# Liszt vs. the pianist?



## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Having just recently started to expand my list of works by Liszt, I've noticed that some pianists I've listened to seem not to know whether they are playing Liszt or Chopin, to say. After a concert yesterday, I've been again searching for another pianist who could play Liszt just as well. So, the deal is, *what pianist(s) is/are excellent when it comes to playing Liszt?* After all, it shouldn't be a Liszt vs. the pianist situation....


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Didnt notice that problem, maybe he is ''hard to play'' or something about tehnique...If you could post some of the good and bad examples of pianists...:tiphat:


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

I think for Liszt one needs to find the calm within all the thunderous and rapid notes. There is a deeply musical center in there, but students are often distracted by the desire to impress people with all the flash and zip. (Or they're not sufficiently in control of the technical difficulties to focus on the music.) However, every reasonably professional performance of Liszt that I've heard has been very musical. I enjoy Jorge Bolet's 9-cd collection that he made for Decca (it's on Spotify also).

What do you mean by "seem not to know whether they are playing Liszt or Chopin", and what was the concert?


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Cziffra? Bolet? Berman?


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Thanks, I'll give them a listen.... I thought Horowitz might have nice interpretations of the music, though i was quite disappointed. I find that he doesn't seem to bring out as much expressiveness in the music when it comes to the dynamic markings on the louder end of the scale (no pun intended). I on,y now hope that Bolet can be found on Youtube, so here I go looking....


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

hreichgott said:


> What do you mean by "seem not to know whether they are playing Liszt or Chopin", and what was the concert?


Ahem, this question.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

mstar said:


> Thanks, I'll give them a listen.... I thought Horowitz might have nice interpretations of the music, though i was quite disappointed. I find that he doesn't seem to bring out as much expressiveness in the music when it comes to the dynamic markings on the louder end of the scale (no pun intended). I on,y now hope that Bolet can be found on Youtube, so here I go looking....


Oh, youtube! There's your problem, if you are looking for an expressive and subtle sound quality especially at extreme dynamic levels. Youtube is especially bad for historic recordings. You need at least the sound quality of itunes or spotify to be able to hear what's happening. CD is better than that and live performance beats everything else. More costly of course.


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## Guest (Nov 18, 2013)

I enjoy:

Zimerman - Concertos/Totentanz
Argerich - Sonata
Richter - Concertos/Sonata
Jando - Rhapsodies
Berman - Annees De Pelerinage
Bolet - Various


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

My recommendations:

a) Hélène Grimaud's rendition of B minor sonata on her "Resonances" album.
b) Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano and orchestra works (much better orchestral performance than on Zimerman recording with Ozawa)
c) "Liebestraum Without Scratch":


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

mstar said:


> Thanks, I'll give them a listen.... I thought Horowitz might have nice interpretations of the music, though i was quite disappointed. I find that he doesn't seem to bring out as much expressiveness in the music when it comes to the dynamic markings on the louder end of the scale (no pun intended). I on,y now hope that Bolet can be found on Youtube, so here I go looking....


Try listening without bothering with the dynamic markings. I never thought I'd hear anyone describe Horowitz as lacking in expressiveness.
I see no mention of one of the biggest Liszt experts, Earl Wild.


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## ShropshireMoose (Sep 2, 2013)

Horowitz is, in my opinion, one of the greatest Lisztians who ever lived. His 1932 performance of the B Minor Sonata is justly famous, and his recording of Funerailles, made in 1950, employs about the widest dynamic range you could imagine, which even on a recording of that era comes out well. No one has ever played the main theme of it with such heartbreaking intensity, and the climax of the piece is simply overwhelming. His 1979 Mephisto Waltz is about as devilish as you could want.
Cziffra is outstanding in the 2nd Piano Concerto and Totentanz with the Philharmonia/Andre Vandernoot. His set of the Transcendental Studies is one of the best and his recordings of the complete Annees de Pelerinage and Hungarian Rhapsodies are outstanding too.
Claudio Arrau gives a good account of the Trancendental Studies, and I am very fond of his live performances of the B Minor and Dante Sonatas from the 1982 Salzburg Festival on Orfeo.
Shura Cherkassky always played the 1st Piano Concerto superlatively well, the recording with the Philharmonia/Fistoulari is available on Testament.
Jorge Bolet's performance of the Don Juan fantasy has a depth that few others attain, and his recording of Benediction de dieu dans la Solitude is spellbinding. I heard him play it twice in recital, and it always left me in a state of wonderment that anyone could spin such beautiful ethereal sounds from the piano.
Emil Von Sauer's readings of the Concerti with the Paris Conservatoire Orchetstra/Felix Weingartner are superb, and his performance of Harmonies du Soir (Tr. Study No.11) is one of the finest Liszt recordings ever made.
Frederic Lamond in the Tarantelle de Bravoura has an insouciant brio that you'll rarely find in modern performances.
Simon Barere playing the Rapsodie Espagnole/Gnomenreigen/Don Juan fantasy will leave you breathless that any mortal could play like this, still less in an age when editing was not possible!
Egon Petri in any of the Schubert song transcritions he recorded, there's also a magnificent LP of Liszt transcriptions he recorded for Westminster, now only available as part of a 10 CD set on DG called "The Liszt Legacy"- though 2nd hand copies of the LP are not uncommon- and the reading of the fantasy on themes from "The Marriage of Figaro" is almost worth the price of the box alone!
Solomon in the Hungarian Fantasy with the Philharmonia/Walter Susskind and his recordings of the 15th Hungarian Rhapsody and La Leggierezza are quite stunning.
Moiseiwitsch on youtube playing the transcription of the "Tannhauser" Overture is a lesson to all pianists in keeping the passion in the music and not letting your body run away with you- I do wish some of todays "hurl yourselves about at all costs" merchants would watch this. Moiseiwitsch also made one of the finest recordings of that much abused Liebestraume No. 3!
Well there's a few to be going on with, no doubt more will spring to mind the minute I press the button to post this.....


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Bolet gave a concert in Carnegie Hall in 1974 that burst through the barriers and at last brought him into the limelight that should have been his much earlier. RA recorded the affair on a double LP album which I picked up in the USA when on business.
It's a good thing that I did because I've not seen it since and I saw no sign of it on release in the UK and where is it now ?
It is an extraordinary affair and includes the Liszt arrangement of Wagner's "Tannhauser" Overture which is mind-numbing.
As for the Westminster catalogue it appears and disappears under various guises, this is tragic as it includes many important recordings, the treatment mentioned by ShropshireMoose above is exactly the wrong way to handle matters.
Particularly as Westminster has the Liszt recordings of Edith Farnadi and you can't wish for better than that---but keep wishing because I see no sight of them either. Ms.Farnadi won the Franz Liszt prize twice before she was seventeen and became a professor at the Franz Liszt Academy at that age. Fortunately I have quite a number of her recordings including those issued by HMV when they were distributing them.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Edith Farnadi!


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## derin684 (Feb 14, 2018)

Arrau, Brendel, Berman for me. But other mentions are probably nice too.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

It's too bad we have no recordings of Liszt playing Chopin, or of Chopin playing Liszt. Alas ...

I suggest that both Chopin and Liszt at their best are very "pianistic" -- that is, geared to make the most of the instrument at hand and not sound too much like, say, an orchestra. Late Beethoven piano music sometimes seems to me to have been written for some theoretical instrument -- perhaps the notes as they exist on the page are as profound a "sound" as one can get in music. But Chopin seems much made for the piano, and Liszt too, though the latter composer competes with Beethoven in attempts to _transcend_ the physical instrument at times, something I think he fails at more often than he succeeds.

But I have long admired the B Minor Sonata as one of the sublime masterworks of all time. It strikes me that the key of B minor is not so common among the composers of the Classical and early Romantic periods (strange, perhaps, since D Major is so prevalent!), perhaps haunted or intimidated by what J.S. Bach created in that key. The Liszt sonata seems the most notable B minor work after Bach, with the possible exception of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, which, interestingly enough, was not premiered until some 10 years or so after publication of Liszt's Sonata. (Could Liszt have known the Schubert work?) I've long wondered if Liszt didn't choose that key for its sublime gravity as initiated by Bach.

I have quite a bit of Liszt's piano music in my collection, including the giant box set with Leslie Howard on Hyperion of Liszt's Complete Piano Music. And the 9 disc Bolet set, which is a treasure. I remain fond of the Sonatas and the various Années de pèlerinage works, as well as the Transcendental Etudes. All of this music is also in piano scores on my book shelves. One must shop for great performances from among the many issues of Liszt's music available, but a set such as Howard's on Hyperion allows one to explore obscure works and find gems among them which may be better performed by another pianist.

I for one will follow with interest the recommendations posted here as I continually seek out great Liszt piano music to hear. Or better, to experience.


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## Hugo9000 (Aug 6, 2018)

I love Bolet, Berman, Andsnes, and Zimerman for Liszt!


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