MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: The Amazing Mr Smith - Beethoven: Symphony No 7 / Bach: Chaconne

The two great piano transcriptions contrasted on this record demonstrate the unique range and adaptability of the modern concert-grand. While Busoni's piano arrangements of Bach's chaconne for solo violin may be described as a triumph of expression, Liszt's translation of Beethoven's Seventh symphony emerges as a tour-de-force of compression. The challenge of conveying its vast contours through the medium of a single instrument is only made possible by Liszt's unprecedented keyboard daring and acute aural imagination. His arrangement captures the spirit of his most electrifying of symphonies and also illuminates a thousand and one hidden subtleties of details anew.