Entitling her Liszt recital, 'Metamorphosis,' both in her charming spoken introduction and in her choice of repertoire, Charlotte Hu wishes to erase a still current view of Liszt the showman. For her, the image of the flamboyant virtuoso perpetuated by Clara Schumann('there is to much of the tinsel and the drum') is misleading. On the contrary, Liszt's genius is multi-faceted and he remains above all a poet and a prophet. In Hu's own words her programme tells of 'a metamorphosis of the soul and spirit' a seamless musical journey and experience..
True, in 'Les jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este,' often considered the father of all musical fountains(would Ravel's 'Jeux d'eau' have been possible without Liszt's far-reaching example?), Hu's gentle opening spray makes her intention clear from the start. Yet in this remarkable work, an evocation of a garden where fountains replace flowers and with a spiritual sub-text,(but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;' St John's Gospel) you miss too much of Liszt's wondrous mix of impressionism and religious zeal. The manner is too subdued to leave a vivid or lasting memory, and the same could be said of the four song transcriptions, three by Schubert and one by Schumann. Here, again there is a need for a stronger definition, of Liszt's uncanny and instinctive way of blending the vocal line and pianistic setting into a convincing whole. Never the complete altruist Liszt simultaneously captures all of both composer's incomparable Lieder while at the same time directing his audience's ears towards his own no less incomparable pianism. For Liszt, Schubert was the most poetic of all composers yet you sense that characteristic blend of respect and devotion with an element of display. Musical and affectionate Hu lacks both the scale and imagination to make these arrangements soar high above the score.
In the three ' Etudes de Concert' Hu reminds us that they were originally called 'caprices poetiques' so that unlike, say, the 'Transcendental' and 'Paganini' Etudes they fall well within her musical wish. For her the opening 'Il Lamento,' the least played of the three,(I once heard its enterprising appearance on a competitor's programme loudly scorned by a jury member) is a pained and declamatory outcry, longer and more obviously a tone poem than its successors. But even here the playing lacks impetus, and Hu's expressive underlining and tendency to drag or hold back at the start of phrases makes heavy weather of 'La Leggierezza'(literally, the lightness). Again, where is the romantic surge and glow inseparable from 'Un Sospiro.? Cruel but perhaps necessary to recall performances of 'La Leggierezza' by Argerich(from 1966), Eileen Joyce and most of all Moiseiwitsch. Geza Anda's recording of Un Sospiro' is of an incomparable pianist sheen, and there are finer recordings of all three Etudes by Louis Lortie and Kathryn Stott.
Finally, Charlotte Hu takes time off from her prime theme of poetry, from the delicate and picturesque, to give us the Spanish Rhapsody, one of Liszt's most gaudy and glittering show pieces composed to make his stupefied audiences reel and wonder whether he possessed twenty rather than ten fingers. Sadly, Hu's wish to break away from the more subdued Liszt and acknowledge his bravura and aplomb is marred by strenuousness; there is too little release and scintillation Again, you only have to turn to pianists of the stature of Cziffra and Lazar Berman for a truer and, indeed, overwhelming picture of Liszt in full virtuoso cry, in all his magnetism and charisma.
Charlotte Hu's programme is admirable in its personal slant and is not without its expressive undertow, but it lacks an energy and voltage inseparable from Liszt. Even when at his most interior, vitality, poetry and virtuosity remain inseparable considerations.
Bryce Morrison