Liszt
Via Crucis, S.53
Consolations, Six Pensées poétiques, S.172
From Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S. 173
No. 9, Tombez, larmes silencieuses…
No. 8, Miserere, d’après Palestrina
Øystein Stensheim (tenor)
Olle Holmgren (bass-baritone)
Mari Astvik (mezzo-soprano)
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir
Grete Pedersen
Reviewed by: Rob Pennock
Reviewed: May 2025
CD No: Sony CD, download and stream: 19802856672
Duration: Running time: 62 minutes
Three composers, Beethoven, Wagner and Schoenberg profoundly changed the course of musical history. But as Alfred Brendel has argued, in many of his later works ‘Liszt was probably the first composer to experience the dissolution of tonality…and…to free himself of its domination’. The Via Crucis, begun in 1866 and completed in 1879, which comprises a processional hymn and the fourteen Stations of the Cross, forms part of this corpus, where the bleak, unsettling harmonic language, chromaticism and dissonance look forward to a later age.
Possibly because of its low-key, non-virtuoso nature, this arrangement – there are several – for piano and chorus hasn’t tended to attract big name pianists. But compared to other performances this one is in a class of its own. The small Norwegian Soloists’ Choir’s (which the soloists are members of) intonation and ensemble are immaculate, as is their projection at all volume levels; tonally they are perfectly matched. Then there is Andsnes, who, as with all great pianists, commands attention, makes discerning use of the sustaining pedal, has an enviably wide tonal palette at his command and together the performers create an atmosphere of what might be called reverential austerity.
In the Consolations Andsnes mainly follows the score with one or two slight ritenuti, on a bed of crushed velvet tone goes down to pppp in No.3, dances his way through the Allegretto sempre cantabile finale and the phrasing is absolutely gorgeous. His accounts of two of the Harmonies poetiques et religieuses are full of eloquent, profound simplicity with crystalline fingering in the central section of number nine and a cavernous, but exceptionally well-defined bass in eight. Part of this very distinctive sound may well be down to Andsnes using a 1917 Steinway D.
By Sony’s usual standards the sound on the 24/192 download is unexpectedly good. The recording engineers having captured the generous but not overblown acoustic of the Ris kirke. You can hear each of the singer’s individual timbres and the piano tone is pretty good. On the downside the booklet doesn’t name the chorus members.