Liszt, Franz (1811-1886)

[BBMmk2]

What do people think of his symphonic poems. Some are just totally boring, eg The Ideals and Prometherus, for example. I do rather like Huunenscjl;acht! I do have a penchant for it.

[Joseph K]

Generally not as inspired as the best of the piano music, nonetheless they are full of nice music. I think Hamlet is my favourite.

[Serial_Apologist]

What do people think of his symphonic poems. Some are just totally boring, eg The Ideals and Prometherus, for example. I do rather like Huunenscjl;acht! I do have a penchant for it.

They're fine as long as one can take the repetitiveness that was described by one commentator as "wallpaper pattern form". and followed by such others as Balakirev, Rimsky Korsakov, Saint-Saens and Franck, along with the banalities and occasional bombasts - the originality of harmony and freshness in combining orchesral timbres in part makes up for these blemishes, albeit that the latter take up a large part of what Liszt was about! "Orpheus" to my mind is beautiful - the instrumentation anticipating the start of "Lohengrin" Act 3 and the slow harmonic unfoldings in "Parsifal".

[Jonathan]

I like all 13 of the Symphonic poems - I find much of interest in all of them. I think having the miniature scores for them also helps as you follow them along with the score. Serial_Apologist, I agree about Orpheus, it is a gorgeous work. The solo transcription by Liszt himself is very evocative and it suits the medium well. I'm particularly fond of "Festklinge" which is full of joyful outbursts and is great. Hamlet is a tougher one, much darker and more sinister. More on this later, I suspect!

[BBMmk2]

I like all 13 of the Symphonic poems - I find much of interest in all of them. I think having the miniature scores for them also helps as you follow them along with the score. Serial_Apologist, I agree about Orpheus, it is a gorgeous work. The solo transcription by Liszt himself is very evocative and it suits the medium well. I'm particularly fond of "Festklinge" which is full of joyful outbursts and is great. Hamlet is a tougher one, much darker and more sinister. More on this later, I suspect!

Jonathan those recordings you mentioned on Facebook, have you played them yet, of Liszt?

[Jonathan]

Yes indeed BBM - they were both excellent! The Stradal / Liszt one is particularly good. I can't believe how difficult the music is and how well Risto-Matti Marin plays it! Having tried to play some of Stradal's Liszt transcriptions, I find it even more amazing. The Alkan, played by the brilliant Mark Viner (whose Thalberg and Liszt recordings are also superb) is wonderful and is definately the best recording I've heard. I look forward to more recordings by both of these pianists! I've not listened to anything yet today, we've been out but I might well give the Alkan another spin...

[gurnemanz]

I like all 13 of the Symphonic poems - I find much of interest in all of them. I think having the miniature scores for them also helps as you follow them along with the score. Serial_Apologist, I agree about Orpheus, it is a gorgeous work. The solo transcription by Liszt himself is very evocative and it suits the medium well. I'm particularly fond of "Festklinge" which is full of joyful outbursts and is great. Hamlet is a tougher one, much darker and more sinister. More on this later, I suspect!

I also like Orpheus, less frenetic than some others, which comes on a disc with Die Ideale on the Haitink/LPO disc. It's worth following up the Schiller poem on which Ideale is based with for me echos of the sentiments in Die Götter Griechenlands (as famously set by Schubert - Bernada Fink. Schöne Welt, wo bist du? While on Schubert, I also really enjoy Liszt's many song transcriptions. I enjoy listening to the Leslie Howard versions on Hyperion

[BBMmk2]

Yes indeed BBM - they were both excellent! The Stradal / Liszt one is particularly good. I can't believe how difficult the music is and how well Risto-Matti Marin plays it! Having tried to play some of Stradal's Liszt transcriptions, I find it even more amazing. The Alkan, played by the brilliant Mark Viner (whose Thalberg and Liszt recordings are also superb) is wonderful and is definately the best recording I've heard. I look forward to more recordings by both of these pianists! I've not listened to anything yet today, we've been out but I might well give the Alkan another spin...

Thank you! I might just have a look!

[teamsaint]

On record review yesterday DON was reviewing the big new Arrau box, and touched on the Liszt transendental etudes, among other things.

Any thought on his Liszt in general ? Or specific recordings you can recommend ?

[Richard Tarleton]

I hadn't appreciated that Arrau was taught by a Liszt pupil! I enjoyed DON's thoughts on Arrau's perf. of the first piano concerto. I have the Arrau/LSO/Davis recordings of both (on LP!) which are very fine.

[teamsaint]

Well just by way of conversation, the Sony “ Master and Magician “ Liszt box has the Transendental Etudes from the Yukio Yokoyama, who despite being on a big label, doesn’t sem to have made much of a lasting impression in Europe.I thought his Beethoven sonatas were ok, , but their strengths mainly confined to lithe, confident playing.

I dont know the etudes well, so his recording will just have to serve as a benchmark. But I have been enjoying them today, and intend to give them another couple of spins, and use Arrau as a comparison.

[Richard Tarleton]

The recent Daniil Trifonov set of the Etudes on DG made quite a big impression.....haven't come across Yukio Yokoyama. I have 2 other versions of the T. Studies - Jeno Jando on Naxos, and the complete Liszt piano works by Leslie Howard. But the Arrau sample sounded pretty good.

[Jonathan]

Agreed - Trifonov seems to have gone down very well in that recording but I found him too polished*, whereas I would say that Arrau is more earthy and old fashioned, if you know what I mean! The sound quality is also different which gives a less harsh impression of the music. Personally, I much prefer the Arrau recording.

As for the Etudes, I have recordings by: Leslie Howard, Arrau, Freddy Kempf, Kemal Gecik, Cziffra, Jando, Ponti, Alfredo Perl, Dinara Klinton and probably several others on mp3 only! The most recent of these acquisitions was the Dinara Klinton one and she is phenomenally talented and worth listening to - it was a shame her recording of these works was released around the same time as Trifonov (and someone else, whose name I've forgotten) as she really reserves a wider audience.

* = I didn't buy the recording, I listened via Spotify.

[BBMmk2]

I might give that one a listen, then, the Dinara Klinton. The Trifonov certainly had the advertising!

[vinteuil]

.

... the Liszt recording that made me sit up and listen with new ears was that by Daniel Grimwood -

http://amzn.eu/bg8OvGP

Cannot recommend too highly




.