Writing in a prefatory note Taiwanese-American pianist Biran Hsu tells of his long-held ambition to play, and finally to record, Liszt's complete Annees De Pelerinage. As he eloquently puts it, 'I invite you to take a journey with me—from the peaks and valleys of Switzerland, through the art and waterways of Italy and finally into a space of quiet reflection, as if retreating from the world.'
Yet it is difficult to square his characterisation of Book 3 as of 'quiet reflection' when Liszt, seeking a repose that had eluded him all his life in the palace of Tivoli—blessed with a garden where fountains replace flowers-- found himself haunted by what he saw as past folly and extravagance. Ignored when not openly reviled the dark hued experiments of his final years were dismissed as the products of senility('La lugubre gondola,' 'Unstern,' Nuages Gris,' etc, their very titles tell their own dark tale.) His longed-for stability through marriage to the Princess Caroline von Sayn- Wittgenstein had been disallowed by the Catholic church, the supposed source of his solace. As he himself put it, 'my fatigue in living is extreme. I no longer feel good for anything.' The opening chimes of the 'Angelus',with its halting resolutions, are a far cry from the earlier 'La Campanella' Etude, a product of Liszt's 'glanz' or glitter years. Liszt's life had changed irrevocably and Book 3 of the Annees reflects the bitter fruit of the past years, music where in, for example 'Marche Funebre' bursts of defiance curdle into despair. The 'Sunt lacrymae rerum', too. is a gaunt memory of the early and flamboyant Hungarian Rhapsodies more clearly associated with the relatively austere Rhapsodies Nos 16-19, True, there is a much needed burst of light 'amid the encircling gloom' in the scintillating cascades of 'Les Jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este,' for Busoni the father of all musical fountains, but such radiance is clouded in the final 'Sursum Corda'('we lift up our hearts'), a cry more of desolation that uplift.
I have written at length about Book 3 of the Annees because while the most neglected of the three it is also the most remarkable; prophetic of so much to come and a telling contradiction of the popular view of Liszt, the ultimate virtuoso showman.
Turning with relief to the 'Suisse'Annee you are made aware of Brian Hsu's musical strengths and commitment to his daunting task. There is grandeur in the opening tribute to William Tell, Switzerland's national if possibly fictional hero. Here, the alpine horns echo across the mountains in a performance of real grandeur and spaciousness. But Hsu's technique is pressed close to its limit in 'Orage.' particularly when compared, for example, with Joseph Villa's astonishing recording, and in 'Au lac de Wallenstadt' where Marie d'Agoult, Liszt's mistress of the moment, heard 'a melancholy harmony. imitative of the sighs of waves and the cadence of oars' there is a lack of serenity and evocation. The same could be said of 'Pastorale,' with its playful memory of the finale of Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Sonata and a touch of literalness, a playing for safety, is at odds with Schiller's lines above 'Au bord d'une source.'(in murmuring coolness the play of young Nature begins') or in 'Eclogue'(Byron's no less evocative heading, 'the morn is up again, the dewy morn. The breath all incense and with cheek all bloom'). But there is greater success in 'Vallee d'Obermann,' the nodal and epic centre of the book, the final pages stormed with impressive exultance. There is a special sense of engagement, too, in 'Les cloches de Geneve', a magical erasing of Geneva's Calvinist disapproval, of Liszt's relationship with Marie d'Agoult very much on open display.
Hsu is at his very best in 'Sposalizio.' which opens the Italian Annee, sensitive to its soaring declamation and to a final descent into near Wagnerian harmony But the Petrarch Sonnets(transcriptions of earlier songs) lack a necessary degree of abandon Whether celebrating earthly love('I fear and hope and burn and am full of ice') or divine radiance,('I saw on earth angelic grace') there is a feeling of inhibition in music that cries out for poetic liberation. Yet Hsu gives his all in the 'Dante'Fantasia, and while hardly close to the dizzying heights of recordings by Arcady Volodos or, most recently, Behzod Abduraimov, declaims Liszt's rhetoric with conviction, easing his way through the central Francesca da Riminii with a contrasting sense of Elysium.
There are many recordings of the Annees De Pelierinage in the catalogue, most notably by Lazar Berman whose legendary Russian bear- hug virtuosity is complemented by a still greater intimacy and poetry. There is a remarkable disc of Book 3 from Cedric Tiberghien and no lovers of the Annees will want to be without individual offerings from Wilhelm Kempff(always at his finest in the more delicate and picturesque Liszt) or 'Au bord dune'source from Horowitz and Giotierrez, to mention but a few. While alert to Brian Hsu's musical integrity, to performances which in their avoidance of bombast or excess, are models for aspiring pianists there are times when his playing is insufficiently free to convey the fullest Liszt experience, to carry the glory of a stature and genius that even today are still misrepresented. Divine Art's sound and presentation are excellent, and they include several photographs of the pianist.
Bryce Morrison