Jonathan FeBland - 4/22/2010

There are three geniuses involved in this recording. Beethoven, Liszt and Leslie Howard. When I first heard these CDs, I thought good, in fact very good... how interesting to hear the Beethoven Symphonies for Solo Piano!

But as I have listened to and studied these recordings by now several times, they just seem to get better and better. The interpretations are immaculate. I am not saying that the piano technique is flawless as that would be ridiculous, but it is about 99.8% spot on.

It is actually the interpretation, the tempi, crescendos, rubato that kind of thing which is much more important than sheer technique and this is given with real musical taste.

What an amazing accomplishment that Liszt should somehow be able to transcribe these works. At the time he was probably also the only living pianist who could perform them. A real contribution to music history.

Of course we all know the Beethoven Symphonies forwards and backwards by now, so this was truly refreshing to hear these perfect compositions in a completely new setting.

Jokingly a friend of mine remarked while listening to the 6th Symphony: "This is so good that someone ought to consider making an Orchestral version of it!"