Franz Liszt (1811-86)

Started by Lethevich, September 28, 2008, 07:11:41 AM

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schnittkease

Unfortunately I don't have Madiel's astounding self-control.  :-[

San Antone

Quote from: schnittkease on March 06, 2019, 05:55:25 AM
Unfortunately I don't have Madiel's astounding self-control.  :-[

I rely on streaming and only buy what is either 1) unavailable to stream (like Hyperion recordings) or 2) rarely, something I want even if it is available to stream.  Consequently, I am buying far fewer CDs than I used to, like, one-tenth as many if not fewer.

springrite

Quote from: Madiel on March 06, 2019, 04:46:10 AM
This is kind of why I don't even get beyond one recording if I'm happy with it. I don't go looking for others unless I feel unhappy in some way with what I have.


Well, this is exactly how I view marriage and the wife.
Do what I must do, and let what must happen happen.

Madiel

Quote from: springrite on March 06, 2019, 11:41:03 PM
Well, this is exactly how I view marriage and the wife.

I wondered if someone would go there... I nearly did.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

aukhawk

Where do streaming services fit in to this analogy??

Madiel

Quote from: aukhawk on March 07, 2019, 02:21:12 AM
Where do streaming services fit in to this analogy??

Friends with benefits.
I am now working on a discography of the works of Vagn Holmboe. Please visit and also contribute!

Moonfish

Liszt
Années de pèlerinage – Suisse
Jorge Bolet

My very first recording of the 'Années de pèlerinage – Suisse' that I bought as a poor graduate student (spending those last few dollars on an expensive cd rather than buying food - know what I mean?).  Even though I have heard many other performances I keep returning to this one over and over. I know we like to compare recordings and partake of new renditions etc. However, I wonder how much of our "ratings" are based on previous exposure, i.e. becoming attuned to a certain recording/rendition. How can a recording one learns to love and recognize not be the one that rises to the top in competition with "strangers', i.e. new recordings that one has had less exposure to? These newer recording may have been our primary recording if it was our very first encounter. Perhaps?   Regardless, ranking works of this kind is of course a subjective enterprise.  Bolet's recording will always be associated with the first journey into the complexity of Liszt's tonal world as my stomach rumbled as I clearly put my money into music rather than food.  0:)

"Every time you spend money you are casting a vote for the kind of world you want...."
Anna Lappé

Brian

One really glaring hole in the recording catalog is the complete set of Schubert transcriptions, "Soirées de Vienne." No. 6 is a popular encore which just about all the golden age pianists recorded and which some folks (like Joseph Moog and Dejan Lazić) still do. But there are 9 of these suckers. Any favored complete recordings? I think I asked this a year or two ago and the answer was that there are only 1-2 complete cycles out there. Leslie Howard's anti-virtuosic version comes in a three-CD box with a Celibidachean (Pogorelish?) rendition of Schubert's Hungarian divertissement (47 minutes!!).

We have a newcomer this month:



Unfortunately this one is a letdown too. Like Howard, Ferro takes his sweet time, but he's also rather square rhythmically, and undancey (check out No. 1 and see how long it goes before you recognize a dance happening). Worse, he's recorded so close up that the acoustic strips the piano of its color and makes Ferro sound like an insensitive banger of keys. Maybe he is one, or maybe he isn't, but it's just not flattering. Sigh.

bhodges

Here is Yunchan Lim in Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, a performance that apparently astounded the audience in the Cliburn Competition semi-final round on 10 June.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsGLmrR0BVs

--Bruce




Scion7

There have been recordings of the Orpheus transcription for piano/harp and violin and cello,
but I have not encountered a recording of an organ-violin-cello transcription before (here, the arrangement is
by the organist) ... I find it very interesting and stirring.

When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

Roasted Swan

Quote from: Brewski on June 19, 2022, 08:47:16 PM
Here is Yunchan Lim in Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, a performance that apparently astounded the audience in the Cliburn Competition semi-final round on 10 June.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsGLmrR0BVs

--Bruce

HUGE talent - wow.......!! (thankyou for posting)

Spotted Horses

I've made my way through Années de pèlerinage in the Ciccolini recording, then started going through it again with Cziffra. Both sets of recordings have their attractions and detractions. On a lark I decided to listen to several recordings of Sposalizio, the first piece in the second set (Deuxième année: Italie). I didn't want to go too far, and limited myself to three, Cziffra, Ciccolini and Leslie Howard.

The Cziffra recording has a very annoying feature. It is spliced together from two takes with very different recording sound. In the first part the sound is rather thin, with a slight domination of the right channel, then in mid phrase, we switch to recording with more presence and a slight left channel domination. Clearly the microphone position and/or recording set up is different. It is a seven minute piece of music and Cziffra is supposed to be one of the great virtuosos of the century. He can't just play this piece through?

Then Howard. The approach is slower, more deliberate, but he really luxuriates in the complex harmonization in the statements of the theme. The opening is magical The one thing that irked me a little at first is that in the climactic passage near the end he tends to insert little pauses at the harmonic transitions. When I listened again, prepared for them, I can see what Howard is doing, but it seems unnecessary.

Finally Ciccolini. Aside from the limitations of the 1961 recording technology, this recording is gorgeous. The richness of the harmony does not generally come across as well as in Howard's recording, but there are no little pauses.

I do not feel inclined to pronounce any recording "the best," although the technical problem in the Cziffra recording more-or-less spoiled it for me. (I reacted very positively to Cziffra's recording of the first part of Années de pèlerinage.

Oh, and the composition by Liszt itself, beautifully poetic.



There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

vers la flamme

Anyone care to recommend to me any recordings of Liszt's Lieder?

Florestan

Quote from: vers la flamme on March 28, 2023, 12:00:20 PMAnyone care to recommend to me any recordings of Liszt's Lieder?

Look no further than this:



A crackerjack performance, both musicians ideally suited to the repertoire.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Lisztianwagner

About Liszt's Lieder, the Fischer-Dieskau/Demus/Barenboim on DG is also very delightful.
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." - Gustav Mahler

Spotted Horses

#455
In another thread it was mentioned that Daniel Grimwood's recording of Années de pèlerinage on a period piano dispelled Liszt's reputation as a soulless banger.

At this point it occurred to me, who is it that is banging away at Années de pèlerinage? It seems like there are relatively few recordings of the complete cycle from the great pianists. There are the cycles from Ciccolini and Cziffra, but the audio in those recordings is a bit dated and from EMI France, which I typically find does not enjoy the best sound of the era. There is Bolet, who I have found ravishing in Liszt, but I have not heard his Années de pèlerinage yet. There are lots of recordings of excerpts, and numerous recordings of individual years, but I really value having the complete set by the same artist. What are the seminal cycles, and who are the bangers?

There are newer cycles. I'm a fan of Lortie and I have listened to and enjoyed at least some of his cycle. There are Korstick and Gorus and of course Howard, who has recorded the piece along side early versions of the music. Am I missing something?

There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

San Antone

Quote from: Spotted Horses on February 12, 2024, 10:47:24 AMIt seems like there are relatively few recordings of the complete cycle from the great pianists. What are the seminal cycles, and who are the bangers?

Todd has a thread survey of most of the recordings of the Années de pèlerinage - and it is well worth reading if you wish to know about these works.

Spotted Horses

Listened to Angelich's La Chapelle de Guillaume Tell, which started out glacial, but really blossomed.
There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

Mandryka

#458
Quote from: Spotted Horses on February 12, 2024, 12:17:34 PMListened to Angelich's La Chapelle de Guillaume Tell, which started out glacial, but really blossomed.

For all its challenging slowness, at least Angelich isn't bombastic or vulgar sounding. I just listened to his Bk3.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Florestan

Quote from: Mandryka on February 13, 2024, 12:51:08 AMFor all its challenging slowness, at least Angelich isn't bombastic or vulgar sounding.

As different from --- whom?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini