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Franz Liszt: Transcendental Etudes
Some may be surprised to learn that when revising the 12 Grandes Etudes from 1837 into the Transcendental Etudes, Liszt made several simplifications – they certainly still pose enormous technical demands on the player.
Liszt also added programmatic titles to most of the pieces. The fourth study, Mazeppa, generally thought to be the most difficult piece of the set, is named after an historical person, Ivan Mazepa, page in the court of the Polish King John Casimir, whose fate was made famous by poems of Byron, Pushkin and Victor Hugo. Mazepa became entangled with the wife of a nobleman, and for this he was punished by being tied naked to the back of a wild horse and dragged all the way to Ukraine.
Liszt later expanded and orchestrated the Étude to become the sixth in his cycle of symphonic Poems.
Topic. I love these pieces and enjoy listening to it. What's the best recording out there for these? I've got Jeno Jando's recording of it, however I want to listen to a variety of others as well.
