These separate volumes were assembled into the complete box with no additional documentation other than each volume's insert. This is a trend in the repackaging of Naxos discs as themed releases also seen in releases Of Beauty and Light: The Music of Philip Glass and The Silence of Being: The Music of Arvo Part.
Scherbakov dispatches the Beethoven "Big Three" (the Third, Fifth, and Ninth Symphonies) with certain grace and confidence. His pianistic approach is measured in an almost militant, marching way. This can readily be heard in the pianist's performance of the Fist and Second Symphonies, as well as the first movement of the Ninth Symphony. Scherbakov boasts Horowitzian overtones in these performances.
Scherbakov's Sixth Symphony is sunny and bright in the pastoral first three movements and suitably dark and menacing in the thunderstorm before resolving in a reverent fifth movement. Scherbakov's Ninth is scintillating. Liszt wrung his hands over his transcription of the Ninth Symphony for good reason: the fourth movement with its choral sections presents a huge challenge to any transcriber. Scherbakov allows the movement to flow liquid from his fingers, giving the difficult piece a fluid continuity and integration. Scherbakov's Liszt/Beethoven is the set to beat both in price and talent.
Ludwig van Beethoven / Franz Liszt
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Transcribed for Two Pianos by Liszt)
Leon McCawley, Ashley Wass
Naxos
2008
McCawley and Wass' two-piano performance of the Ninth Symphony offers an intriguing comparison to Scherbakov's single piano version. Together they highlight Liszt's genius, both musically and in the arena of public relations. Two pianos not only solve Liszt's problem with the choral fourth movement but also augment the more difficult portions of the first and second movements.
It was obvious that Liszt fretted about this symphony as this two piano version predates the single instrument one by 15 years. This two piano performance is full and satisfying. The listener can readily hear the ideas the composer would incorporate in his final interpretation of the Ninth.
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