Wagner: Wagner Without Words – Williams

   in Piano International (Mar, 2015)
This Signum twofer is little short of a revelation: firstly, because it shows how well – if insightfully played, as here – Wagner’s music fits the piano; secondly, because over a third of the 142-minute playing time is original Wagner, not transcription; and thirdly, for Ll?r Williams’ beautifully idiomatic playing. These discs were a near-permanent fixture in my player in the run-up to Christmas.

Around half (in number) of Wagner’s extant piano works are given here, including the last of his six sonatas, the single-span Sonata for the Book of Mrs MW (1852, written for Mathilde Wesendonck). The largest work is the Fantasy in F sharp minor (1831), throughout which one …