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Hi Yuri,
Yes, Liszt did a great deal to help publicize the music of other composers. In some cases, these were transcriptions (e.g. the Beethoven symphonies) and were very faithful to the original; in others, they were titled "reminiscences" or something similar to convey that they were loosely based on the original but were not intended to be straightforward transcriptions and allowed more freedom to bring in his own ideas (and sometimes these were indeed better!).

Sophia

Thank you all for posting the links to selections of Liszt's transcriptions on You-tube. I loved them all, with just a slight exception to the Beethoven. It sort of hurt my ears. I believe that particular composition by Beethoven was best suited for the full orchestra as intended.

Anyhow, as always...Gotta Love That Liszt!!

Kathleen

sophia,

Your research on Liszt has proven you to be an invaluable resource for this thread. I must get Walker's bio of the man. Both you and C7 Player speak highly of the book.

Your writing style is concise yet extremely informative and easily digestible. Thank you, kindly, for being here and bringing Liszt's generous and kind nature to the foreground.

Sincerely,

Lisztener

Hi Lisztener,

Thanks for the kind words. I find Liszt utterly fascinating as a person and musician, and am delighted we now have a thread devoted to this transcendent genius of the piano. Let's keep it going!

Sophia

This is a gross injustice. Time to resurrect this thread and get people talking about Liszt.

I'm there! I've been listening to Pensees des morts. This piece just goes right to the heart. Anyone else love this one?

Sophia

Yep, I love it. Which record do you have? Mine is from the Howard's complete Liszt recordings, vol. 7, and it's kind of uneven to my tastes.

BTW, anybody planning any Liszt for the November recital? Last recital I went for Chopin, and had my regrets as the recital turned out to be Lisztless :-( -yet another gross injustice. Let's not do it again! (The only Liszt' piece I have more or less ready is, hm, quite short..., but I may just submit it anyway)

Here's another almost unknown beautiful Liszt piece, Feuille morte, Élégie d'après Soriano, S428.

It's on the Spanish Album, Vol.45 in Howard's Complete Liszt series.

And not only is it beautiful, but it seems playable.


I have another unknown composer for the Recital, so no Liszt for me.


Mel

YD, yeah I thought I'd learn "Feux Follets" a couple days beforehand.

YD,
Stephen Hough. I don't have any of the Howard CD's. How are they overall?

Sophia

I'm not playing any Liszt in the next recital, except for the HR2, which I don't want to perform.

Apparently I've gone Chopin
Or at least Alkan.

I have a few, mostly for the older editions of the Etudes. The 1827 Transcendentals are way too slow for my tastes, but who can blame him? They're hard enough in their original form, but those second revisions are just amazing.

Howard's recordings are uneven; some are very good, some are mediocre, IMHO. However, it is a great reference library, as in "almost complete" Liszt recordings. For example, there is a first version of Hungarian Rhapsodies, that is quite nice and AFAIK, not recorded by anybody else,at least not completely. His Transcendental Etudes are not too good (either version), I have to agree with playadom. (But, again, who am I to critisize his playing of the pieces that are only remotely on the horizon of playability for me..???)

Some of the more melodic recordings I like very much, especially Schubert songs transcriptions (less Ave Maria, which was not up to my tastes). Erlkoenig is absolutely gorgeous!

Quality of particulat pieces aside, I have tremendous respect for Howard for doing COMPLETE Liszt, that was a humongous undertaking.

I see. Now, that leaves only a few hardcore Liszt fans to keep the recital from being Lisztless... Anybody has L3 ready? (not me, yet, maybe next recital...) I guess I'll go with the short Liszt piece; off to try to record it now :-)

I remember reading about these earlier Hungarian Rhapsody version thingys in a biography some while ago. What are these called? I intend to check out the Howard recording.

The earlier version of HRs are called Magyar Dalok & Magyar Rapszódiák, I believe it is Howard's vol. 29.

I confess I've been spending some time the last few days learning about the Transcendental Etudes, listening to them trying to increase my level of understanding of the music of Franz Liszt. They are so incredibly complex musically. Compared to Chopin's Etudes, Liszt's contain far more virtuosity (if possible) and considerably less lyricism - although the latter may indeed be a function of my own musical simplicity, and perhaps will change upon hearing them more often.

Liszt and Chopin are so thoroughly men of their time, so throughly joined together in the minds of many, and yet at the same time so different. Though each had a good measure of the other, it might be fair to suggest that Chopin was the Poet and Liszt the Virtuoso.

They were so different personality-wise too - the introvert vs. the extrovert, the serious vs. the practical joker, th straight-laced businessman vs. the rowdy drinking partner. Both men giants in the world of music, and supreme in the world of pianism... Both would have been a privilege to meet even just once...

gerg, I don't think Chopin was introverted. He loved partying when he was well enough, and was famous for his comic impersonations.

I agree it would have been wonderful to meet either of them - I have a soft spot for Liszt the man, as opposed to Liszt the composer.

An interesting point I'd like to make here is that you are probably right about Chopin being more complex in terms of musicality. However, Liszt's TEs, despite carrying a more virtuoso incarnations, have somewhat simpler, more accessible musical ideas and my 6-years old daughter may have just picked it up. I have played both Chopin etudes and TEs (and Paganini Etudes too) in her presense, but she definitely preferes Liszt, to the point that whenever we get into the car she asks me to play some. Her favorites are Mazeppa and Wild Hunt (#8, don't remember it's French name). On the other hand Chopin doesn't seem to move her as much (she had to survive through me learning the 10/12; mayby that put her off; though she asks me to play it once in a while :-) )

Anyway, I am diverging on a tangent here. The point I am trying to make is that Liszt is ultimately more accessible to wider audience, which may have added to his immense popularity in his time. Of course, nowadays the snobbish classical music lovers crowd consider themselves way too sophisticated to not enjoy Chopin's more complex musical ideas, ROTFL !