Best Liszt interpreter?

[Skeptopotamus]

Berman all the way.  And does anyone know where to get some recordings of him OL?

[pita bread]

Soulseek, or I can send you some via AIM.

For specific pieces:

Mephisto Waltz - Richter, Kapell, Wild

Mazeppa - Berezovsky

Liebestod - Horowitz

Danse Macabre - Horowitz

Ballade 2 - Horowitz

Totentanz (live) and all the Concerti/Piano-with-orchestra pieces- Cziffra

[BoliverAllmon]

Soulseek, or I can send you some via AIM.

For specific pieces:

Mephisto Waltz - Richter, Kapell, Wild

Mazeppa - Berezovsky

Liebestod - Horowitz

Danse Macabre - Horowitz

Ballade 2 - Horowitz

Totentanz (live) and all the Concerti/Piano-with-orchestra pieces- Cziffra

I agree that the cziffra totentanz is phenomenal.

[presto agitato]

Leslie Howard and Murray Perahia

[pianonut]

jacques thibeaux (can't remember spelling)  - mario pollini play chopin well, they must play liszt well?

[BoliverAllmon]

Leslie Howard and Murray Perahia

volume doesn't equate to greatness

[thierry13]

jacques thibeaux (can't remember spelling) - mario pollini

Maurizio pollini??

[Skeptopotamus]

Liebestod - Horowitz

ewwww.  He plays it way too fast.  That is one of the few Liszt pieces that is totally ruined by fast playing.

[Waldszenen]

Cziffra, then Bolet, then Horowitz.

[pita bread]

jacques thibeaux (can't remember spelling) - mario pollini

I didn't know Jean-yves Thibaudet played much Liszt other than Totentanz and some assorted transcriptions, are these worth checking out?

volume doesn't equate to greatness

True dat. Howard's playing is phenomenaly boring, too scholarly or something.

[Waldszenen]

I hate Leslie Howard - most boring tone ever. His Wilde Jagt has none of the fury of Arrau's.

[donjuan]

My vote probably goes to Cziffra, although my favorite living pianist in this area is probably Stephen Hough or Jeno Jando.

By the way, heres more evidence that history repeats itself here on pianoforum :

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,9256.0.html

donjuan

[dikai_yang]

liszt etudes: jorge bolet
hungarian rapsodies: roberto szidon
for those of you who have never heard of roberto szidon's playing of these rapsodies...
that will change your life, you'd start to wonder how can these pieces be played any other way...
i really really dislike horowitz's interpretation of too many things...
the major reason being he over-exaggerate everything way too much....
and he kinda changes the music around such that it becomes not what the composer desires....
in a way, he has a great style for himself....
but he's not a great "interpreter" because compoasers may not like their pieces played the way horowitz does....

[gorbee natcase]

Liszt himself LOL

[Skeptopotamus]

poor lazar berman... he was the original Liszt master.  Why nobody vote for him?  -.-

[Pronske]

Mephisto Waltz - Cziffra

Polonaise 2 - Cziffra

Liebestod - Olga Kern

Danse Macabre - Horowitz

Ballade 2 - Horowitz

Vallee Obermann - Horowitz

Concerto 2 - Katchen

Le Leggierezza - Cortot

Sonata - Zimmerman

Rakoscky March - Horowitz

Scherzo and March - Horowitz

Hungarian Rhapsody 12 - Katchen and Rubenstein

[ralessi]

ewwww. He plays it way too fast. That is one of the few Liszt pieces that is totally ruined by fast playing.

And this is exactly why Liszt has such a bad reputation..because people think they can just speed through the music as loud as possible and say "HEY! THATS LISZT! EMPTY VIRTUOSITY!"  im not sayihng that all Liszt music is the most beautiful melodious stuff ever, but its not all just fast loud music.  Take Earl Wild for example.  Awesome pianist, but after listening to his Demonic Liszt CD, it was absolutely horrible.  The Don Juan was so fast and loud that i couldnt even listen to the whole thing, as goes for the Mephisto Waltz, ect.  Cziffra, Bollet, and Horowitz, IMO are the greatest Liszt interpreters (in that order). 

Cheers!
Ricky

[super5james]

Im stuck with Bolet for now and i love his Funerailles and libestraumne,Gnomreign,Rhaspode espangloe.Bolet its the way for me.Murray periah is good as well

[donjuan]

hungarian rapsodies: roberto szidon
for those of you who have never heard of roberto szidon's playing of these rapsodies...
PM me for some samples...
that will change your life, you'd start to wonder how can these pieces be played any other way...

I just requested  roberto szidon's hungarian rhapsodies from my library.
Thanks for the recommendation! Ill let you know what I think
donjuan

[musicsdarkangel]

How about Brendel?

He's excellent!


Anyway, I prefer select pieces by select pianists, not necesarilly one best Liszt interpreter.


Transcendental etudes - Jeno Jando + Arrau

Mephito Waltz - Ashkenazy

Feux Follet - Richter

La Campanella - Yundi Li

Concertos - Argerich

Sonata - Argerich

Hungarian Rhapsodies - Cziffra + Horowitz

Totentanz - Cziffra (of course)

[pseudopianist]

Cziffra is my overall favourit Liszt pianist.
Freddy Kempf for his Transcendetal etudes
And Brendel for Annees de pelerinage

[massi]

cziffra, berman,bolet. jeno jando aint bad either

[JP]

Mainly Cziffra and Bolet.

[hazypurple21]

Not much of a Liszt fan at all, but Yundi Li's La Campanella is pretty incredible. Very emotional, very clean. I find Jeno Jando's Liszt, or anything he plays for that matter, to be rather bland and mechanical.

[brokenagraffe]

what? nobody said arrau yet...

[pseudopianist]

what? nobody said arrau yet...

I've heard his Transcendental etudes and his Spanish Rhapdosy but he just doesn't have that Lisztfeeling that Cziffra has.

[theswede]

YES Szidon really did a nice job there

[pocho]

I recently got the chance to listen to some Zimmerman recordings(included the sonata and Tontentanz), and I was very amazed.

[john11inc]

Lol.

I still say Berman after four and a half years D:

[gyzzzmo]

Not much of a Liszt fan at all, but Yundi Li's La Campanella is pretty incredible. Very emotional, very clean. I find Jeno Jando's Liszt, or anything he plays for that matter, to be rather bland and mechanical.

Seconded.

[weissenberg2]

I love Berman's Liszt playing. My other favorites are Cziffra (for some pieces), Jando (I am surprised to hear such negativity about him) and Weissenberg's sonata in B minor is by far the best in my opinion.

I also like Bolet's, Moiseiwitsch's, Richter and Horowitz.

[edwardweiss]

 I would think it was probably Busoni-but of course I can't prove it.

[lohshuhan]

Vladimir Ochinikov for Liszt's Transcendental Etudes.

[freddychopin]

Among the living Liszt interpreters:
I saw Arcadi Volodos 2 years ago in Amsterdam playing a perfect    "Après une lecture de Dante" and a superb "fantasia quasi sonata".

[john11inc]

Among the living Liszt interpreters:
I saw Arcadi Volodos 2 years ago in Amsterdam playing a perfect    "Après une lecture de Dante" and a superb "fantasia quasi sonata".

Those are the same piece(s).

Fantasia Quasi un Sonata- "Apres un Lecture du Dante" (After a Reading of Dante)

Did he encore it or something? =P

[thalbergmad]

 

[jehangircama]

Gregory Ginsburg, anyone? overall probably Cziffra, but I heard Freddy Kempf play a superb Dante sonata live recently...

[gyzzzmo]

Lang Lang could actually be one of the best interpreters

Ill agree that its quite blasphemy, but what do we really know about how Liszt performed his own pieces? If Lang Lang would have performed in Liszt's time, maybe the reviewers would talk about his extrodinairy playing too, and both Liszt (probably) and Lang Lang are 'showy' types in their way of playing.

[danmor]

Yundi li! Or Evgeny Kissin

[jbmorel78]

For the Sonata, there is a very good new recording by the young French pianist Jean-Frédéric Neuburger:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bach-Live-Suntory-Hall-Tokyo/dp/B001J67B4W

Be on the lookout for this one in the concert halls!


Best wishes,
Jean-Baptiste Morel

[slow_concert_pianist]

Woww some strange selections!

Don't like Cziffra. Berman is ok, but too "classical". Bolet is by far the best of the poll.

If we take Harmonies Du Soir, of the numerous recordings I possess, I have a 1950's live performance by Richter and Leslie Howard's studio recordings marked as the "best".

Horowitz had a staggering technique and is right up there as the 'best of all time' in the recording age. But weren't hofmann and D'albert Liszt's favourites? Two very different styles going on piano rolls!

If Evengely Kissin decides to observe the detail of the score he will factor over the next few decades and Bereskovsky is already close to being one of the "greats"

[liordavid]

Cziffra and Hamelin

[micci]

Transcendental Etudes recorded by Berman in 1963 is incredible. (not in 1959)

My favorite Liszt interpreters are
Berman, Arrau, Fiorentino, Wild, Ogdon, Brendel, Bolet, Villa, Petri, Ginzburg, Richter
and so on...

[prongated]

Jorge Bolet for me. Maximum taste, zero sugar.

[magio]

Cziffra and Kissin are by far the best

[transitional]

I've realized that necroposting's bad rep doesn't really apply to these polling threads.

I don't know how this will be taken, but I actually think it could be Lang Lang.

[xdanielyj]

I've realized that necroposting's bad rep doesn't really apply to these polling threads.

I don't know how this will be taken, but I actually think it could be Lang Lang.

Yeah... There aren't many new posts in the first place so necroposting doesn't really matter. Plus, some of these topics are fascinating as well.

I'm curious, could you recommend me some performances by Lang Lang? Lang Lang has always been either a hit or miss for me (although usually its a miss). Personally for me, no one can beat Arrau.

[transitional]

I'm curious, could you recommend me some performances by Lang Lang? Lang Lang has always been either a hit or miss for me (although usually its a miss). Personally for me, no one can beat Arrau.

This is subjective, but Lang Lang easily has the best Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. I don't even like the Horowitz arrangement, but it does what it's supposed to and more.
Lang Lang was made for Liszt. I don't like his Mozart or Chopin much.

[dbrainiak914]

It depends on the piece for me. For the Sonata, I adore Alicia de Larrocha's recording. She received a Franz Liszt award for this recording.

[piabanoch]

Danii trifonov