O’Riley’s Liszt
Christopher O’Riley
Oxingale OX2020
oxingalerecords.com
This wonderful pair of CDs is the perfect choice for avid lovers of the piano and its orchestral sound. The Lisztian virtuosic excess is like having a meal of rich overwhelming textures and layers of scintillating colours. Christopher O’Riley has astounding technique and control, as well as a creative and wild imagination. Those skills make these Liszt transcriptions a sumptuous and sensual listening experience.
I enjoyed his programming on the first CD. He paired two mammoth showpieces, alternating them with sensitive song transcriptions. He began with the extremely difficult transcription of Mozart’s Don Juan Fantasy, which Moritz Rosenthal had performed to impress Brahms. Schumann/Liszt’s Fruhlingsnacht followed in a tender and gentle interpretation. This was a breath of calm before the stormy and tragic Tristan und Isolde by Wagner/Liszt/Moskowski and O’Riley, who added a vocal line near the end of the piece and managed to make his fingers sing throughout this opera for the piano. He concludes the first CD with Schubert’s Fruhlingslaube. His emotional response to the music is refreshing and his musicality subtle.
The second CD is Liszt’s transcription of the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique. In his excellent program notes, Ethan Iverson quotes Charles Halle who said that Liszt played his piano version “with an effect even surpassing that of a full orchestra and creating an indescribable furor.” O’Riley displays his own gargantuan keyboard skills in this incredible performance. I didn’t miss the orchestra at all and O’Riley made the piano thunder and sing in washes of orchestral sound. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath was monumental and devilish. These CDs are highly recommended.
Editor’s Note:O’Riley’s Liszt is also available on a Blu-Ray video disc which includes a special feature The Bells of Berlioz with artist’s commentary (Oxingale OX2021).
