Spanish Rhapsody-Liszt

[jehangircama]

Has anyone here played this piece? How hard is it compared to the 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody? Do you know where I could get an mp3 of it? Thanks
Jehangir

[TheHammer]

Oh yeah, me, me, me.

Ahem... I think there is a mp3 at https://www.classicalarchives.com/ (Rhapsodie Espagnole).

It is quite difficult, and I find it hard to compare, but I would say it is a notch (or two) easier than HR2...
Some technical demands which were/are hard:
introduction: may be hard to get these arpeggios sound really nice... but averall it isn't so bad.
Folies d'Espagne: The beginning is all easy, then there are chord triplets progressing chromatically - very mean. Not too hard, though. Right after come double octaves, (parallel in both hands) arpeggios. FF crescendo and stuff, the usual Liszt kind of thing. But fits well. At the end of Folies, you have this fast run (group of 4-5-5 notes - there is a similar passage in the HR, I think), which gets down after a while as well.

Jota aragonesa: Ummm, double thirds, you need a good and controlled touch here.
overall, the rest of the programme is really a bit ambigous... it does not seem sooo hard, but requires SOME practice to perfect...3-4 voiced chord melodies, runs splitted for both hands (also in ovtaves) etc. etc. There is also a very nice chromatic parallel run, hands a minor third apart, and quite fast.
Well, the last but one page has these nice La Campanella right hand jumps at a fast pace...(hate it...), after this you are quite done.

It sure is one of the best pieces by Liszt. Prefer it over the HR. Good choice.

[musicsdarkangel]

the Spanish Rhapsody was performed this year by one of my college's faculty....... it was pretty amazing, and seemed to have much higher demands than the 2nd Rhapsody.

[etudes]

the Spanish Rhapsody was performed this year by one of my college's faculty....... it was pretty amazing, and seemed to have much higher demands than the 2nd Rhapsody.

agree
i think it is much more difficult than 2nd rhapsody.

[jehangircama]

thanks for the inputs. I've only heard it once, in a concert a year ago. but it sounded a nice piece...

[joell12068]

Has anyone here played this piece? How hard is it compared to the 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody? Do you know where I could get an mp3 of it? Thanks
Jehangir

Let me know if you are still looking for an mp3.  I'll be glad to send it to you.

[ludwig]

thanks for the inputs. I've only heard it once, in a concert a year ago. but it sounded a nice piece...

funny that, I played it in a concert a year ago :p


Anyways, I think the most demanding thing about it is to keep the charm and the character of the spanish theme. It is easy to cover all these elements when you're dealing with technically challenging sections, i.e octave runs, big chordal sections, wide jumpy sections, thirds passages etc...And also keep up the energy. It is pretty difficult but if you work in sections and understand the structure and character of each section, and target difficulties, it should be fine. It is really fun to play though

[jehangircama]

I think any liszt piece would be fun to play