Liszt: Transcendental Etudes (Clidat, Ovchinnikov, Kissin)

Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes (TE) are one of the truly awe-inspiring triumphs of the piano literature. While Chopin elevated the etude to an art form with the subtlety, expressiveness, and innovation of his writing, his etudes don’t contain any moments which make you go – “A piano can do *that*?” Liszt’s TE really are a series of sublimely powerful sound illustrations – they show that an etude does not have to be merely elegant; it can be vast, or mysterious, cataclysmic, funny, despairing. They’re not even really etudes (it’d be quite silly to attempt them in an effort to improve your general technique); they’re impressionistic explorations of what visionary figuration can achieve on the keyboard. You’ve got No.1, bristling with deliciously incoherent energy; No.2, with its open dissonances and surreal octave leaps firing off like sparkplug stutters; No.3, with its complex syncopation and the elevated sublimity of its modulations; No.4, wild, raw, brutal with chromaticism and rhythmic violence; No.