Franz Liszt's songs are certainly the least-recorded part of his output. How many, even among his admirers, know that he wrote a song in English, setting a text by Tennyson (track 15)? The Italian-language Three Petrarch Sonnets (tracks 6-8) are among the best known, and they get a nice ardent performance here from Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley and accomapanist Julius Drake, who, as one might expect from Liszt, has plenty to do. A unique feature of Hyperion's Liszt song series is that new performers have so far ...
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Franz Liszt's songs are certainly the least-recorded part of his output. How many, even among his admirers, know that he wrote a song in English, setting a text by Tennyson (track 15)? The Italian-language Three Petrarch Sonnets (tracks 6-8) are among the best known, and they get a nice ardent performance here from Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley and accomapanist Julius Drake, who, as one might expect from Liszt, has plenty to do. A unique feature of Hyperion's Liszt song series is that new performers have so far appeared with each installment, and Finley makes a strong case for choosing this one: he's quite versatile, singing effectively in four languages and putting across the sense of the text in each. The German-language pieces are indubitably not the equal of Schubert or Schumann (or, looking the other direction, of Hugo Wolf) in characterization, and many follow the pattern of quasi-declamatory opening followed by warmer tune. But neither are they insensible toward the text, and several,...
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