Seasons Greeting from Franz Liszt!
By Ralph Graves
Franz Liszt wrote a lot of piano music. Naxos is committed to recording his complete solo piano oeuvre. Their most recent release is volume 63. And the series isn’t over.
In these 63 (and counting) volumes are many great works. And many more pretty good ones. And all are worthy of a listen or two.
After all, marginal piano music by Franz Liszt is still better than many composers’ best. This release caught my attention because of the seasonal main work.
In 1873 Liszt composed Weihnachstbaum. This suite of 12 movements was composed for both solo piano and piano four-hands.
It’s not a very demanding work technically. But it wasn’t meant to be. Liszt wrote it for his granddaughter Daniela von Bülow. He first performed it for her on Christmas Day, 1881. The work quotes several Christmas carols. Some of these are familiar to modern audiences.
Liszt isn’t trying to dazzle audiences with this 22-minute suite. He’s expressing some heartfelt emotion for his family, And it’s absolutely charming.
Wojciech Walczek has the chops to play Liszt’s knuckle-busters. But he dials it back. We get a performance that’s sensitive and warm. I’ll be adding this to my classical holiday playlists. And you’ll definitely be hearing it on my radio program.
Seasons greetings from Franz Liszt!
Franz Liszt: Weihnachtsbaum (Christmas Tree)
Complete Piano Music, volume 63
Wojciech Waleczek, piano
Naxos 8.574380
