Well just had the real pleasure of sight reading through this sonata,and it seems fairly pozzible apart from a few  bits. If you have any first hand knowledge please do step forward and make yourself be known to the rest of uz.

  Your'z sincerly the Baj. 

I don't really know anything about your playing.  You haven't really mentioned much.

Daniel

  Not much to say reall, but i have always loved this sonata, like i remember having a CD of this french pianist playing this sonata 11 years ago, at the time it sounded like the most difficult piece on earth, but its not really so bad when you try it.

If you:

1) are good in fast double octaves
2) have ability to create wonderful 30-minutes-music from few motifs
3) can play page no.13

then I would give it a try.

If you:

1) are good in fast double octaves
2) have ability to create wonderful 30-minutes-music from few motifs
3) can play page no.13

then I would give it a try.

  The octave parts for me is the fun and easy part, never found octave difficult, now page 13 seems is difficult the RH, though not impossible. The part that gives me some trouble is the fast scale passage work, other than that in all honesty i can sight read through it and make fairly good music.
  The reason why i ask am i ready, well apparently its one of those pieces one should learn once they are old have gray hair, but i need something exciting.

It is a life-changing work, even if you just try to learn it.

Good luck.

 Ooooooooooooo, i like the way you think, and yes its such an amazing piece, even playing it badly is great fun. I think its one of those pieces you learn briefly and come back to  later to improve, but yeah no harm in trying.

The difficulties of this sonata has nothing to do with technic.

The difficulties of this sonata has nothing to do with technic.

Some of them do!

Walter Ramsey

Some of them do!

Walter Ramsey

The reason many famous pianists considers this a difficult piece is not because it is technicly difficult.

I have never understood any of these "am i ready" threads.

Is it not impossible to answer on the internet??

There is only one way to find out, which amazingly enough is try it.

Thal

  No am worried about its historic and political as well as its musical contenet, and Liszt psycological out-look on life when he wrote it, also on its harmonic musical and symphonic conitation along with its litral significance amongs the late 19th century and early 20th century writters, the tecknical part is the easy bit.

Don't forget, it is deeply phylosophical work. First, read Dante, Doctor Faustus, and all the rest Liszt himself was interested in, then you will see if you are ready for it.

My dad, who is a concert pianist himself and a college piano professor started learning the Sonata when he was in his 50s. After a year of working he dropped it, desiding he is not mature enough. Now, when he is already 68, finally, he feels ready for it.

This is an interesting quote from the musicologist, composer and pianist Tovey, writing about the late Beethoven sonatas; however the idea is applicable also in this case!

"...It is no use deferring the study of such music until you feel ripe for it... Those who recognise that they are unready for it must remember that experience cannot come except by experience; and therefore its foundations must be well and truly laid in youth.  No criticism is so mean and mischievous as that which discourages young players from playing great music accurately because 'correctness is not enough.'  Who supposes that?  But when your accuracy has become habitual you will be able to think of the music without thinking of yourself..."

There are many interesting points in there, for instance his idea that a fixation on technical barriers (the self) blocks the production of music.  Also that experience for a piece can come also from the piece itself, something we often forget.  Yes, Liszt travelled the world; he read Dante, Goethe, Shakespeare, Petrarch, he heard every contemporary composer and a good many ancient one; and yet music is music.  Should we then travel every place he went before he composed the Liszt Sonata, and listen to all the banal French and Italian opera of his day, to try and recreate his life experience to that point?

 Even if the Sonata is based on the Faust legend (which Friedheim said was "taken for granted" among Liszt pupils), what makes the Faust legend so important is its universal characters and emotions; I truly believe the Liszt sonata can be understood without making a lifelong study of Faust.  If one believes otherwise, then one must also believe that Messiaen was correct to say that only a Catholic person can understand his music.  I simply cannot believe that, though maybe many non-Catholics who do understand it are secretly Catholic in the depths of their heart (something I also doubt). 

And then also, what of the case of Chopin, and his "hidden programs" of the ballades?  We cannot read the sources that inspired him, and know beyond a doubt that those are the very stories that excited his musical thoughts.  Perhaps then, nobody will ever understand these ballades.

Of course reading for inspiration never hurt anybody, but I want to present the reverse side of the coin here: that music is in the end music, and can also be understood from its own point of view.

Walter Ramsey

it isn't a piece hard to sight read(i did it often), it's a hard piece to interpret, and play VERY cleanly. Best of lucks

  Yes thats spot on, the sonata has lots of diminished arppegios, lots and lots of chromatic scale both LH and RH, and fantastic octave passages and grand romantic chords. The rest of the sonata consists of slow variation on the theme which appears on the first page. As you know unlike other sonatas its not devided into separate MVT. AM glad we agree about the sight reading process.

This is an interesting quote from the musicologist, composer and pianist Tovey, writing about the late Beethoven sonatas; however the idea is applicable also in this case!

"...It is no use deferring the study of such music until you feel ripe for it... Those who recognise that they are unready for it must remember that experience cannot come except by experience; and therefore its foundations must be well and truly laid in youth.  No criticism is so mean and mischievous as that which discourages young players from playing great music accurately because 'correctness is not enough.'  Who supposes that?  But when your accuracy has become habitual you will be able to think of the music without thinking of yourself..."

I am not sure who is Tovey, but his opinion (as mine) is very personal and subjective.
I will disagree with his (hers?) passage (at least partially). My pick on it--there is nothing bad or wrong with learning or/and working on those pieces. There is big difference though between ready to play and ready to PERFORM. I myself learnt Liszt Sonata, along with Schubert B-Flat Major and HammerKlavier in my twenties and I could play them (I don't have any technical difficulties on piano, whatsoever). If you ask me if I am ready to PERFORM these pieces? No. Now, almost two decades later still not.

Of course reading for inspiration never hurt anybody, but I want to present the reverse side of the coin here: that music is in the end music, and can also be understood from its own point of view.

Yes, music is music. But.... Don't forget, for us performers it is only a media through which we express ourselves, i.e. our ideas, understanding of life, feelings, etc. Ultimately, it is the question not even of how talented or musical you are, but WHO YOU ARE. In this respect education (including reading, thinking, learning, travelling, experiencing new things, etc.) is one the most important part of the path for preparation for something like Liszt Sonata.

 Yes i know what you mean by learning and performing marik, me too i will only play this sonata to myself.

Sorry, but I think you have to read the book. His englisg is soo much better than mine.

The difficulties discussed in the book are purely musical.

.  I'd start work on it today, if I were you.

  Thanks cmg, well i have sight read through all the piano sonatas of Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin and learnt a number of them. Recently i decided to sight read through the Liszt sonata, i believe that this sonata along with the Hammerklavier by Beethoven and Choipn sonata in B minor are the most demanding.However suprisingly enough i dont think the Liszt sonata beyond the reach of any pianist, its a little like climbing a mountin, it takes time and courage, thats all.

The Liszt sonata is a massive massive piece.

  Yes Franzliszt2 thats an accurate discription of this sonata. Like you said its easy to bore the listner, infact when Brahms heard it played by Liszt for the first, he said that he found it way too boring.All the best.