Liszt: 3 Concert Etudes, S.144 (Trifonov, Virsaladze)

For sheer lyrical sweep, Liszt's S.144 Concert Etudes might well me unmatched among all etudes written for piano. Even in Chopin's etudes, you're constantly aware of the technical challenge being posed -- you don't listen to the 10/2 and forget that it involves chromatic scales, for instance. These etudes, on the other hand, are so richly expressive that the technical challenges seem rather irrelevant to the listening experience. Despite the fact that they're called Concert Etudes, they're all intimate pieces: Il Lamento features a quietly uplifting melody that only blossoms late in the piece, La Leggierezza is achingly chromatic, and Un Sospiro celebrates a single modest pentatonic melodic line while throwing together some beautiful diminished-scale(!) modulations. And yes, the elegance with which the notes are laid out on the keyboard and the novel soundscapes Liszt conjures are amazing, but the listener never really notices.

Trifonov's playing is luminous and free, delivered in semi-rapture, while Virsaladze's playing moves from something hard-edged to crazy-beautiful lyrical in the space of about a second. She's another one of those pianists more people really should know about.

Trifonov:
00:00 - Il Lamento
09:05 - La Leggierezza
13:35 - Un Sospiro

Virsaladze:
18:51 - Il Lamento
27:35 - La Leggierezza
32:09 - Un Sospiro