Album: Liszt, Etudes / Années de Pèlerinage – Nikolai Lugansky (Naive)

Lugansky's debut recital with the boutique French label Naïve is the last significant release of the Liszt anniversary.

Much like Pierre-Laurent Aimard, whose own tribute highlights Liszt's influence on later composers, Lugansky favours fantasy over whimsy. Liszt's ticklish arrangement of Paganini's "La Campanella" is the only rhinestone twinkler in a handsome programme. Throughout, there is a feeling of extemporisation, most clearly in the "Transcendent Etude in F minor".