Liszt - a showoff, and a genius

[Franz_Liszt]

 In most of Liszt music, it is thick with chromatic progressions and accidentals with sometimes 4 and 5 notes being allotted to both hands. However, this music has perfect structure and a divine meaning. Share your opinions here.

[BuyBuy]

Of course his music is magnificent.

Look at his B-flat sonata : he takes a couple of themes and turn them around, combine them, develop them, split them, blend them again... into a whole 30 minutes ! He's a genius. The 2nd piano conerto, less known and performed, but still terrific, is in the same nature, with the transformation of themes concept.

His Années de Pélerinage is one of his best works, I believe. Very deep and meaningful. I especially like "Vallée d'Obermann", "Les Cloches de Genève", the Dante fantaisie and "Les jeux d'Eau à la Ville d'Este".

[pskim]

I'm sure you meant the b minor sonata, which is a magnificent piece.  I hope to play it someday.

By the way, I believe this topic has been discussed before.

[SHR]

I was talking with Jorge Bolet some time a go, about his planned recording of all of Liszt's piano pieces, and he retorted "Liszt wrote a lot of crap" (honest, he really did say that). I think his Bminor Sonata, much of the Annees de Pelerinage and quite a number of the studies are as good as anything written by Chopin and Schuman, but the rest is interesting but not in the same class,  but I love them all. Liszt is never banal, he was a prophet (listen to the Aparition written in 1835) and is the one composer I would have liked to have met. Imagine the abbe Liszt in middle age or elderly, sitting in his rectory, turning to the piano now and again...what a thought. How he managed with such crude early pianos of his day is a mystery.

[chopinetta]

yes, of course, liszt is one magnificent pianist. but i don't want to steal the opportunity from amee to share what she has read all about liszt.

ask amee for facts, rumours, and etc. about liszt.

one biographer has uncovered 24 major love affairs of liszt. franz liszt has affairs of both the rich countesses and the peasants.

[SHR]

I wonder how many direct descendents of Liszt there are and unknown to themselves?  Did you know that "liszt" means "flour" in English? (the Sonata in B minor by Frank Flour - doesn't sound the same does it - probably we should not translate the titles of his pieces from their original language either?)

[rachfan]

Bolet was right.  There is a tremendous variation in quality within Liszt's output.  But when he produced winners like the B minor Sonata, the Petrach Sonnets, Vallee d'Obermann, Fountain at the Villa d'Este, some of the Transcendental Etudes like Mazeppa, Feux follets, Wilde Jagd, Ricordanza, or Chasse-neige, etc., they were and are absolutely extraordinary.  One time Liszt was interviewed about his probable legacy to music from his own perspective.  He felt that while he had created some wonderful melodies to be sure, that what would be remembered as most innovative would actually be his harmonies.  I would agree that his harmonies form one of the strongest pillars of the Romantic Age, equal to Chopin's cantelena melodies, Brahm's burnished sound, and Schumann's deep expression of mood.  

[eddie92099]

Yes there is certainly a lot of music which is very rarely played (although Leslie Howard has recorded the lot - including three versions of the Paganini Etudes!). He was also very revolutionary in some of his works - the Bagatelle sans tonalite for example or Nuages Gris which foreshadows Debussy,
Ed

[trunks]

Liszt was neither a show-off nor a genuis alone. He was both a show-off and a genuis, and much more. He was human who wrote lovely music to touch the hearts of his fellow humans.