Liszt & Rachmaninov

Liszt Après une Lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata
Rachmaninov Variations on a Theme of Corelli Op. 42
Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1

Grace Francis at Bishopsgate Institute Great Hall, London

Having recently received Grace's remarkable debut CD of Brahms & Liszt [Quartz QTZ2071] it was a pleasure to be able to hear her live at the refurbished and newly re-opened concert hall at Bishopsgate Institute, with a good sized Monday lunchtime audience.

Seeing her accuracy and tonal control served to confirm for me that her disc will seem to have owed little to digital editing.

Different Liszt (for his bicentenary) from the CD - the Dante Sonata, followed by and one of my favourite works of Rachmaninov, she played everything entirely by memory and with commanding flair and sensibility. There is no "ego" exploitation, her patform manner is reserved and everything goes into the subtleties of her interpretations.

Recommended Debut CD

Brahms: Variations on a theme by Paganini in A minor, Op. 35. Book 2; Piano Sonata No. 1 in C major, Op. 1
Liszt: Funérailles, S. 173 No. 7; Sonetto 104 del Petrarca (Années de pèlerinage II, S. 161 No. 5);
Tarentella (Dargomizhsky) S.483 (piano transcription)
with notes by Robert Matthew-Walker

Quartz QTZ2071

Peter Grahame Woolf