Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 (2nd recording)

[donjuan]

Ok, so after thinking about changes to make after getting responses from my first recording of this piece,

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,15201.0.html

I wanted to try to incorporate some of your suggestions into a 2nd recording.  Mostly, I just tried to put more paprika into this Hungarian Rhapsody.    Please let me know if I was at all successful or if I just made it worse.

Thanks so much!

[tompilk]

WOW!! That is so much better...
Tom

[palika dunno]

true! this one is MUCH better than the first one!
IMO you could still be much more free with the rhythm...
but this will probably come with time as your technical controll for this piece grows...
Do have the recording of Arcadi Volodos? If not I will send it to you because anyone who plays this piece must have heard Volodos 

Palika 

[gonzalo]

DEFINITELY MUCH BETTER  . I knew you could do it ! Congratulations!!! 

[donjuan]

Thanks for listening once again!  I'm so glad you think it got better!  I thought I sacrificed clarity, rhythm, and correct notes for the adrenaline rush I got during playing, but perhaps the first recording was too conservative to work.

alamdv: I think I have heard Volodos playing this rhapsody, but he did Horowitz's arrangement.  Do you have him playing it as Liszt wrote it?

Thanks

[systen]

I downloaded your first recording and listened to it, before I listened to you second recording.


I must say: bravo! I think you really play it much better in your second recording. I enjoyed listening to it.


Do you play any more pieces of Liszt? I'd love to hear some more recordings of you. Keep up the good work!

[donjuan]

Do you play any more pieces of Liszt? I'd love to hear some more recordings of you. Keep up the good work!

Thanks! 

Schubert - Liszt: Soirees de Vienne No. 6
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,9138.0.html

and my first recording, where I have no idea how to use the microphone:

(Schumann-Liszt: Widmung)
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,9113.0.html

[palika dunno]

alamdv: I think I have heard Volodos playing this rhapsody, but he did Horowitz's arrangement.  Do you have him playing it as Liszt wrote it?

no, I only have the horowitz transcription

[Teddybear]

I think you made it sound a lot better. There are a few places where it gets messy. Where have you placed the microphone? At times the right hand is very loud compared to the left.

I wouldn't do so much rubato when the end draws near, but it's a matter of taste. I'd also like to hear a bit more effective dynamics, but maybe it's just me, tired at this hour (midnight).

All in all, good work.

[donjuan]

Where have you placed the microphone? At times the right hand is very loud compared to the left.

The microphone is actually just the built-in Microphone on a lap top.  I have the lap top hanging off the top of the piano (opened grand piano) roughly in the center of the keyboard.  Do you suggest I put it closer to the bass in future recordings?

[shasta]

Hey donjuan, I'm listening to your performance right now.  Overall, well done!!     Just a couple things that come to mind:

The very first opening measures to me are way too dry and safe.  The chords need more fire, more gusto, and maybe some pedal.  The melodic line of the LH needs more passion and dynamics.  Too metronomic and monotonous.  Imagine how a singer would sing that line, push and pull, the next note never the same as the one before it.

Love your Friska, don't change a thing.

Love your octaves in the closing run.  Don't slow down towards the end though, especially in those closing chords, and don't drag them out too long.  Make the audience want to jump up and scream "BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"   

[rachmaninov uk]

is that a honkey tonk piano you're playing on? i liked it, maybe a little to stop starty though. I'd prefer to hear the notes carry on longer.

[notmello928]

Yes i agree with the notes a little longer, but I'm very impressed. I have heard very few recordings of this peice, but yours is one of the best. My fav. is one on which the guy plays only the Friska, but it goes probably 200-250 bpm (i'm not good at estimating bpm so i may be way off) but it is extremley fast, but i like yours becuase it actually sounds like a human is playing it. Nice job!

[wzkit]

Agree with the comments above. I didn't hear the first version, but even then I'm still impressed - easily one of the more musical and more characterised recordings in this forum. I just wish I had fingers to play like that!

[notmello928]

Also it sounds as tho on the Friska the parts where the right hand has the consecutive 16th notes that it may be off beat, it sounds rushed only in the right hand

[alejo_90]

Good work Donjuan !

By the way what edition of the score do you have? because I noticed two strange things.
Here are they:

-Just before the beginning of the Tiempo Giusto Section. The part with the C# octave jump. You played some different stuff on the left hand.
-On the second brioso assai part (E, G#,C#) you lowered one complete octave on the left hand

I ask this because I collect recordings of this piece. And when I heard yours, it reminded me to a particular one, which by the way is the only one of the 25 I've heard with some of the changes you played (the first one). This one is supposed to be a Horowitz recording, but it doesn't appear in his discography.

I'm not saying I didn't like it. I actually loved it. It is one of my definite favorites of this beautiful piece.
Would you mind to make a third recording on a Steinway, so I can add it to my collection?

I'll attach the recording I told you about later; my Internet is so slow that it would take an hour to upload it (56Kbps).

Alex

[donjuan]

oh I'm just using Dover's score (https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?cart=33538350608517788&item=3491862), but every now and then i'll throw in these things just for the hell of it.  In this 2nd recording, the idea before tempo guisto I tried to incorporate in was from horowitz, and in my 1st recording in the same place, -that's from Cziffra.  the lower octaves, and arpeggiated ending chords were my idea, but I don't do these things in every performance;  I think it's important to respect what Liszt wrote originally, and do what he says most of the time. 

Lately, I have been playing it with nothing xtra added in by me (except the cadenza, which is always changing) just to prevent myself from cheapening the great music Liszt wrote in the first place.

I look forward to hearing that recording you mentioned!

[alejo_90]

Lately, I have been playing it with nothing xtra added in by me (except the cadenza, which is always changing) just to prevent myself from cheapening the great music Liszt wrote in the first place.

I'm looking forward to hear a recording of that one !!! 

I'll post the version I mentioned later (slow connection). You can also get it on Frostwire, Limewire, etc. When you search for hungarian rhapsody 2, it always appears. It's the one wich lasts 9:19 - 9:25. It has very, very weird changes on the Friska section.

Alex

[gyzzzmo]

Nicely done.
Only work on the start of the rhapsody. Maybe listen to some Hungarian traditional songs, and try to transform that in the rhapsody. The first bars should be played much more 'majestic'.

[alejo_90]

Here you go !

Enjoy !
Alex

[donjuan]

oh THAT recording, alex!

I have that recording myself; the pianist is Yossi Shomer.  He also extends the Trombone section into 8:20-8:30.  Surely, he got these ideas from Horowitz.

[alejo_90]

Thank you donjuan !!!
I've been looking for the name of the pianist of this one for years !!
Thanks, thanks, thanks & more thanks !!!

Alex

[hyeonki]

  awesome.

I also am working on this song since 6 years ago. just still working on. never had done the whole song even though I have all the notes of the song in my head.

I hang reply first, and listen it after.

but first 2 mins of your play is enough to make me exciting!

.think you did nice work!