Liszt: Transcriptions And Arrangements / Soyeon Kate Lee

Remember Soyeon Kate Lee’s 2008 Zankel Hall recital, where she appeared in a concert gown constructed from 6000 recycled grape juice containers? Not surprisingly her outfit got more press than her actual music making, but the fact is that Lee is a splendid pianist who doesn’t need gimmicks. Her first appearance in Naxos’ complete Liszt piano music cycle attests to this.

Lee’s shapely and sonorous handling of the thick pianistic hurdles throughout Liszt’s transcription of the Sarabande and Chaconne from Handel’s Singspiel Almira holds interest in terms of technique and stamina, although the music is deadly dull. By contrast, Liszt’s paraphrase based on Gounod’s Hymne a Sainte Cecile thoroughly improves upon the original Read more composition, where Lee’s contouring of the multi-thematic textural layers proves more pliable and forward moving than in Leslie Howard’s comparatively square (though no less sensitive) rendition.

So far as Liszt’s transcription from Joachim Raff’s forgotten opera König Alfred, Lee does not differentiate the opening Andante finale’s foreground and background material with Leslie Howard’s variety, yet she’s more animated and energetic in the subsequent Marsch. Lee also plays the Gounod transcriptions from Romeo et Juliette and La reine de Saba with a lovely lyrical sensitivity. The better known Valse from Gounod’s Faust paraphrase features scrupulous and crisply dispatched fingerwork, but the interpretation is a bit cut and dried, falling short of Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s glittery panache or the dynamic and rhythmic heft of Earl Wild and Egon Petri. However, she takes the opening section of Liszt’s transcription of Spohr’s Die Rose Romanze at a faster clip and with more vocally oriented phrasing than in Howard’s slower, more static traversal, heightening the music’s rich harmonic invention in the process. Annotations and engineering are first rate. In all, a strong entry in Naxos’ ongoing Liszt series.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

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1.

Sarabande and Chaconne from Handel's "Almira," S 181 by Franz Liszt
Performer: Soyeon Lee (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1879; Rome, Italy

2.

Paraphrase on a Waltz from Gounod's "Faust", S 407 by Franz Liszt
Performer: Soyeon Lee (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: by 1861; Weimar, Germany

3.

Les Sabéenes [Gounod] for Piano, S 408 by Franz Liszt
Performer: Soyeon Lee (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: by 1865

4.

Les adieux, rêverie on Gounod's "Roméo at Juliette", S 409 by Franz Liszt
Performer: Soyeon Lee (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1867; Germany

5.

Hymne à Sainte Cécile (Gounod), S 491 by Franz Liszt
Performer: Soyeon Lee (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1866; Rome, Italy

6.

Die Rose [Spohr] for Piano, S 571 by Franz Liszt
Performer: Soyeon Lee (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: by 1876

7.

Andante finale and March from "König Alfred", S 421: March by Franz Liszt
Performer: Soyeon Lee (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1853; Germany

8.

Andante finale and March from "König Alfred", S 421: Andante finale by Franz Liszt
Performer: Soyeon Lee (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1853; Germany

Sarabande und Chaconne aus dem Singspiel Almira von Handel, S181/R25

Gounod - Hymne a Sainte Cecile, S491/R168

Raff - Andante finale und Marsch aus der Oper Konig Alfred, S421/R233: Andante finale

Raff - Andante finale und Marsch aus der Oper Konig Alfred, S421/R233: Marsch

Gounod - Les adieux, reverie sur un motif de l'opera Romeo et Juliette, S409/R169

Gounod - Les sabeennes, berceuse de l'opera La reine de Saba, S408/R167

Valse de l'opera Faust de Gounod, S407/R166

Spohr - Die Rose, Romanze aus der Oper Zemir und Azor, S571/R259

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Liszt: Transcriptions And Arrangements / Soyeon Kate Lee

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