Playing a 1867 Blüthner instrument, Yuri Martynov has been working his way steadily through Liszt’s piano transcriptions of the Beethoven symphonies with often exhilarating results. But he has left the biggest challenge until last.
By the time Liszt got around to tackling the Ninth Symphony in the 1860s, he had already made a two-piano version of the score, and convinced himself of the impossibility of doing justice to the choral finale in solo-piano terms. It took a persuasive letter from his publisher to get him to finish what he had started, and the result, in Martynov’s exceptional hands, is thrilling and remarkable. It’s no substitute for the splendours of the original, of course, but it is an authentic musical experience in its own right, and a real pianistic tour de force. The double fugue at the climax of the finale is especially dazzling, and Martynov’s handling of it equally remarkable, and in all four movements there are details usually obscured in orchestral performances which come to light, thanks to his meticulous phrasing and colouring of every bar.
