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Review by akiralx August 30, 2004 (9 of 9 found this review helpful)
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I wasn't too confident that I would like Yundi Li's discs, as his model-like appearance and gushing booklet notes seemed to encapsulate what many feel is wrong with classical music these days: style without substance.
But having listened to this and his Chopin red book CD, both on DG, I had to admit: this guy is a very good pianist. On the Chopin CD his performance of the Third Sonata was fine but it was his beautiful performances of the smaller works that resonated in the memory - I've never heard them played better to be honest.
Here, it's a similar story: his performance of the Liszt Sonata is very good, not especially ground-breaking interpretatively but one of the best modern accounts available. Zimerman on DG is my top choice for this work.
But then Li plays Widmung and the third Liebestraum, and you feel these are the performances you imagine but never quite hear on other CDs. It's his ability to play with taste and individuality without swooning and pulling the music out of shape with overdone rubato. The Rigoletto paraphrase is brilliantly done as well. If you want an excellent SACD of Liszt's most famous piano works, this is a fine buy.
In terms of sound, excellent recording in multi-channel, with discreet use of the rears for ambience. Not quite as fine as Uchida's Schubert D568 Sonata and Moments Musicaux on Philips, but very good nonetheless.
Li's later SACD of Chopin Scherzi has even better sound (state of the art, in fact), and is perhaps even more recommendable than this fine disc. I look foward to his future releases.
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