ケネス・ハミルトン・プレイズ・リスト Vol.1

世界的ピアノ奏者ケネス・ハミルトンによるリスト作品集第1弾は、愛、死と変容、記憶と郷愁をテーマにした作品を集めています。
ハミルトンがこれらの作品を録音するにあたり、スコアを集中的に研究したことは言うまでもありませんが、これまでの多くの録音でも無視されてきたような細かな指示も重く受け止め、あたかもリストの生徒のように、楽譜に印刷された指示を忠実に守り表現しています。
東京エムプラス

This Liszt release by pianist Kenneth Hamilton contains the Piano Sonata in B minor and several other larger works, but it also has an unusual number of miniatures. To tell the truth, even the Piano Sonata, precisely and unsentimentally rendered, sounds something like a string of miniatures in this reading. Its certainly not for listeners wanting a picture of Liszt, the famed virtuoso, but this is a fresh look at the composers career. Hamilton focuses mostly on the latter part of Liszts life, when he set virtuoso stardom aside and settled in Weimar, devoting himself primarily to composition rather than pianism. Some of the pieces here point to his increasing religiosity in later years; there are four selections from the Harmonies poetiques et religieuses, markedly different from anything Liszt had written up to that point. Hamilton also includes several of the wildly experimental, almost atonal pieces from late in Liszts life, such as Nuages gris and the Csardas macabre. There is even a Schubert Impromptu that Liszt edited and slightly adorned; a second volume will apparently focus on transcriptions and adaptations. Hamilton indicates that he tried to place himself in the position of being one of Liszts students, and to approach the music from a 19th century perspective, presumably rather than that of a 20th or 21st century piano star. This is fresh, and in its way, this is a recording that brings the listener closer to Liszts inner personality.