Ligeti - The 18 Études review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the week

The Guardian 0

Danny Driver
(Hyperion)
Driver’s recording of Ligeti’s virtuosity-testing Études is full of insight and exuberance

The studies that György Ligeti composed in the last two decades of his life are the most important additions to the solo-piano repertoire in the last half-century. On their own terms, the 18 pieces the composer completed, before ill-health forced him to stop composing four years before his death in 2006, continue the great tradition of transcendental piano writing that stretches back to Chopin and Liszt, always testing their performers’ techniques to the limit and sometimes beyond.