Liszt Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1: Danse macabre, Totentanz

The problem with Naxos’ Liszt Edition is that it’s easy to overlook some really outstanding releases. If you’ve been following his career, Arnaldo Cohen is a first-rate virtuoso whose Liszt discs on BIS have been outstanding. This Naxos program is just as interesting. The transcription of Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre almost amounts to a new work (he adds several minutes to it) and is absolutely fascinating. It was one of Horowitz’s most impressive recordings from the 1940s. Unstern: sinistre, disastro is one of those strange, dark, late works, but unlike some of them it’s one that’s uninterruptedly gripping.

Cohen has recorded the piano and orchestra version of Totentanz very powerfully for BIS, and this solo piano version is just as exciting. You may not know that the final crashing scale at the end of the orchestral version actually comes from this arrangement; in Liszt’s original the orchestra closes the piece without the piano. The bottom line: this is a wonderful recital of some of Liszt’s darker and more death-obsessed music, and it’s a tribute to Cohen’s programming intelligence, never mind his virtuosity, that he pulls it off without a trace of monotony (having the Huguenots fantasy in the middle of the program certainly helps).

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com