Teldec have so far entrusted the Liszt arrangements of the Beethoven symphonies to one artist, namely Cyprien Katsaris. Harmonia Mundi, on the other hand, have distributed the cycle among the younger generation of French pianists: Jean-Louis Haguenauer (Nos. 1 and 2, 9/86), Georges Pludermacher (the Eroica, 9/86), Michel Dalberto (the Pastoral, 12/86). None has so far begun to challenge, let alone match Katsaris in sheer personality, flair and virtuosity.
This new issue from Alain Planes coupling Nos. 4 and 8 is a totally different proposition. There is nothing of the pallor of which I complained in Dalberto's Pastoral. Here we are offered playing of a powerful and vital imagination with a keen awareness of the music's architecture and scale. One of the geat tests of these (or any other transcriptions for that matter) is whether one misses the orchestra, and whereas in the companion issues my attention was never gripped by the keyboard colour evoked by these grifted players, Planes has one in the palm of his hand throughout. He conveys the sense of having thought long and hard about these transcriptions, and yet brings no lack of spontaneity to them.
Although he has appeared in this country (with Janos Starker), Planes is relatively little known to audiences in the UK and so far remains unrepresented in the domestic catalogues. Born in Lyon in 1948, he has made a reputation in France and the United States, particularly as a chamber musician. On the evidence of this record, we ought to hear him in some Beethoven sonatas, for he is obviously an artist of substance. To hear these Liszt transcriptions is always illuminating when the playing is of this order, for even if they are not always pianistically 'effective' (and not intended to be), they convey more of the character of an orchestra storming the heavens than does a routine orchestral performance! Katsaris has recorded the same coupling for Teldec, but his version is not yet in circulation here. At least, this present issue is worthy competition and can be unreserved recommended.'