilliance and bravura’. (Bryce Morrison)
After one recital in London, The Daily Telegraph said the audience ‘witnessed feats of piano playing probably never to be equalled, certainly never surpassed, in their lifetime’, and Cziffra ‘combined the precision of a metronome with the electrical discharge of a thunderstorm’. For the Paris press, ‘he was greater than Horowitz’ and for Marcel Dupré, the great French organist, he was quite simply ‘the reincarnation of Liszt’. As Bryce Morrison states, ‘Either way, (Cziffra) hardly invites a middle course or compromise. Above all, you could never ignore this artist who occupies a unique place in the pianistic Parthenon.’
Contents:
Grieg: Piano Concerto
Orchestre National de l’ORTF / Georges Tzipine
Paris, 17 April 1959
Liszt:
- Piano Concerto No.1
- Fantasy on Hungarian Folk Themes
Orchestre National de l’ORTF / André Cluytens
Paris, 12 March 1959
Lully: Gavotte en rondeau in D minor
Scarlatti: Sonata in D K.96
Luxembourg, 20 January 1959
[mono]
Error on this page? Let us know here
Need more information on this product? Click here