ORFEO International – Reviews

Important Releases Briefly Introduced

February 2020

Amir Katz: Hommage à Liszt

Following Chopin’s Études and
C 990 202Schubert’s 8 Impromptus, Amir Katz now presents an all-Liszt programme on his fifth album for ORFEO. The booklet is written by Amir Katz and contains transcriptions of testimonies of Liszt’s students.
Liszt’s Études represent a peak in the history of piano writing. Beyond the tremendous technical difficulties, Liszt’s Études are poetic works, études tableaux, suggesting programme music influenced by literature, painting, and folklore as can be identified by titles such as Mazeppa, Wilde Jagd, Gnomenreigen and Feux follets. Similar to Schumann, Liszt added those lyrical headings as an afterthought to stimulate the fantasy of both the listener and the performer, thus paving the path to piano playing as we know it today.
“I have chosen to bring here authentic testimonies regarding the Études from the late masterclasses he gave in Weimar, Pest, and Rome in the early 1880s, just a few years before his death in 1886. The testimonies are given by his students Carl Lachmund, August Göllerich, Vianna da Motta and Arthur Friedheim. These precious testimonies provide us with an original and inspired illustration that faithfully represents Liszt’s masterclasses and his artistic calling.” – Amir Katz