The Man who Crossed Hitler: Help please!

[Nick Armstrong]

This very good drama was one of the programmes highlighted by Amateur51 elsewhere on this board. Here is the iplayer link http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...Crossed_Hitler and I think it is repeated this weekend on BBC4

Question: what is the Liszt piece playing over the end credits? Anyone know? And know who is performing it? (There is reference to Liszt in the drama, so I infer that this is the piece in question, the title of which is not mentioned).

The reason I'm interested is that I like it! (Contrary to my normal position concerning Liszt...) And I'm going to Hamelin's Liszt recital at 10pm today.... What's happening to me?!

Just open-minded, I guess... :cool2:

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

is this it?

[Nick Armstrong]

It is! Many thanks, Calum!

[StephenO]

[COLOR="#0000FF"]This very good drama was one of the programmes highlighted by Amateur51 elsewhere on this board.

Agreed, but there's even better to come. Doctor Who versus Hitler this Saturday! No Liszt but at least there's Amy Pond.

[Mahlerei]

Caliban

If you're not allergic to the organ Kalevi Kiviniemi's transcription is a stunner. It's played here on the Kangasala at Lakeuden Risti, Finland. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJNfZwRW07Q

[Anna]

Contrary to my normal position concerning Liszt...) I'm going to Hamelin's Liszt recital at 10pm today.... What's happening to me?!

And did you have your very own Road to Damascus moment?

[Nick Armstrong]

And did you have your very own Road to Damascus moment?

Blimey you were up late, Anna, look you!

No I most certainly did not have a damascene moment. Great pianistic skill, nice atmos in the half-darkened RAH, and fun company (rubbers says Hi, Anna )...

But in terms of music I enjoyed maybe 5% of it - the 5% that wasn't overblown with interminable and excessive digital athletics, or mawkishly sentimental. There were some nice passages which sounded like Chopin, Schubert, even Elgar at one point... Even someone with us who thought he liked Liszt was put off, and spent the last 15 minutes sound asleep.

So no - try as I might, with the rarest exceptions, Liszt remains a closed book.

[Anna]

Blimey you were up late, Anna, look you! No I most certainly did not have a damascene moment. Great pianistic skill, nice atmos in the half-darkened RAH, and fun company (rubbers says Hi, Anna )...

Au contraire Boyo, it was that I was up early, look you! And reciprocals to rubbers of course with the hope that he hasn't fallen off his velocipede lately.

But in terms of music I enjoyed maybe 5% of it - the 5% that wasn't overblown with interminable and excessive digital athletics, or mawkishly sentimental. There were some nice passages which sounded like Chopin, Schubert, even Elgar at one point... Even someone with us who thought he liked Liszt was put off, and spent the last 15 minutes sound asleep. So no - try as I might, with the rarest exceptions, Liszt remains a closed book.

Well, I am glad to hear that the two of us still remain impervious to his charms. I only have two pieces of Liszt, the sonata in B Minor and The Faust Symphony for two pianos, which I consider one piano far too many

[Mr Pee]

So no - try as I might, with the rarest exceptions, Liszt remains a closed book.

He was to me, until quite recently. But a couple of recent CDs have changed my mind, from Nelson Freire and Hamelin respectively:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Liszt-Harmonies-Soir-Nelson-Freire/dp/B004I7MCHU/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1314270667&sr=8-6

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Liszt-Sonata-Fantasy-B---C-H/dp/B004NWHVD0/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1314270721&sr=1-1

I've derived more pleasure from these two discs than from any that I've brought for a very long time.

And who could resist such sheer beauty as this- (or maybe it's

mawkish sentimentality

)- from the Hamelin CD:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJjq9aqljTQ

But then I always have been a sentimental old soul.

[vinteuil]

No I most certainly did not have a damascene moment. [...]
But in terms of music I enjoyed maybe 5% of it - the 5% that wasn't overblown with interminable and excessive digital athletics, or mawkishly sentimental. [ ... ]
So no - try as I might, with the rarest exceptions, Liszt remains a closed book.

Calabrese -

- I know what you mean. BUT - I do enjoy -

1.) The silliness of the Hungarian Rhapsodies
2.) the Transcendental Studies
3.) and - trying to play his piano transcriptions of Bach organ works...

Perhaps the thing to do is not to take him too seriously?

[Nick Armstrong]

Calabrese -

- I know what you mean. BUT - I do enjoy -

1.) The silliness of the Hungarian Rhapsodies
2.) the Transcendental Studies
3.) and - trying to play his piano transcriptions of Bach organ works...

Perhaps the thing to do is not to take him too seriously?

Vin Santo -

- oh there was a certain amount of levity in the loggia box last night, I can assure you!

The Transcendental Studies....

I went to hear Freddy Kempf play them at the Wigmore, and came away with a similar sense of emptiness as I felt after last night's recital, and sad feeling of waste - that all that pianistic skill, HOURS of practice and energy had not been used in the service of music with a heart (Rachmaninov... Albeniz... Medtner... assuming the need for lots of notes) as opposed to the instrumental equivalent of gymnastic floor exercises.

[Panjandrum]

I will never understand why some people insist on parading their own ignorance and lack of taste.

[Anna]

I will never understand why some people insist on parading their own ignorance and lack of taste.

And I will never understand why some people are so judgemental when another person's taste does not coincide with their own taste, which, surely, is not ignorance but merely a different liking for either one type of music or t'other, or, to put it another way, a preference for Roquefort over Cheddar. Heaven Forfend we should all like the same thing, how utterly dismal would that be? Blimey, we'd all be listening to Elgar or Vaughan Williams and dying of boredom whilst munching a bland Edam would we not if we could not embrace diversity, and having embraced it, clasp it to our bosoms?

[amateur51]

And I will never understand why some people are so judgemental when another person's taste does not coincide with their own taste, which, surely, is not ignorance but merely a different liking for either one type of music or t'other, or, to put it another way, a preference for Roquefort over Cheddar. Heaven Forfend we should all like the same thing, how utterly dismal would that be? Blimey, we'd all be listening to Elgar or Vaughan Williams and dying of boredom whilst munching a bland Edam would we not if we could not embrace diversity, and having embraced it, claspe it to our bosoms?

Edam huh?

The only distinguished thing about Edam is the fact that it is the only cheese that's made backwards

Innit

[Nick Armstrong]

I will never understand why some people insist on parading their own ignorance and lack of taste.

And yet you persist in doing so, Mr Jandrum !