Konstantin Scherbakov - Franz Liszt: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 66 - Mozart and Donizetti Opera Transcriptions

By 1840 Liszt had perfected the art of operatic transcription, one that characterised the music but was not dependent on the sequential presentation of it. Indeed, in his transcription of themes from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor he includes music from another Donizetti work, and, in the coda, includes his own thematic material that blends seamlessly together. The Reminiscences de Don Juan, with its technical demands and innovations, stands at the pinnacle of his procedure, not only compacting the material from Mozart's Don Giovanni but reflecting all the music's tensions and drama in a heroic demonstration of bravura brilliance.