Deutsche Grammophon & Decca Celebrate Liszt Throughout 2011

October 22, 2011 will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of composer, pianist, conductor and teacher Franz Liszt. The celebrations have already started with a number of concerts and new recordings and they will continue throughout the year. Deutsche Grammophon & Decca pay tribute both with a host of new recordings as well as the revival of many catalog gems. In addition, a number of online resources will launch starting with www.Liszt200.com.

Decca started the celebration with Harmonies du Soir, Nelson Freire's all-new recording of selections of Liszt's solo piano music. Released on May 17th, the album has already received critical acclaim: "...what he does is so beautiful, he seems the return of some great master, someone like Josef Hoffman, in how he combines an exquisite touch - every note is a drop of gold - with great discipline and muscular solidity." (Boston Globe) The album includes selections from eight works which span Liszt's compositional career including Ballade no. 2 in B minor, Consolations, Valse oubliée in F sharp major and more.

Deutsche Grammophon & Decca together follow with two catalog items: Liszt: The Collection and Liszt: Wild & Crazy, both released today. The Collection is a deluxe box set of 34 CDs which surveys Liszt's vast output. Given Liszt's immense number of compositions this set is an overview and touches on various genres but is not a complete collection. Included are 2 CDs of works for piano and orchestra, 7 CDs of orchestral works, 12 CDs of solo piano music, 2 CDs of organ music, 5 CDs of lieder and 6 CDs of sacred choral works. In addition to the inclusion of many rarely recorded works the set offers great interpreters and benchmark recordings as only Deutsche Grammophon & Decca can. The list includes Zimerman, Barenboim, Arrau, Bolet, Kempff, Ott, Sinopoli, Solti, Haitink, Fischer-Dieskau, Fassbaender and many more.

For a more manageably sized introduction, Deutsche Grammophon & Decca have produced a 2-CD compilation entitled Liszt: Wild & Crazy. Drawing on Liszt's reputation as a flamboyant performer, celebrity and object of great adoration (girls wore bracelets made out of broken piano strings from his instruments) this collection provides an introduction to some of Liszt's most popular works. Included are the Hungarian Rhapsodies nos. 2 & 6, La campanella, Totentanz and much more in performances by Martha Argerich, Vladimir Horowitz, Lang Lang, Yundi Li, Sviatoslav Richter, Mikhail Pletnev and many others. This album includes recordings that are being released for the first time on CD, including rare performances by Jean-Rodolphe Kars and Egon Petri.

To coincide with this release, Deutsche Grammophon & Decca have launched www.Liszt200.com. The site presents an overview of recordings from 1959 (Sviatoslav Richter) to the present (Alice Sara Ott). With the ability to sort by musical type (piano, orchestral, etc) and enjoy streaming clips, this is a the perfect introduction for anyone interested in learning about and hearing more of Liszt's most popular works.

This fall Decca will release a collection of Alfred Brendel's personal selection of his favorite recordings with his Artist's Choice, 3-CD set. This is followed by Deutsche Grammophon's re-issue of Krystian Zimerman's two benchmark Liszt recordings, re-issued for the first time at mid-price. This includes his astonishing recording of the piano concertos with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Deutsche Grammophon is also very proud to announce that this fall it will release an all-new recording the Liszt piano concertos with Daniel Barenboim as the soloist and with Pierre Boulez leading the Staatskapelle Berlin. This will be the first time for both artists to record this repertoire and is a fitting tribute to a composer who has had such an influence on the course of music history.

www.DeutscheGrammophon.com