Liszt: Harmonies poétiques et religieuses III, S. 173

Album Description

Introspective music of ravishing beauty. After two song albums together with Ian Bostridge, pianist Saskia Giorgini presents Franz Liszt’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. Liszt is often seen as a showman, but much of his music reveals his introspective, searching nature. This is demonstrated above all in Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, one of his most ambitious, contemplative and enigmatic compositions, inspired by Lamartine’s eponymous poetry, Liszt’s Roman Catholic faith as well as the 1848-1849 revolutions. To Giorgini, “this music is deeply humane and sincere, tender, but also full of the most sorrowful, violent, painful moments that Liszt ever put into music”. Its ten movements constitute a quest for the deeper meaning of human existence, clothed in music of ravishing beauty.

Saskia Giorgini is one of the most promising pianists of her generation, who has won several competitions and is hailed for her technical command and the beauty and poetry of her sound. © Pentatone