Liszt’s cycle of 12 pieces – full title Etudes d’exécution transcendante and more often played individually – count among the most fiendishly virtuosic of all piano compositions. Each piece has a title, some descriptive (Vision, Eroica, Chasse-neige), some relating to tempo or form. The particular interest here is Kirill Gerstein’s decision to perform them complete, and the questions about interpretation – notably speed, dynamics – that result. Born in the Soviet Union in 1979 and musically prodigious from the start, Gerstein had an early encounter with jazz before deciding, aged 16, to becoming a classical pianist. Perhaps that knowledge of improvisation, together with a sharp, analytical approach, gives his playing its distinctive freedom, risk and excitement.
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