Alfred Cortot, Liszt recordings

Cortot recorded 8 of Liszt’s works; 6 original works and 4 transcriptions.

La Leggierezza 1919, 1923 and 1931
Les Au borde d'une source 1923
Chopin Chants polonais Op. 74 No. 12 Moja pieszczotka 1919 and 1923
Verdi Rigoletto paraphrase 1920, 1923 and 1926
Second Hungarian Rhapsody 1920, 1923, 1926 and 1952
Eleventh Hungarian Rhapsody 1925, 1926, 1930, 1952 and 1953
St. François de Paule marchant sur les flots 1937
Sonata in B Minor 1929
It may be of interest to know that he also recorded Paganini etude 3; la Campanella 23 times between 1919 and 1925… all destroyed! Presumably none of them met a standard that he was completely satisfied with.
I have always been fascinated by the fact that Cortot recorded the 11th Rhapsody 5 times. It must have held a strong fascination for him.

Alfred Cortot saw pure virtuosity as a means and not an end in itself. From there, to think that he did not have outstanding technical means, there was only one step that a number of his detractors have crossed with regard to the famous “hiccups” which he has been so often reproached for. It is enough to listen to the vertiginous Le Leggerierezza of January 1919 or the paraphrase on Rigoletto of March 1923 to be convinced of the formidable pianistic abilities of the artist who in spite of such abilities complained of his “bad hand”. Liszt is present very early in his career. Legends, Concert Etudes, Transcendental Etudes, Years of Pilgrimage, Poetic and Religious Harmonies, Liebestraume, Mephisto Waltz, 2nd polonaise, Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Les Preludes and Festklange in 2 piano arrangements by Edouard Risler and adaptations of works by Bach, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wagner, The 2nd 11th and 12th Hungarian Rhapsodies were commonly part of his programs. Cortot praises the re-creative genius of Liszt “who allowed the pianist to vibrate under their ten fingers the multiple voices of the orchestra to make well up from an instrument feared for its congenital dryness the great flow of passion that drags Isolde towards a death exalted in love, dead in dreams.”

Regarding the second Rhapsody (which Cortot performed over 150 times over his career) Cortot says “it is the one that best allows us to associate with the idea of his origins, The very soul of his people, the chivalrous physiognomy of the greatest pianist who has ever existed.”

Early performances of the Hungarian fantasy with orchestra date back to December 12th 1897 in Orleans and Angers in February 1901. When discussing the analysis of the concertos with students from the interpretation courses his words were rather surprising. “The Concerto in E-flat is not in my opinion the most beautiful. The second in a is more perfect, more complete, but less significant and characteristic of his style in the point of invention. Cortot performed the first concerto on November 27th 1935 in Budapest other direction of Ernö Dohnanyi. Two years prior on December 24th 1933 he took the baton and led of the Symphony Orchestra of Paris with Vladimir Horowitz as the soloist in the second concerto!

His first performance of the B minor Sonata seems to have occurred in Paris at the Salle de Agriculteurs on February 20th, 1906. He subsequently acquired the manuscript; considering that the autograph text provides the performer with valuable indications for interpretation. He performed it again at the Salle Rameau in Lyon on December 7th, 1919. His audacious recording from March 1929, was the first of this magnum opus. From his "Voyages Romantiques. Franz Liszt, from Conferencia Feb. 1, 1933 Cortot explains, “no program specifies the evocative tendencies of this gigantic, of this admirable sound poem in which all the resources of the piano are implemented, with a novelty, and ingenuity of prodigious writing. But the themes confront each other in such a feeling of dramatic plasticity that one cannot help but attach a symbolic meaning to them, to make them pass from level of abstraction on that of sensitivity and to glimpse the conflict of emotions under the shock of musical ideas. Better than any other composition by Liszt, the Sonata is of a nature to test the gifts of penetration of the one who forms the reckless project of making an audience attentive for 25 minutes to the fate of three themes whose multiple transformations constitute the adventures of a true musical action.”