Liszt: Unstern! Sinistre, Disastro

[mephisto]

 

What more can I say. I was playing through this piece and it is seriously the most violent piece ever composed in the 19th century. Still the piece is very beautifull, with a very dark and scary atmosphere.

By Alan Walker:

"And what are we to make of that fateful piece to wich Liszt gave the title  Unstern! Sinistre, Disastro? The play of tritones wich it begins evokes the devil in music, and forms the basis of a terrifying climax in wich to mutually exclusive chords are pitched in battle against each other. Peter Raabe put it well when he remarke that it is as if a prisioner were hammering on the walls of his cell, well knowing that nobody would hear him:"

What do you people think of the piece? And what does the title mean?

And let us discuss late Liszt in general.

[shun]

I had to give a presentation on late Liszt at Uni and this is one of the pieces I used as an example. I think it is a great piece and I love late Liszt in general, but I have to admit it can get a little heavy if your listening to it too much.

[cloches_de_geneve]

I am very fond of the late Liszt. It is difficult to find another 19th century composer who departed so radically from his earlier compositions in old age. I went through "Bagatelle without Tonality" the other day. What a phantastic piece of music -- and what a title to choose in 1885!

But what does this modern, experimental, often somber and harsh music tell us about Liszt's inner life? Something must have haunted him.

[pianistimo]

mephisto waltz.  but, when was that composed?  i thought it was an earlier work.  the petrarch sonette 104 is kinda sinster, too, isn't it?

[shun]

But what does this modern, experimental, often somber and harsh music tell us about Liszt's inner life? Something must have haunted him.

Liszt was constantly attacked for being shallow/showy. I think this was his way of breaking away from this.

[burstroman]

Late Liszt is a welcome and serious change from his earlier, showier pieces.  He can be quite an experimenter.  I like the last two Mephisto Waltzes, the Klavierstucke, En Reve, and the work you mentioned.

[dnephi]

I find a lot of late Liszt disappointing.
Anyone have an mp3 of this piece?

[mephisto]

Here is Pollini`s performance:

 https://www.sendspace.com/file/m9tvwb

It is possibly to play the piece in a more violent way.

So does nobody know what the title mean? Something like Dark Star perhaps?

As for other late Liszt pieces, la Lugubre Gondola no2 is one of the few pieces that have managed to put tears in my eyes Such nice harmonies and melodies.

[shun]

Do you have the score for La Lugubre Gondola no2?

[mephisto]

Check your pm.

[cloches_de_geneve]

So does nobody know what the title mean? Something like Dark Star perhaps?

It essentially means a great catastrophy, but it is actually a bit more complicated than that as it can also denote the anticipation of such an evil.

Thanks for the Pollini posting. It does not suprise me that Pollini, with his bent towards contemporary music, choose to record some of the most dissonant, late Liszt (No Hungarian Rhapsodies, no operatic paraphrases, no galopp chromatique from him...). Too bad he never recorded the TE.

[mephisto]

It essentially means a great catastrophy, but it is actually a bit more complicated than that as it can also denote the anticipation of such an evil.

Thanks for the Pollini posting. It does not suprise me that Pollini, with his bent towards contemporary music, choose to record some of the most dissonant, late Liszt (No Hungarian Rhapsodies, no operatic paraphrases, no galopp chromatique from him...). Too bad he never recorded the TE.

Yes, I can`t exactly imagine Pollini recording the Hungarian Rhapsody no2, but  possibly no17(considering that it is a late piece and is very modern and free of vulgarity).
I am very glad that Pollini decided to record late Liszt, since so few plays it

It would of course be amazing if he decided to redord the complete TE`s. You can find a vid of him playing no10 on youtube:

It is the most exiting and technicly impressive recording of this piece. But for some reason, most people doesn`t like it

And could you explaine the meaning of the piece a bit further?

[cloches_de_geneve]

It would of course be amazing if he decided to redord the complete TE`s. You can find a vid of him playing no10 on youtube:

It is the most exiting and technicly impressive recording of this piece. But for some reason, most people doesn`t like it

It is a very particular recording: Fast, almost no rubato, played with incredible forward drive, very much the way he plays the Chopin etudes.[Even though, looking at him, this must be a recent live recodring]. Probably people do not like it because they wish that, during the cantabile sections, he would stop his fury, lean back a bit, and play with more rubato. Instead it's fury all over.

Unfortunately, I do not have more infos on Unstern.

[strepito]

So far no one has even come close to Arrau's recording of TE no. 10. That's for me.

[avetma]

I like late liszt very much! Even playing Mephisto no.1 currently

@strepito: You've heard this: https://rapidshare.de/files/31797627/10-_Allegro_agitato_molto_.mp3.html? Kemal Gekic playing.

[pianowolfi]

So does nobody know what the title mean? Something like Dark Star perhaps?

The title "Unstern" is German and meens doom or bad fate.

[mephisto]

Thanks for letting me know about the meaning