The Liszt Recordings

This release is a tribute to the great Scottish pianist and Liszt pupil, Frederic Lamond (1868-1948), whose 150th anniversary falls in 2018. He was renowned as a Beethoven interpreter, perhaps the greatest before Schnabel, and his Liszt performances bear the imprimatur of the composer. All the electrical studio recordings he made, plus the remaining Liszt acoustic ones, are included. Frederic Lamond, who came from an impoverished family, had his first lessons in music from his brother David; nevertheless at the age of fourteen he managed to make his way to Frankfurt where he enrolled at the Raff Conservatory, receiving piano lessons from Max Schwarz. He then became a pupil of Hans von Bülow, who suggested he continue his studies with Liszt. For the last two years of the composer's life therefore, from 1885, Lamond became a pupil of Liszt. His Berlin debut took place on November 17, 1885, and after debuts in Vienna and Glasgow he made his London debut in a series of recitals. Lamond's affinity with the works of Beethoven was something almost spiritual. "I longed for pureness, truth, simplicity. Beethoven was my god - the creed of my life - my one and all. Through continually absorbing his wonderworks I began to regard the practical side of life, that which gives pleasure to the majority of human beings, with repugnance." A pamphlet by Lamond on some of Beethoven's piano works, published in 1944, is headed with the quotation: "Haydn is the way to Heaven, Mozart is Heaven itself, and Beethoven is the God therein."