Piano Sonata in B minor;

Hyperion presents a major Liszt recital from one of today s most admired recording artists. The Piano Sonata in B minor is undoubtedly one of the peaks of the repertoire and recordings are suitably copious. However, when an artist of Marc-André Hamelin s virtuoso pedigree wishes to tackle it, no excuse need be made for an additional version. The recital opens with a lesser-known masterwork, the Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H, and for light relief there is Liszt s scintillating supplement to his Italian Année de Pèlerinage, the three pieces of Venezia e Napoli. The emotional core of the disc is Liszt s intensely spiritual Bénédiction du Dieu dans la solitude.