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Phillip T Young Recital Hall
March 13, 2011
"One of the noblest, most unselfish, and most exciting figures in music", "he was what a prince ought to be!", "something in his manner, some ineradicable trace of the parvenu, prevented his being accepted", "when I think of him as a creative artist, he appears before my eyes rouged, on stilts, and blowing into Jericho trumpets fortissimo and pianissimo".
All of the above quotes are about the same man: Ferenc (Franz) Liszt - they are, respectively, by Sachaverell Sitwell, the Grand-duke of Saxe-Weimar (a remark to Busoni), Arthur Hedley (biographer of Chopin) and Chopin himself.
Two centuries after his birth, the received image of Liszt is arguably still in flux.
And, if this bicentenary year does anything to dispel the popular image of Liszt as a piano-playing, amoral Don Juan, then - certainly in Victoria - Bruce Vogt will have had much to do with it.
Sunday afternoon's was the first of three planned recitals which, while coming nowhere near covering the entirety of Liszt's monumental output for the piano, nevertheless provided a good sampling of its sheer variety.
The recital opened with a bang, in the shape of the Reminiscences de Norma (after Bellini), often considered the greatest of Liszt's "operatic paraphrases".
It was clear, from the work's very opening, that we were in for an afternoon of distinguished Liszt playing; Vogt produced a "big" tone in the introduction, a wide dynamic range and natural rubato throughout.
The "Hungarian" works which comprised the remainder of the first half included the thirteenth Hungarian Rhapsody - with a deliciously cimbalom-like introduction - and two Hungarian Historical Portraits, which (composed or revised in 1885) were as close to truly "late" Liszt as the programme came. I confess I was not entirely sure where the first portrait ended and the second began; both were relatively (and definitely compared to the previous music) subdued pieces, with the technical demands at the service of the music - again in contrast with his earlier works.
The second half of the recital was, if anything, even more rewarding. The Petrarch Sonnet No.47, from the second, Italian, year of the Années de pèlerinage, was quite lovely, a study in delicate tone colours. Widmung, Liszt's arrangement of the song by Schumann was fascinating: still recognisably Schumann, but recognisably Liszt as well. Ricordanza from the Transcendental Études (the 1851 revision) was also gorgeous.
However, for me - as I had anticipated - the highlight of the entire afternoon was Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen - a set of variations on a theme from Bach's Cantata No.12; the title translates as "weeping, plaints, sorrows, fears" and Liszt wrote this in 1862 in his despair after the untimely death of his eldest child, Blandine. (And sometimes, when one recalls how her younger sister, Cosima, turned out...)
Anyone who believes the music of Liszt to be nothing but empty show, should hear this music - should, indeed, have heard Vogt's playing of this great work. This is surely one of the most extraordinary outpourings of grief and sorrow ever committed to music and Vogt conveyed every last tear and anguished cry. One can only be thankful, for one's own peace of mind, that the music finally reaches a resigned acceptance, quoting the final chorale from the Bach: "Was Gott tut, das is wohlgetan" (What God does is for the best), even if one finds that particular sentiment hard to swallow.
The hyper-critical will point out that there were times during the recital, particularly the more overtly virtuosic pieces, when Vogt was clearly having to work at the music, with a consequent coarsening of tone production.
The sensible music-lover will, however, ignore such minor blemishes and instead rejoice in our good fortune in having in our midst such a perceptive and ardent advocate of one of history's more underrated composers. it is a pity that, although well-attended, the Phillip T Young was not packed to the rafters, as Vogt's playing deserved.
As I remarked earlier, Vogt is planning two more all-Liszt recitals later this year. If you attended this recital you will need no further encouragement; if you missed it, I urge you not to make the same mistake again.
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