Mikael Rasmusson responds to my question:

>>I've been looking into its availability on record and have only found
>>one set - Philip Thomson's traversal on Naxos whcih entails purchasing
>>two separate discs.  Is anyone aware of any other sets on the market?
>
>There is of course Leslie Howard's volume 7 (2cds) on Hyperion.  Jerome
>Rose recorded for Vox, but that was in the pre-CD dera, so I don't know
>if it is available on CD.  As for the Naxos recording, I think the sound
>engineers did a bad job.

I was listening to Thomson's performances last night, and Mikael is right
on target - the sound is hazy, glazed, and even worse than the worst
Decca piano recordings from the late 1980's.

Some folks have e-mailed me with an abundance of alternative recordings.
However, please keep in mind that this body of works consists of 10
musical pieces, and most of the alternatives offered just have one or
two of the pieces - Funerailles is the one piece most often performed
separately at recitals.

I've been trying to get a handle on the first piece, "Invocation", which
is one strange composition where Liszt appears to be doing whatever the
hell he wants to.  The second piece, "Ave Maria", is more conventional,
but I need to get to the core of "Invocation" (if it has a core).  Oh
well, we just keep working away at solving the mysteries to the universe.

Don Satz
[log in to unmask]