Michel Béroff is a French pianist born in 1950. He is mostly specialised in the works of Olivier Messiaen, but here he is trying his talented hands at Liszt. He is doing that with Kurt Masur’s Gewandhausorchester from Leipzig. The recording is from the end of the 70s, released in 1980.
I had to look it up: I’ve been in Leipzig many times, and I also visited the current concert hall of the orchestra. However, that was built in 1981, so it didn’t exist yet. The venue that was used for this recording was the orchestra’s home at the time: the Kongreßhalle am Zoo. I’ve been there too, this year.
The place is very impressive on the outside, lying next to the local zoo (what a surprise!). It was built in 1900 as the Bürgerliches Gesellschaftshaus (civic community centre), next to the already existing zoo. When the Gewandhausorchester in 1946 was looking for a replacement for their bombed home, they found a new home here. After they left it in 1981, the place went into a rapid decline, and was closed because of its bad state in 1989. It has been renovated recently, after many unsuccessful attemptt to revive it. Let’s see if it works now.