György Cziffra (piano)
Live in Concert
rec. 1960-62
Solstice SOCD411-12 [2 CDs: 144]

If you’ve managed to bag Erato’s 41-CD set ‘Georges Cziffra, the Complete Studio Recordings 1956-1986’ you may well wonder whether Solstice’s new 2-CD set, which joins a wealth of similarly live material from the years 1960-62, has much to offer all but the Cziffra Completist. There are, for example, three concertos, those by Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Liszt that are very familiar from his studio and live discography.

Cziffra’s legacy can be found on this Erato box of his studio discs, as well as live and other performances on a plethora of labels which include APR, Hungaroton, Aura, Meloclassic, Medici, ICA and numerous others. Exhausting though it can be keeping up with these releases, Cziffra’s volcanic temperament makes it valuable at least to try.    

This two-disc set of previously unissued recordings starts with Grieg’s Concerto with Georges Tzipine accompanying in January 1962, a powerful inscription with a surfeit of drama. Cziffra’s rubati, which can be extreme, are always at the service of the musical argument and though the winds can sound a little swimmy and the orchestra is only so-so, the performance generates enough heat for the audience to applaud before the first movement finishes. The slow movement conforms to a general feeling that this performance is rather faster than his studio recordings, not least in this movement, and the power-laden finale does include poetry though it doesn’t sound as playful as it can in other hands. Liszt’s Étude transcendente No.10 is self-announced, and floridly intense. Tchaikovsky’s Concerto is from the same concert as the Grieg, and once again with Tzipine and the Orchestre Philharmonique de la RTF. He takes this at his usual tempi, give or take, familiar from his collaborations with Vandernoot and Dervaux though his phrasing remains personal and charismatic. To be frank, the orchestra is again none too good. Don’t be misled by the timing of the finale. As the track listing indicates it includes applause – a full two minutes.

The second disc opens with a performance of Liszt’s Concerto No.1 given with the Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo, directed by Paul Kletzki in January 1960. The performance isn’t markedly different to his Paris Conservatoire/Dervaux and Budapest Symphony/Lehel recordings. His fingers are fleet and his instincts sharp, as they are in Totentanz, S.126, another powerful example from his Lisztian arsenal, with the Orchestre National de la RTF conducted by Roberto Benzi. He also plays the Valse-Impromptu, Beethoven’s Sonata, Op.54 and Scarlatti’s Sonata K.96 La Chasse from a Strasbourg concert on 19 June 1960. Schumann’s Toccata from Paris and a driving, bravura interpretation of Chopin’s Fantaisie in F minor, from the Besançon Festival of 1961, conclude the selection of works.

Whilst there are no real revelations here, and there is nothing new to Cziffra’s large commercial discography, the performances here offer ancillary evidence of why Cziffra was so memorable, if controversial, an artist. The recording quality is never less than very acceptable and there are attractive notes in the gatefold format.

Jonathan Woolf             

Contents
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 (1868)
Orchestre Philharmonique de la RTF/Georges Tzipine
rec.19 January 1962, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Études d’exécution transcendante, S. 139 No. 10 in F Minor, “Appassionata” (1851)
rec. 11 May 1961, Bordeaux, Festival du Mai Musical
Piano concerto No.1 in E flat major, S.124 (1849/1856)
Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo/Paul Kletzki
rec. 26 January 1960
Valse-Impromptu, S.213 (1842–52)
rec.19 June 1960, Festival de Strasbourg, Palais des Fêtes
Totentanz, S.126 (1839-49)
Orchestre National de la RTF/Roberto Benzi
rec.20 September 1962, Festival Musical de Montreux-Vevey
Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, Op.23 (1875)
Orchestre Philharmonique de la RTF/Georges Tzipine
rec.19 January 1962, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Sonata in D major, K96 ‘La Chasse’
rec.19 June 1960, Festival de Strasbourg, Palais des Fêtes
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Piano Sonata No. 22 in F major, Op. 54 (1804)
rec.19 June 1960, Festival de Strasbourg, Palais des Fêtes
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Fantaisie in F minor, Op 49 (1841)
rec. 16 September 1960, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Toccata, Op.7 (1829-32)
rec. 29 January 1960, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées