The works on this disc are all from a time after Liszt decided he didn't need to use as many piano pyrotechnics in his compositions as he had when he was younger, but they still contain a lot of flashy passages. Arnaldo Cohen plays these as you would expect a nineteenth century virtuoso to play them: very fast and very energetically. What is most impressive about his playing, however, is that in addition to the speed, he is able to maintain absolute clarity during these passages. A good example of this is the ending of the ...
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The works on this disc are all from a time after Liszt decided he didn't need to use as many piano pyrotechnics in his compositions as he had when he was younger, but they still contain a lot of flashy passages. Arnaldo Cohen plays these as you would expect a nineteenth century virtuoso to play them: very fast and very energetically. What is most impressive about his playing, however, is that in addition to the speed, he is able to maintain absolute clarity during these passages. A good example of this is the ending of the Rhapsodie espagnole. You can hear every note in each run of scales; nothing is ever blurred together. Even through the densest passages in these pieces, there is no sense of heaviness or excessive strength being used to pound out the music. The expressive gestures Cohen uses are broad, but not exaggerated. The opening of Funerailles is spooky, while the second part is strictly martial. The Vallée d'Obermann has all the drama you would expect of a quintessentially Romantic novel. The...
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Add this copy of Piano Sonata / Funerailles / Rhapsodie Espagnole to cart. $21.80, new condition, Sold by Importcds rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Sunrise, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by BIS.