Liszt, new discoveries, vol 3

Leslie Howard (piano) Hyperion CDA 67810 (2 CDs for the price of 1)***

Leslie Heward was the first pianist to tackle all of Liszt’s solo piano music on record. And he clearly wants to retain his laurels. This, the third volume of extras following on from his original 57-volume, 95-CD survey on Hyperion, is getting in at the very beginning of the Liszt bicentenary celebrations. What’s left to play, then? Well, alternate versions, a few arrangements, and pieces that aren’t quite complete. Some of them have only small lacunae to be filled, whle others which have survived as the merest scraps. (The second of the two discs includes album-leaf after album-leaf, with a tendency to break off in the most unexpected places.) There’s nothing earth-shattering in the 140 minutes covered here, although Liszt obsessives and completists will be delighted that Howard is still on the case. See url.ie/4qdb