* When listening to informal concert recordings of Marietta Petkova, surprisingly the music appears to be reviving, ready to be enjoyed like new. Being both a transcendent performer and a concert beast as well, she remarkably often accomplishes the impossible, by not only inciting a memorable live concert experience but also by rendering imperishable audio content at the same time. Therefore it’s an honor to introduce to you the second issue of the Concert Documents Collection, retrieved from the live recording archive of Marietta Petkova.

-- Leo de Klerk

 

* Usually when we listen to Liszt”s Grande Sonata, we quickly get the impression that some kind of many-headed monster is being subdued. But Marietta Petkova knows how handle all the loose ends. With an inextinguishable internal fire, both the sorcerer’s arts and poetry flicker from her lithe fingers.

-- Luister

 

 

* This new CD with Franz Liszt’s Sonata is a real find! Marietta Petkova plays the Sonata with all the grandeur that it its due. Bold, refreshing, overwhelming, but also fragile and even reticent at times, as if Liszt hesitated to write the next note. I had never heard this human fragility in the Sonata. Beautiful.

-- Paul Janssen

This live recording of the sonata is a special listening experience. Marietta Petkova’s playing seems like an amazing improvisation. It is delicate and powerful at the same time. Her technical brilliance and transparency allow us to experience the music as an apparent momentary inspiration. This way of musical communication can have its effect only because everything is embedding in a refined and perfectly worked-out arrangement: the revolutionary signature of Franz Liszt.

- Burkhardt Söll