Hans von Bülow arr. Liszt: Dantes Sonett "Tanto gentile e tanto onesta"

Hans von Bülow/Franz Liszt: Dantes Sonett "Tanto gentile e tanto onesta" S479 (1874) Thomas Ang, piano ----------------------------------------------- Hans von Bülow was the first performer of Liszt&groundbreaking Sonata in B minor and Tchaikovsky&rather less groundbreaking First Piano Concerto, and was also a great conductor who handled the premières of Tristan and Die Meistersinger for the man who would eventually run off with his wife. His work as pedagogue eventually resulted in him being the first to perform the Beethoven sonata cycle from memory. His compositions have fallen by the wayside compared to these achievements, though, to be fair, he never played them very much himself, choosing to champion the works of Brahms and Chopin (among others). It is due to this selflessness that he is not remembered as a composer today, and, despite the support of Liszt, music history lessons still mostly tell us that he was a cuckold. This song is a gem, and Liszt treats it with a loving hand. Von Bülow&absorption of that Wagner-Liszt sound means that Liszt might as well have been arranging one of his own songs, and indeed, it is hard to tell where the student ends and the master begins. This was one of Liszt&later arrangements, and unfortunately tends to get lost among his late piano music.