Mark Anderson plays Liszt
Rhapsodie Espagnole
Includes: Les jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este, Sonetto del Petrarc 104, Two Concert Etudes: Waldesrauschen and Gnomenreigen, Two Legends, Third Mephisto Waltz and Vier Kleine Klavier Stucke
NI 5484
One of the "Top 50 CDs of 1996"
A varied selection of the less familiar Liszt played with an unerring feel for atmosphere and texture, with well-nigh fautless shaping and dynamics, and a keen sense of the musical phrase. There seems to be nothing Liszt requires from the piano that Anderson is not able to produce - from shimmering serenity to tumultuous turbulence - and the control is impeccable. All I can say is - buy this disc.
BBC Music Magazine
As his two previous Nimbus discs (3/95 and 7/95 � the latter including a fine performance of Liszt's Dante Sonata) show, Mark Anderson is a most musicianly pianist. His communicative ardour understandably made him an audience favourite at the 1993 Leeds Piano Competition and here, in this richly diverse programme, he again proves himself a born orator, declaiming Liszt's fantasy and nobility in generous-hearted fashion. At the same time all these performances (with the exception of the curiously elliptical and prophetic Vier kleine Klavierst�cke which are played with a rapt concentration and intensity) have an off-the-cuff flavour with the spirit often engulfing the letter of the score.
Bryce Morrison, Gramophone
Mark Anderson is a remarkable pianist, and you will delight in his clear articulation of every note as well as his incredible evenness of touch and flow. I held on to this because I didn't have a CD version of the St.Francis Legends - I haven't liked any of them. In the first one, 'St. Francis Preaching to the Birds', Anderson's virtuosity and the Nimbus sound are a winning combination.
American Record Guide - Sept-Oct 1996
Flashy passages hold no apparent problems for Anderson. He breezes through the pyrotechnics with never a harsh sound. There's no slamming of bass chords, or percussive edge to the quite rippling in the passage work.
Such concern for timbre is rare today. Although American by birth, Anderson studied with Aiko Onishi in California before his advanced training in England. That may have something to do with it, for he plays with the kind of tonal purity and lyric warmth of the great English pianists such as Dame Myra Hess or Sir Clifford Curzon. Curzon's old recording of Liszt's B Minor Sonata is still tops for my money, but Anderson's new Liszt collection is in the same class, that is, one of the most distinguished Liszt piano recordings available.
In Tune (World Classical New Release Catalogue) - Aug/Sept. 1996
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