Liszt transcriptions

[jehangircama]

Anyone here played the Liszt transcription of Beethoven's 9th symphony? I'm planning to start it in a couple of months. need any input on it plz. thanks

[thalbergmad]

Anyone here played the Liszt transcription of Beethoven's 9th symphony? I'm planning to start it in a couple of months. need any input on it plz. thanks

I have played the 6th and it took me the best part of 8 months to learn it.

The 9th looks immense.

Good luck.

[mehmetbaj]

I only know one pianist who ever recorded the 9th, and she did it along with the other 8 in under 6 months; spending 16 hours a day on the piano. She remarked that the 9th was the most challenging, both technically and musically, considering it's not even a complete transcription. In the 4th movement, Liszt mostly leaves suggestions as far as the transcription goes. Plus, it the symphony that required the most players among the 9 Symphonies, so .. GOOD LUCK!

[chromatickler]

Katsaris did all 9 as well. the pianist you are talking about is probably biret, who i wouldn't trust in a work like this.

[jehangircama]

is it that tough?

[ludwig]

I don't think they're very tough, I think the most important thing is hand independence (because Liszt wrote them in 3 or 4 voicings...So the melody must be brought out from within, and also the independent dynamics for each hand (or sometimes each finger), that is really hard I think... The other thing to look out for is the precision of playing, follow what is exactly indicated on the score, (we are talking about Beethoven :p), rhythmic precision, dynamics etc...Other than that, not that tough, what is your reach?

[hodi]

leslie howard recorded all of them.
great recording.

[hazypurple21]

If you ask me, you're better off doing the four hand version. I think it sounds much more complete, and the two hand version really isn't pianistic.

[prometheus]

Katsaris did the best, better than Howard and Gould.


But the No.9 has a problem: the vocal part. The original is already very long but on the piano large parts of the vocal sections are pure repeats. So it starts to become very unfunctionally long. The whole vocal aspect is lost too.

I recommend you do no.7

[jehangircama]

thanks for the replies. one more thing, my teacher wants to get a group together for singing. is it possible to sing the ode to joy with the piano transcription?

[prometheus]

Sure. But there are lots of different ways to do it. The simplest would be to double the chor parts. You have to look closely at the score and descide what would be a good way to do it, and write a part for your choir. Takes some time, study and thinking. Removing the singing parts from the piano requires more thinking since you have to rewrite the whole part for piano and choir: essentially making a new transcription.

Maybe there is already one for piano and choir. I am not sure, who knows.

But there are also four solo voices.

I suggest you listen closely to both versions, preferable with the score. Maybe you don't agree with me. You are responsible for your work so it is up to you to descide what to do. I suggest you discuss it with your teacher. Maybe you can study/listen both versions together and think about it. Since the piece is incredible hard it would be time well spend.

[jehangircama]

thanks...