Melba Recordings

"... a label of fragrant distinction"

There are no products in your shopping cart.

Asher Fisch: LISZT WAGNER PARAPHRASES

Asher Fisch, conductor of the Adelaide Ring, makes his debut solo piano recording with Melba of Liszt Paraphrases from Wagner’s Meistersinger, Der Fliegende Hollander, Tannhauser, Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde.

The disc has already won an award in France from classiquenews, whose critic calls it: “a coup de coeur de l’été 2012 causing a flutter of the heart. One of the top five CDs of the year.”

“Listeners receive their money’s worth here through the splendour of the tableaux and the grandeur and emotional intensity of the scenes conjured up in this almost cinematic recital. It is a miracle which issues forth through the nuanced and spiritual pianism of Asher Fisch.

“Asher Fisch...confirms here his certain and indisputable affinities with the great Richard; an elegance of gesture and a shifting subtlety in applying masterly dynamic control explain the success of this superb Wagnerian recital. It is, in a way, a first act of homage prefiguring the Wagner anniversary in 2013 that promises many anticipated performances and recordings.

"The conductor, a Wagnerian to the fingertips, pays irresistible homage to Wagner and to Liszt who was a devotee to the younger man from the first moment. What fire and what intoxication of nuance! All the more noteworthy in this piece which forms the apex in the program. It is almost eleven minutes of an uninterrupted single breath.
“This scrupulously conceived recital program knows just how to bring to the fore the Wagnerian élan and elegance that is refracted through the Lisztian touch. In each selection there is a reciprocal exchange between the Wagnerian source material and the Lisztian response. This is, then, much more than just a random recital of Wagnerian piano pieces.

“A remarkable release, then, as appreciable for its liner notes (including an extensive essay written by the artist, translated into French) as for the natural and finely balanced sound, like the majority of the recordings from the manifestly inspired Australian label, Melba. “An absolute favourite CD from the summer of 2012” Lucas Irom, classiquenews.com (France)

AND THERE’S MORE

“Again Fisch proves that he is very much inside the idiom as a pianist...Melba’s recording is in the demonstration class...” Musicweb International (UK)

“A superb recital...” Otago Daily Times (NZ)

“A joy to hear...Fisch plays with a vengeance, while retaining the steady pulse of a conductor.” HBL (Finland)