Is there a "Late Liszt List"?

Started by bwv 1080, May 01, 2008, 08:41:02 AM

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bwv 1080

Nuages Gris, La Lugabre Gondola, Funerailles are the darker, impressionistic late piano pieces of Lizst that I am familiar with.  Are there more?  Is there more or less an official "late Liszt list" like with Beethoven?

not edward

#1
There's not really a standard list, I guess, but other pieces that would fit into the dark late style include Csárdás macabre, Csárdás obstiné, Am Grabe Richard Wagners, Unstern: Sinistre, Disastro, Trauervorspiel und Trauermarsch, R. W. - Venezia, Schlaflos, Frage und Antwort, the 4th Mephisto Waltz and the Bagatelle sans tonalité. (Some of the pieces from the Années de Pèlerinage: Troisième Année would also fit this description.)

I personally find the late pieces to be amongst Liszt's most rewarding, though I don't have many good recordings of them.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

lukeottevanger

Add the two late piano Elegies to this list. Especially the first one, which exists in a version for the Schoenbergian ensemble of piano, harp, harmonium and cello. The second, harmonically more extreme, exists in a version for violin and piano too. Both can be heard on a Hungaroton disc which is one of the most frequently returned-to in my collection. I can post the scores (and to the other late Liszt pieces) if you want.....

lukeottevanger

Oh, and you must not forget Via Crucis, one of Liszt's most visionary works, and a real, proper masterpiece.

karlhenning

Quote from: lukeottevanger on May 01, 2008, 09:43:18 AM
Oh, and you must not forget Via Crucis, one of Liszt's most visionary works, and a real, proper masterpiece.

That is a beauty!

I've also recently got thoroughly taken by a set of six Hungarian historical portraits.

lukeottevanger

Quote from: karlhenning on May 01, 2008, 09:53:47 AM
That is a beauty!

I've also recently got thoroughly taken by a set of six Hungarian historical portraits.

Oh yes, there are some marvellous pieces in there.

Funnily enough, there is also some early Liszt which is every bit as extraordinary as this late stuff, though in different ways - the Apparitions, for instance, with their innovative and expressive dislocated rhythms, harmonic oddities and notational peculiarities. They touch a vein of the fantastic which Liszt seemed to lose later on...

Mark G. Simon

Quote from: bwv 1080 on May 01, 2008, 08:41:02 AM
Nuages Gris, La Lugabre Gondola, Funerailles are the darker, impressionistic late piano pieces of Lizst that I am familiar with.  Are there more?  Is there more or less an official "late Liszt list" like with Beethoven?

So you have late Liszt list lust.

MN Dave

Quote from: Mark G. Simon on May 01, 2008, 10:14:17 AM
So you have late Liszt list lust.

He has lots and lots of late Liszt list lust. Loads!

lukeottevanger

But unfortunately he is listlessly listless.

Lethevich

Such a list can be made, but it would require a little work:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Franz_Liszt_%28S.1_-_S.350%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Franz_Liszt_%28S.351_-_S.999%29

press ctrl+f (if you are using Firefox), and search "188", each new instance of that you search for will get a hit for a work listed as being in the 1880s, so his last 7 years. You can use the same system for the 70s.
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

karlhenning

I'll never be a Wagnerite, but I could possibly become a Liszterine . . . .

Lethevich

Quote from: karlhenning on May 01, 2008, 10:49:34 AM
I'll never be a Wagnerite, but I could possibly become a Liszterine . . . .

Better than a Boulezbian... 0:)
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

karlhenning

I was asked if I would dress in drag for a (musical) performance this Sunday night . . . .

MN Dave

Quote from: karlhenning on May 01, 2008, 10:55:12 AM
I was asked if I would dress in drag for a (musical) performance this Sunday night . . . .

And you said, "Oh, so I should wear what I have on?"

:P

karlhenning

Back to topic, though, what do folks think of the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses? (Though I guess these aren't late particularly . . . .)

lukeottevanger

I was going to mention them in the same sentence as I mentioned the Apparitions. IIRC there is an early version of them which is even more astonishing.

not edward

Anyway, rolling back to the original post: any recording recommendations?

I have Arnaldo Cohen on Naxos for Unstern: Sinistre, Disastro, Nuages Gris and La Lugubre Gondola I & II (recommendable); Brendel on Vox for Bagatelle sans tonalité, Csárdás macabre and La Lugubre Gondola II (also recommendable); however, Leslie Howard's disc of late Liszt pieces I don't find worth the space it takes up on my shelves.
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

marvinbrown

Quote from: karlhenning on May 01, 2008, 10:49:34 AM
I'll never be a Wagnerite, but I could possibly become a Liszterine . . . .

  Now that is a step in the right direction Karl  ;).

  marvin

bwv 1080

Wow, its a Lisztkrieg!

Quote from: edward on May 01, 2008, 11:31:28 AM
Anyway, rolling back to the original post: any recording recommendations?

I have Arnaldo Cohen on Naxos for Unstern: Sinistre, Disastro, Nuages Gris and La Lugubre Gondola I & II (recommendable); Brendel on Vox for Bagatelle sans tonalité, Csárdás macabre and La Lugubre Gondola II (also recommendable); however, Leslie Howard's disc of late Liszt pieces I don't find worth the space it takes up on my shelves.

The Zimerman DG Recording is where I have the pieces mentioned in the OP - would highly recommend it (has a great Bm Sonata as well)

quintett op.57

Quote from: marvinbrown on May 01, 2008, 12:07:37 PM
  Now that is a step in the right direction Karl  ;).

  marvin
I'm afraid karl's done this step for long now, but the other foot seems to be paralysed