Piano Recital

In her sixties when this disc was made, Mary Warnecke had already been a force at the keyboard before marriage and children ended her performing career, as they so often did then. She returned with an intensely personal style.

Mary Warnecke piano

Franz Schubert composer
Frédéric Chopin composer
Franz Liszt composer

The programme pairs Schubert’s Four Impromptus, Op. 90 with Chopin’s late Nocturne in E minor and four of the Op. 25 Études, and closes with Liszt: Liebestraum, Consolation No. 3, Un sospiro and Gnomenreigen.

The recital was recorded in May 1994 at Studio 200, ABC Ultimo Centre, Sydney, on a Steinway, with Belinda Webster producing and engineering.

Reviews

Here is heartfelt playing, reflecting a lifetime's experience… There is a lot of unevenness about her fingering of the quicker runs that makes me think she doesn't give a lot of concerts… Instead of performing, I would suggest she has been thinking deeply about this music, and it shows on every track. Her technical flaws, paradoxically, ensure that her disc sounds a lot more live – or is that simply a lot more human –… I am grateful for the musical and emotional honesty it embraces.

— Andrew Ford, 24 Hours

A less restrained romanticism is the key to Mary Warnecke's fine they-don't-play-like-this-any-more Piano Recital. With nary a thought for these politically correct musical times, she dispatches with great élan a tuneful fragrant programme… Liszt's Gnomenreigen, a ferociously difficult crowd pleaser, is played as fast as ever I have heard, but with a remarkable lack of any sense of strain.

— James Mullighan, Capital Q.

[Mary Warnecke]… was completely unknown to me and even if "revelation" seems an over-used word it is still the correct one for my response to her recital of much-loved works by Schubert, Chopin and Liszt. Her technique is utterly secure; what is even more impressive is the sheer musicality of her playing.… she has an unerring sense of the flow and accentuation of melody (which is no easy thing for the keyboard). Everything sounds fresh, natural and inevitable; her passage work glistens and there is always an ideally balanced bass line. It is poised yet intense playing of considerable stature.

— John Carmody, Sun Herald

This is no ordinary CD, it is of a magnitude human beings must revere. Here is 50 years of music, and experience of life – all in one CD.

— Adelaide Advertiser

Artists

Mary Warnecke

Mary Warnecke is an Adelaide pianist whose Tall Poppies recordings show heartfelt, intensely personal playing shaped by a lifetime’s thought at the keyboard.

Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. In only thirty-one years he left a vast body of work, including over six hundred Lieder, and remains among the most frequently performed composers.

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the early Romantic period. He wrote almost exclusively for the piano and remains one of its defining poetic voices.

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic era. His vast output reshaped piano technique, invented the symphonic poem and pushed harmony toward the twentieth century.

Tracks

Four Impromptus, Op. 90 Franz Schubert

No. 1 Allegro molto moderato 13:14
No. 2 Allegro 5:23
No. 3 Andante mosso 8:02
No. 4 Allegretto 9:07
Nocturne, Op. 72 No. 1 Frédéric Chopin 4:27

Douze Études, Op. 25 Frédéric Chopin

No. 1 Allegro sostenuto (Selection) 3:10
No. 2 Presto (Selection) 1:42
No. 7 Lento (Selection) 6:32
No. 12 Allegro molto e con fuoco (Selection) 3:11
Liebestraum Franz Liszt 4:54
Consolation No. 3 Franz Liszt 4:14
Étude No. 3: Un sospiro Franz Liszt 7:03
Gnomenreigen Franz Liszt 3:22

Performers

Mary Warnecke · piano

Contributors

Piano technician

David Kinney

David Kinney is the piano technician whose preparation underpins a wide stretch of Tall Poppies piano sound, from late Beethoven and Debussy to Janáček, Schubert and contemporary Australian repertoire. The instrument arrives ready for the music’s full colour and weight.