American Record Guide

1847 was the year Liszt headed for Istanbul (then Constantinople) for a series of concerts. The selections here were played at the recitals. Ucbasaran’s performance was broadcast by the European Broadcasting Union to all of Europe, with the collaboration of the Turkish Radio and Television on Liszt’s 200th birthday in October 2011. And they were performed in a recital series by the pianist in the Liszt Museum in Budapest and the Bela Bartok Hall in Miskule, Hungary.

The program includes Reminiscences from Lucia by Donizetti and from Bellini’s Norma, as well as pieces from I Puritani. The Rondo brilliant is based on Weber’s Invitation to the Dance. There is Liszt’s treatment of Schubert’s ‘ Erlkonig’ and a suite of Hungarian Melodies. Chopin’s Mazurka in B minor, Op. 33:4 is the only work on the program played in its original form.

Turkish pianist Ucbasaran is not afraid to let the music rip forth in thorough Lisztian style. There is little attempt to hold the display aspects of these compositions in check, as some have tried to do. All of this music is intended to impress people and does so without any shame. Liszt was too fine a musician to overdo things, and the embellishments fit perfectly in the style.

The biggest work is the Norma Reminiscences, and never losing sight of Bellini’s music, one can imagine Turkish audiences being thrilled on hearing these themes for the first time. Things have changed over time and we can now hear these operas as their composers intended. Do you want to listen to the melodies no matter how imaginatively dispensed in arrangements? If so, enjoy to your heart’s content.

The Steinway D sounds wonderful, and the notes are informative.

—Alan Becker