So That's Where It Was

This particular BBC Music mag cover disk taking its' turn to come off the shelf and be played has solved a small puzzle for me. I knew that somewhere I had a recording of Liszt's monumental Piano Sonata in B Minor but had been unable to track it down when scouring my commercial solo piano recordings. The location for said performance is on this disk featuring a recital by BBC Radio 3 New Generation artist, the Welsh pianist Llyr Williams. It would be idle to suggest that Mr Williams's version would rank as any sort of benchmark preformance but it is very capable and I shall remember that this is where it is when I want to hear the piece again. It is a singular piece in more ways than one and I get much out of repeated hearings, with the long sweep and constant reworking of the same themic source material. Rather more conventional but still with a linking air of fantasy are the other two works that Williams plays here, Beethoven's Sonata Op 27 No 1 "Quasi Una Fantasia and Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy. A worthwhile recital, the Beethoven and Liszt being live concert performances from Wigmore Hall.