Italian pianist Rinaldo Zhok’s first recording for Odradek features Liszt’s complete Verdi operatic transcriptions and paraphrases, which he brings together for the first time on CD in their entirety. Zhok highlights what one might define the Verdian spirituality of these Liszt adaptations, projects the dramatic force of the characters of the arias, and creates a theatre without words and without images, suggested only by the sounds of the piano. The resulting exchange is quite wonderful: Liszt giving Verdi his hands, Verdi giving Liszt his voice.

“I have always loved the simplicity and effectiveness of Giuseppe Verdi’s music, sophisticated yet popular, with its patriotic ideals and its innovative conception of the theatre, synonymous with the nascent state of Italy,” says Zhok. “I decided to concentrate on transcriptions and paraphrases of works that are otherwise not accessible to pianists. Verdi himself had almost no interest in composing absolute music, and wrote only two short and not very significant pieces for the piano.”

Even if they are from very popular operas like Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and Aida, Liszt’s paraphrases are not very widely known. He adapts the themes, enriches the harmonies, and personalizes the vocal texture, often making the original material more essential and less acrobatic, just the opposite of what one might expect from the virtuoso pianist par excellence, and the resulting arrangements have real beauty.