Michele Campanella - Liszt: The Complete Wagner & Verdi Transcriptions (2013) CD-Rip

I have always had rather a soft spot for Michele Campanella playing Liszt. This dates back to when he was the pianist on the first LP of Liszt I ever bought – a Pye disc of him playing the two concertos. With the bi-centenary of Liszt’s birth looming in the Autumn this is the first of the year’s celebratory sets that I have encountered. It should be noted however, as with the bulk of Brilliant Classics releases, these are licensed re-releases although in this case the provenance is not totally clear.

Campanella’s own website lists the Wagner transcriptions as having come from the label P&P Classica which does not ring any bells - dreadful pun – sorry! - whereas the Verdi transcriptions disc is listed as ‘edizione privata’. The recordings span nearly two decades from the Transcendental Studies in 1988 to the collection of Opera transcriptions from 2005. The consistency of approach and style is admirable and certainly the passing years have yet to make any inroads into Campanella’s formidable technique. Indeed on that score alone the later disc sounds if anything even more secure than the earlier one. Further artistic consistency is displayed by the fact that the same engineer recorded all the discs – Valter Neri – and the same producer – Monica Leone – oversaw five of the six. Although Campanella boasts a wide performing repertoire it is with the music of Liszt that he has been most closely associated. The liner notes mention that he has 187 Liszt pieces in his repertoire which he has performed in public over 3000 times. Statistics like that tend to daunt me ‘dropping in’ on this repertoire; who am I to comment on the performances of someone with this music in his genes! -- Nick Barnard