The Most Important Recording Projects Ever (No. 23: Leslie Howard's Complete Liszt Piano Works)

One of the most astonishing projects ever undertaken by a single person, Liszt's complete piano works encompass more than 98 CDs, glowingly recorded by Hyperion and expertly played and annotated by Leslie Howard. As such, the signal importance of this amazing box is self-evident.

[@kinggeorge7696]

Leslie Howard doesn't have much of a star status, but this Liszt project is one of the coolest thing ever done in the history of classical music recordings. And he has a really beautiful tone, these recordings are just pure joy to listen.

[@smithpm81]

i quite agree

[@zdl1965]

At long last! The definitive piano recording project of all time. I had been collecting this piecemeal since 1989, just wondering what would come next. By the time Leslie Howard came to play in Singapore in 2004, I brought out the bunch for him to autograph, and he thought me crazy to have bought almost all of them. Who's crazier, to have recorded them or to have bought them?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

It's a tie!

[@ozoz9582]

Fantastique! I purchased each release as they came out and recently listened to the complete series, in order, including the four “new discoveries” releases while reading the three volume biography by Alan Walker - it took months - unforgettable! I then went to the six volumes of Liszt’s complete songs also on Hyperion - what a genius! Liszt’s selected letters are next…

[@N7MYW]

I love this set so much! Thank you! ❤

[@WesSmith-m6i]

Thank you so much for this. I had not a clue as to the breadth of Liszt's writings. I'm also not familiar with Leslie Howard (the pianist, at any rate). Earl Wild and Andre Watts, yes, but not Howard, so this should make for a fun exploration.

[@bigg2988]

In short - probably the best single investment I've made so far. The connections to other Classical greats (and numerous lesser-known composers) are a revelation, and all that marked by Liszt's genius for the sound world of the grand piano. Own it, if you are at all into piano music.

[@petterw5318]

I wasn't convinced about Liszt's transcriptions until I heard his version of the Symphonie fantastique (in Howard's version). It's ASTONISHING.

[@murraylow4523]

A truly stand-out achievement. I’d really be lying if I said I’d listened to it all the way through, but its very existence is a kind of symbol of Liszt’s productivity and generosity to others, and you can’t quite grasp that by just knowing the usual suspect works in a smallish collection of discs. He certainly had one of the most attractive personalities among the major composers, and this isn’t extrinsic to the content and scale of his work. I don’t like everything he did, but I sure want to!

[@davidaiken1061]

THanks, Dave for featuring this amazing project. Despite the fact that he wrote a lot of flashy virtuoso pieces (lots of fun, those), he's a composer to be taken seriously as your survey of the Liszt Edition clearly showed. His late, experimental music is historically as well as musically significant. I have a suggestion for this series. A modest but very important project--namely, Harnoncourt's studio recordings of the three Monteverdi operas. Yes, at least two of them had been previously recorded, but Harnoncourt really put them on the map, with superb singing, brilliant period orchestration, and his usual flair for this composer.

[@BorutI-o5p]

Dear Dave, I have been listening to your interesting reviews for the past few months. I have to tell you that thanks to that, in those few months I spent more money on buying CDs than in the entire 2022. Thanks a lot! I suggest you reduce the frequency of reviews to save my household budget 🙂

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Take your time, and happy listening!

[@alexanderberry4097]

Great video as always! If only I could afford to purchase full LH box ha. I don’t know if I’ve asked this before Dave but in amongst your random review videos I would really like to see your score collection!! I’m a bit of a collector myself for pleasure & what not. Thanks for all your videos though - Alex (from boring old England)

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Right now the scores are completely mixed up and all over the place from the move. I hope to get them sorted out in the next year or so. There's just so much stuff to go through.

[@justsomeguy7044]

I'm glad I picked up this set, although I don't find myself listening to it often. The best discoveries for me were some of the lesser-known opera fantasies. There are some that are really beautiful that are not completely over the top. For example, the Reminiscences de Boccanegra (After Verdi's opera Simon Boccanegra). Arrau also recorded it, but it was Howard that initially sold it to me. I agree Howard's recording of the Symphonie Fantastique is great.

[@scp240]

I own Vol. 7 - Harmonies Poétiques & Religieuses, a 2-disc set, which is not my favorite Liszt but quite lisztenable. Ahem. Many of these CDs are available in separate 2 or 3-CD volumes and that may be a more practical way to cover the highlights, but I certainly admire the effort that went into the complete edition.

[@bbailey7818]

My favorite Liszt piano works are the opera paraphrases. Sue me, but those other composers had the themes, tunes he was incapable of inventing himself as Dave says,, and he manipulates and explores them often with great depth and inegenuity. One example, he takes the funeral march from Donizetti's Dom Sébastien and turns it into Mahler. Donizetti himself was bowled over by it.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes, and he adds vibrato too.

[@howardgilman5698]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Someone should write a paper including all these examples of vibrato emphasis by artists contemporary with the performance traditions of those times. After all wasn't Liszt a pupil of Beethoven's pupil?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

@@howardgilman5698 I've published several such.

[@r79basha2]

Thank you Dave! I suggested it a while earlier.. :)

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thank you! A great suggestion.

[@Igor_Itkin]

How is it compared to the Naxos edition which has fewer discs?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

One person v. many. Listen and judge for yourself.

[@Igor_Itkin]

@@DavesClassicalGuide I mean more the editorial decisions.

[@gregorprozesky]

Thank you very much. The important point in this production is in my opinion the classical way of his interpretation. Not much rubato, very correct articulation according to the score, not too much pedaling etc.. Liszt must be played in the tradition of Beethoven. I would be very interested what you think about Mr. Peter Serkin.😊

[@ruramikael]

Howard is also a musiclogist/composer, so he discovered and prepared many performing editions of unknown/never published pieces.

[@CortJohnson]

Alas - no longer available on cd 😞

[@poturbg8698]

It's an incredible achievement by Leslie Howard, but I only wish he were a more inspired performer. I'll take 10 discs of Liszt played by Arrau or Cziffra than anything I've heard from the Howard set. Then there are the dozens of home-brewed and hard to find recordings of Liszt by Gunnar Johansen, also a more exciting player than Howard, but never with great sound.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

He has some wonderful discs in this series. It's easy to compare him to stellar versions by your favorite superstar and say he doesn't measure up, but there's more than enough excellence throughout the series to give him the credit he deserves.

[@alanmcginn4796]

Peter. I really do disagree with you here. This project is monumental. So very important. Critical. For me. Almost the most important thing we will see in this series. I have it and I love it. Every minute.

[@TeaPhanatic]

David, to whom are you leaving your score and recording collection?

[@christophercrimmins6143]

My vote for Gieseking or Haas complete Debussy