Raymond Lewenthal - Liszt Illustrations du Prophète de Meyerbeer, S414

[@sergeihsiao4011]

Bravo

[@vova47]

A great master and very original person. His Alkan is unmatched.

[@Felix_Li_En]

Rare and superb !

[@dorfmanjones]

Few of us imagine a Skaters Waltz in an opera about the Anabaptist Rebellion. But according to dear Wikipedia, the first scene of act 3 of Le prophète contains a ballet, titled "Les Patineurs", in which the dancers mimic ice skaters. In this opera's premiere in 1849, the dancers wore a type of primitive inline roller skates, which had been invented in Europe in the previous century, to more convincingly look like they were ice skating (quad roller skates had not yet been invented). I would have loved to hear Lewenthal try his hand at Ad Nos Ad Salutarum. the Liszt/Busoni 'monster'piece based on the same opera.

[@pianomaly9859]

Yes that would have been something. I did have a recording of Ad Nos by Gunnar Johansen on an LP, since lost. I've crawled through the slow central section myself, and some of the adjacent movements. A Fantasy and Fugue by a Hungarian Catholic on a 16th Century Dutch Anabaptist hymn composed (after a synagogue melody) by a German Jew in the 1840's.

[@pianopera]

Fantastic!

[@pianomaly9859]

P.S. thanks for posting this dazzling example of Lewenthal at the top of his game!

[@pianomaly9859]

Wieder guten tag, Herr Grunfeld. The brochure for the 1972 Romantic Festival at Butler University states on page 8, "A new recording is forthcoming from Columbia of opera fantasies by the two greatest 19th century rivals, Liszt and Thalberg, their fantasies on Dom Sebastian and Les Patineurs (Liszt) and Moses and The Barber of Seville (Thalberg)." These selections were omitted in the "complete" RCA and Columbia reissue of Lewenthal's recordings issued last October. Apparently the tapes have been moldering in a vault somewhere for forty-eight years now, and who knows how much longer they will remain unreleased. They also neglected a 1965 album of famous concerto movements. But we have his Annees de Pelerinage I and II now, so that was a big plus for the set.

[@grotrian6658]

He did record the Dom Sebastian, Moses and Barber pieces together with the Liszt Ballade for EMI later (I found a 1975 date, but do not know if that is correct). Did the Columbia project fall through and EMI take it up? I don't know...

[@pianomaly9859]

@@grotrian6658 Yes I bought the Angel label album when it came out in September 1975, but don't know the exact recording dates or venues. I don't know the reason why the above announced recordings were never released on Columbia, or anything about the whereabouts of the tapes.

[@ValzainLumivix]

Nice

[@Medtszkowski]

hi