Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S124

Franz Liszt’s two piano concertos amply display both his extraordinary pianistic ability and his originality as an influential Romantic composer. The first is a path-breaking tour de force whose four movements, played without break and thematically linked, moved Bartók to acclaim it as “the first perfect realisation of cyclic sonata form”. The second is equally brilliant but more integrated.

The Totentanz (Dance of Death), perhaps inspired by an Italian fresco, is a powerful series of variations on the Medieval Dies irae chant.

In 2005 Nebolsin won the First Richter International Piano Competition in Moscow and was awarded a special prize for the best performance of a Mozart piano concerto.

An increasing number of recordings (Stokowski’s characteristically daring transcription is available on Naxos 8.557645) now feature orchestrations of Mussorgsky’s Pictures other than Ravel’s popular warhorse (Naxos 8.555924). Leonard Slatkin’s eclectic selection, some more outlandish than others, invites us to bask in the high spirits and ingenuity of no fewer than fifteen different composers.

The Chinese pianist Peng Peng, who was fourteen at the time of this recording, has won many competitions, including first prize in the 2002 China National Youth Piano Competition.