Making the case for Liszt the poet

Ashley Wass on recording Album d’un voyageur

Ashley Wass: an advocate for Liszt (photo: Sussie Ahlberg)

Volume 32 of Naxos’s series of the complete piano music of Liszt is devoted to Album d’un voyageur: Impressions et Poésies, the genesis of the first book of Années de Pèlerinage, and his three Apparitions. Both are rarely played in public and seldom recorded. Not the most obvious choice for Ashley Wass’s first solo recording of Liszt.

‘I’ve been playing the two books of Années de Pèlerinage in concert for many years and love them dearly,’ says the Lincolnshire-born pianist, best known for his critically-acclaimed recordings of Bax and Bridge. ‘When the opportunity arose to record this programme, my motive, to be quite honest, was curiosity. I was absolutely fascinated to see how the pieces that make up Album d’un voyageur had changed and developed into the masterpieces we now know. They are very different. The piano writing in relative terms is not exactly primitive but it was certainly refined in the later versions. Musically, too, it is much more concentrated and neater. It was a worthwhile exercise and I much enjoyed it.’

Just to be clear about the music we have met to discuss, Album d’un voyageur, composed in 1835-36 and published in 1842, consists of seven pieces in the following order: Lyon, Le lac de Wallenstadt, Au bord d’une source, Les Cloches de G(enève), Vallée d’Obermann, La Chapelle de Guillaume Tell and Psaume (de l’église à Genève). This compares with the first book (Première année: Suisse) of Années de Pèlerinage composed between 1848-54 and published in 1855: Chapelle de Guillaume Tell, Au lac de Wallenstadt, Pastorale, Au bord d’une source, Orage, Vallée d’Obermann, Églogue, Le mal du pays and Les cloches de Genève.

So it was not just a question of Wass learning new works but unlearning old ones. ‘Well, the project was mooted a number of years ago and I had played [Album d’un voyageur] in concert, but it is slightly confusing! Take the earlier version of Au bord d’une source which is very similar in many ways to the later one but the writing is curiously different. Even Vallée d’Obermann has sections which are almost identical but not quite. The only one that remains untouched is Le lac de Wallenstadt – that’s such a little gem you wouldn’t want to do anything with it anyway. From the Album d’un voyageur, No 1 Lyon and No 6 Psaume (de l’église à Genève) went completely in Années de Pèlerinage.’

Why did he cut those two?

‘He re-ordered the ones that survived and, having played the latter version many times in concert (whether it was intended to be played that way or not), as a 45-50 minute exercise it makes a magnificent set, a perfect arc, right from Chapel of William Tell to The Bells of Geneva. Here the Bells take on a different role to the Psaume which has a reflective quality that is picked up in the re-visited version. There’s a mirror there, though it’s not quite as refined. Lyon is certainly rather crass, perhaps, in comparison with the others but it is nonetheless great fun. It’s a riot! On the occasions I’ve played it in public there is an audible gasp from the audience at the end. It’s probably the most uncompromising way you could begin a recital.’

Even less known than the Album d’un voyageur are the three Apparitions, composed and published in 1834 when Liszt was in his early twenties: 1 ‘Senza lentezza quasi allegretto’, 2 Vivamente’ and 3 Fantasie sur une valse de F. Schubert’. ‘I was looking for something to partner the Album and I just heard them one day – there are one or two other versions lurking around – and I think they are sublime. The first one with its ambiguous harmonies, the second so full of cheeky wit and charm.’

Wass has been a relatively late convert to Liszt but has become one of the most ardent champions of a composer who, for reasons that neither he nor his interlocutor can quite fathom, remains misunderstood in some quarters. ‘During school and my college life I was surrounded by umpteen B minor Sonatas each one trying to be played faster and louder than the next and I just wasn’t interested at all. I had a friend who was also a pianist and he came to stay with me and he was playing the Benédiction [de Dieu]. I heard him practising it through the walls and I was completely blown away because this was a side of Liszt which at that stage I was unfamiliar with. I realised what a poet he was and how lyrical. For me, the Benédiction is his masterpiece anyway. I just adore that piece. But it also has this spiritual naivety to it at times and in the early versions of Années de Pèlerinage that naivety is perhaps more greatly exaggerated than in the more refined version. That’s my impression anyway.’

‘It’s curious that even now when I propose Liszt for concerts – the Album, say, or the revised set – many promoters just say no, we don’t want a whole half of Liszt. Sometimes I play excerpts, sometimes they just don’t want Liszt at all. There’s still very much the idea of Liszt as a mindless virtuoso, and many people still do find his music crass. For me, that is about as far from the truth as you can get. Perhaps it’s that naivety and his heart-on-sleeve approach that he sometimes adopts – William Tell, for example, which is very grandiose. I mean, music doesn’t get much more romantic than that!  But even if you don’t like Liszt, you cannot deny that the science, the technique behind the writing is unbelievable. In that regard we all have to be grateful to him. Without him there would be no Rachmaninov and many others besides.’

There speaks the true convert – and Ashley Wass’s disc affords us a rare and valuable opportunity to hear how Liszt, whose bicentenary will be celebrated next year, developed into one of the towering innovative musical geniuses of the 19th century.

Jeremy Nicholas

Album d’un voyageur: Impressions et Poésies, performed by Ashley Wass, is released by Naxos.
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