Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Gyorgy Cziffra: Franz Liszt Annees De Pelerinage, 2nd Year "Italy" (1977)


Connoisseur Society ‎– CSQ 2142

This was a thrift shop find, 80¢ (there was a 20%-off sale). 

From contemporary reviews: 

"Gyorgy Cziffra seems unexcelled as a Liszt interpreter. His complete Hungarian Rhapsodies are the best of the lot, while his new Années de Pélerinage (Connoisseur Society CSQ 2141, 2142, 2143) probe these fascinating pieces even deeper than Jerome Rose's excellent version for Vox." – Music Journal, 1977

"Cziffra's accounts of the complete Années de pèlerinage show the same prodigious virtuosity and keyboard command that make his set of Hungarian rhapsodies unforgettable. His account of the Dante sonata is enormously dramatic and produces the same fabulous digital dexterity that makes the Tarantella from the Italian Supplement, Venezia e Napoli, so breathtaking." – The Penguin Guide to Bargain Compact Discs, 1998

It has been digitized and posted on YouTube:


Audio-Technica AT-LP120X > Audicity > MacBook Pro