Video - Liszt Ballade No. 2

[doxy]

Excerpts from Liszt ` s Ballade No. 2 taken from recital in London this year.

Kind regards
Doxy

[pianistimo]

somehow, and this may be due to the taping, the pedalling sounds really blurry in the first part - but then the middle section opens up really beautifully!  the left hand up and down 'growl' sort of blurries things, imo, when played loudly.  even though it crescendos - maybe just a simple mf at loudest?- on a really well tuned piano.  when there is any increment off in tuning in the bass - it leaves waves all over the place.  so pedalling can be good and the waves are still there.  i hope this is correct thinking.  correct me if it's really off.  susan

a teacher once told me that when dealing with a lot of notes (sixteenth or thirty-second) that the mere quantity of notes gives an impression of loudness.  but, this is also a preference and not always loved by lisztians - who want to create kind of loud effects.  the only sad thing is that the effects are not always what they seem right at the piano.  out in the audience it might feel like a tidal wave of cacophony? 

in my way of thinking (and this is purely my interpretation) the bass to about A below mid-C is held at bay - barely - until peaking in the higher ranges where it gets slower and more melodious .  almost as if one has reached a sort of pianistic heaven.

[liszt-essence]

Wow.. I really love your performace. Nicely done.