Melvyn Tan plays Liszt? He has long associated with the classical era and the fortepiano, and to a lesser extent with French and modern music, but hasn’t previously tackled the big-gun Romantics on disc. His performance of Liszt’s Sonata in B minor may not be as grandly impassioned or mercurial of mood as some, but Tan’s performance, full of long, graded crescendos and with a convincing large-scale shape, is finely judged and ultimately very persuasive. This follows two works by Liszt’s teacher Czerny, better known as a composer of acres of gruelling studies: Variations on a Theme by Rode, and a funeral march for his own teacher, Beethoven. Beginning it all are the six Op 126 Bagatelles, Beethoven’s last works for solo piano, and a gentle, slightly reticent performance of the Sonata Op 109, the unconventional proportions and rhapsodic style of which make it a good counterweight for the Liszt.
