As a teenager in the 1940s, Byron Janis studied with Horowitz for three years and has a sure technique and a big declamatory style that suits the Liszt concertos. Early in his career, he went to perform in the Soviet Union, and these Mercury Living Presence recordings, done in Moscow, save for three of the solo pieces, were the first to be made in the USSR by American engineers using American equipment. Certainly the sound is splendidly immediate and belies its age of nearly three decades. The playing, too, is fresh, and though I have heard more subtle performances of the Liszt concertos these have joie de vivre and offer plenty of exhilarating virtuosity, with the two Soviet orchestras under a pair of fine conductors giving sparkling support. The piano tone is a little steely in forte and brass more brazen than everyone might like (try tracks 7 and 8 for this), but still acceptable. A recommendation is well earned here, especially at mid-price.
The solo pieces are also attractive. Janis is a very expert player, and covers a variety of moods with success. Although pianists of the next generation may find a more inward-looking poetry in the Schumann Romance in F sharp major, the little Valse oubliee is charming, as is the deeply romantic Petrarch Sonnet. The Falla ''Miller's Dance'' is no less colourful, while the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 (which begins in D flat major and ends in B flat major) has great panache, not least in the hair-raising octave passages. It's adorned effectively by a few embellishments which may well be the pianist's own.'