Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Recital

For those of us who like our piano music strong and muscular but still packed with poetry and passion, there hardly could be a better choice than French virtuoso Jean-Yves Thibaudet's upcoming all-Liszt program at 8 p.m. Jan. 26 at Zellerbach Hall on the University of California campus in Berkeley.

Youthful-looking Thibaudet, 50, who resembles either a leading man in a romantic French movie or 19th-century heartthrob Liszt with a modern haircut, feels a strong affinity for the composer's music. Like Liszt, Thibaudet brings a dashing physical presence to his concert appearances.

In Europe at the time of this writing, Thibaudet communicated by e-mail about his upcoming recital.

"I'm thrilled to make a special tribute to Franz Liszt this year, the 200th anniversary of his birth," Thibaudet writes. "Known in his time as the Paganini of the piano, Liszt took the level of technique at the piano to a new height, one that is still very hard to top."

Thibaudet also noted that Liszt likely would be quite at ease in our modern world. He was very flexible with the business side of music and was committed to championing his colleagues' music, often performing it in his own concerts. Liszt was also one of the most successful composers to write and perform piano transcriptions of symphonic or operatic works, including all the Beethoven symphonies and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, a work Thibaudet will perform at his Zellerbach concert.

According to Thibaudet, the only way most 19th-century folks could hear music by different composers was in a salon or a gathering at someone's home during which a pianist might perform a Liszt transcription of some great work. In addition to the Wagner transcription, Thibaudet also will perform Liszt's tribute to Chopin from his Meine Freuden.

"This piece, rather than being a transcription of a specific Chopin work, is more of a paraphrase," Thibaudet notes. "It is a charming piece that I'm very fond of. Most people don't know of the existence of this piece. In this all-Liszt recital, I tried to find and program pieces that show the many different characters in Liszt's writing, which are amazing. He went through a lot of different periods of writing in his life. This particular piece will be like a little candy at the beginning of the second half of this recital."

Among other works on the program will be the gorgeous but technically daunting Les jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este, which Thibaudet said was a vivid inspiration for Debussy and the impressionist composers of the next generation. He also will play from his Consolations, his Legendes, the Ballade No. 2 and the Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli, all of which are dazzlers.

Thibaudet considers Liszt an underrated composer. "He is deep and serious. He changed the way music is written for the piano," he writes. "I hope my recital will somehow show he is not only a fast showman -- he did have a talent like none other -- but that underneath he was a poetic and deep composer. If a Liszt renaissance is needed, I'm definitely part of this committee!"