Pianist Saskia Giorgini found both critical and commercial success with her 2022 recording of Liszt's Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, and this 2023 release, which immediately climbed onto classical best-seller charts, follows directly on the earlier album, with the same Bösendorfer piano and the same recording location, the Lisztzentrum in Raiding, Austria. Listeners will not be disappointed, for Consolations has all the virtues of her first Liszt album and adds a few more. The wonderfully controlled lyricism of the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses recurs in the heavily programmatic title work, where Giorgini's playing hints at the presence of all kinds of stories. She plainly excels in the religious, late Liszt, and there are two wonderful examples here, the Deux Legends, portraits of St. Francis of Assisi praying to the birds, and of St. François de Paule. These are difficult works that combine mysticism with Lisztian virtuosity; annotator Mark Berry is right to stress that Liszt did not fully renounce the virtuosity in his later years, but that is not all. Giorgini is just as good in the flashy Three Caprices-Valses and the reflective Liebesträume, the best-known music on the album. In the Valse-Impromptu, she has an uncanny way of suggesting the feeling of spontaneity that seems to have marked Liszt's own playing. Will Giorgini go on with Liszt? She certainly has the technical and emotional wherewithal to do so and to take on more famous works than these.© James Manheim /TiVo

The Vienna Stories title of this release by harpist Anneleen Lenaerts is more personal than thematic. Only some of the pieces are from or about Vienna (although the inclusion of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 ("The Blue Danube Waltz") qualifies the collection as Viennese in the end. Lenaerts is the principal harpist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, where she has become an emerging star of her instrument. At the end of the program, she brings in some of her Philharmonic colleagues as a small string group. This is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the program, which evokes unusually nicely the atmosphere of a salon harp concert of a century or more ago. Most of the pieces are transcriptions of various ages, and Lenaerts contributes a Fantasy on La Bohème by Puccini of her own; it is indeed good to hear a new entry in the operatic paraphrase genre, which any 19th century listener would have taken as natural, but which is mighty rare these days. Listen to the 1914 harp version of Smetana's The Moldau by Hans Trneček, where Lenaerts' clean, liquid runs help establish her as a major player of her instrument. There's an X-factor here in the frequent presence of the harp's lyrical charm, of which any viewer of The Marx Brothers' films is aware but which is sometimes lost in the sheer technical difficulties of the instrument. The sound environment of the Casino Baumgarten in Vienna is appropriate, but Lenaerts is miked too closely, picking up extraneous noise that would have been inaudible to hearers of such a program in 1914. Save for that, a lovely harp recital.© TiVo

The Doppler brothers and Friedrich Kulhau have yet to attract the public recognition that they already enjoy from the worldwide community of flautists. They certainly deserve to be better known and it is not unreasonable to think that the recognition that Paganini, Ysaÿe and Sarasate enjoy as famous composers for their instrument will one day be enjoyed by these neglected composers of romantic and virtuosic music for the flute. The Doppler brothers were born in the city of Lemberg, now Lviv in Ukraine. Their father conducted a military band. Successful both as composers and publishers, they also held important Kapellmeister positions in Germany and Hungary. Kuhlau, also the son of a military bandsman, was primarily a pianist (he championed Beethoven’s piano music in his native Denmark) and his C major Piano Concerto, Op. 7 of 1810 is worth getting to know. He was a friend of Beethoven - the two composers famously got on well - especially in pubs in Vienna! The flute featured prominently in Kuhlau’s output from his earliest works to his final years, from which the delightful Trio of 1831 on this album dates. © Rubicon

It wouldn't be exactly accurate to call Paris Combo a throwback to the 1930s, despite singer Belle du Berry's jazzy, period-perfect crooning style and the fact that guitarist Potzi coifs himself in explicit homage to Django Reinhardt. But it wouldn't be exactly inaccurate, either, and there's nothing wrong with that. David Lews' trumpet snakes and sizzles, almost always with a mute, through the songs' decorously swinging melodies while du Berry drops her lyrics in an expressive but rather dry voice and drummer François Jeannin and bassist Mano Razanajato keep the grooves powerful but light. The irony is that, although Potzi is the one who most dresses the part of a retro jazz cat, he's actually the band's utility man, laying down Django-style chord solos one minute and swinging out in a more modern style the next, while pulling various tones and attacks out of his bag of tricks from time to time. But the band is smart enough to always keep the sonic focus on the sweet, dry voice of du Berry, whose clever lyrics and flawless accuracy make every song a low-key delight. Recommended.© Rick Anderson /TiVo

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This album of paraphrases from operas by Bellini and Verdi displays Giovanni Bellucci's copious gifts on the piano and Liszt's genius in taking others' works and making them very much his own. The excellent sound quality draws the listener in to the Réminiscences de Norma, where the piece begins with a bit of reserve, then opens up into absolute lushness. The upper passages are played with such a delicate touch and tenderness, even if Bellucci does tend to hammer away rather forcefully at some of the lower notes. This tenderness of touch, like a whisper, reappears in other pieces, such as Aida, which is so delicate, feminine, and beautiful; it is perfectly fitting for a princess. Though Aida is a familiar opera, as are the others on this CD, Liszt carefully avoids a lot of the common arias and tunes one would associate with them. Even when the main melodies are recognizable, such as in the Miserere aus Trovatore, the composer arranges them with variations and swelling scales in the left-hand that are dark and menacing. The work takes on a character of its own, which is simply breathtaking and stunning. Bellucci is extremely capable of conveying the composer's various moods even within the short span of a piece, such as in the fantasy on Sonnambula, which is in turns playful, lyrical (with swelling arpeggi under the melody), and march-like, with the piano taking the place of a coloratura. In the "Coro di festa" from Don Carlos, Bellucci is like a nonstop motor, from the aggressive, sinister beginning to the tinkling descending scale that is a pure pleasure to hear, and the Marcia funebre is played with regal restraint that gives way to an exhilarating ending where the listener can absolutely feel the cascade down the whole piano. The album concludes with a paraphrase from Rigoletto, which alone is worth the price of the album. The beginning is heartbreaking, yet the rest of the piece is no less thrilling, for Bellucci pays such careful attention to phrasing that one eagerly anticipates each note. Needless to say, the music is technically demanding, but this is no problem for Bellucci, who is so focused on the artistry that one does not even think about the skill required to play these paraphrases. Bellucci is arguably one of the finest interpreters of Liszt around. Highly recommended.© TiVo