LDV90

FLORIAN NOACK 19 I share that impression of a balance, which is quite astonishing and almost a little paradoxical for a cycle of transcendental études. One might have expected Lyapunov to try to outdo his predecessor; yet Liszt’s cycle has always seemed to me more extreme, more spectacular – he was probably conscious that his Études transcendantes surpassed everything that had been written for the instrument up to that point. In a way, going beyond and transgressing the limits form part of their identity. Lyapunov, by contrast, was no revolutionary. He was acutely aware of all he owed to those forerunners whom he admired so much. Although he was capable of lyricism, epic sweep and bravura (and he was a brilliant pianist, as a few recordings still testify), I like to imagine that this awareness must have acted as a safeguard, an antidote to excesses of all kinds, to boisterous virtuosity and unbridled Romanticism. Finally, while his music almost always calls for keyboard acrobatics – no doubt by choice, stemming from his training as a virtuoso – it seems to me that his true nature was more introspective. Perhaps he is forcing himself a little in the frenzy of Lesghinka or the apotheosis that concludes the Elégie . But in the Berceuse , or in Nuit d’été , I think I hear his personal voice, recognisable despite what it owes to others.