THE most difficult piece Liszt ever wrote

[Beet9]

In your opinion, what is the most difficult composition by Liszt?  I know most of you are going to say mephisto waltz, but don't you think some of the transcendental etudes are more difficult??    :-/

[Chitch]

Transcendental Etude No. 5 - Feux Follets, or No.4 - Mazeppa.

[allchopin]

The Mephisto Waltz is facile compared to the transcription of Strauss' Tritsch Trasch Polka paraphrase- it's a monsoon of runs and glitter, and that's the easy part.  Then again, the Rigolletto Paraphrase gives it a run for its $

[chopiabin]

What about the precursors of the transcendaentals, ie. the Grand Etudes? Liszt turned these into the somewhat easier Transcendentals because they wrere so hard.

[rohansahai]

i would rate mephisto waltz higher than the etudes simply because apart from the technique, its length is a factor too! 30 odd pages of difficult music is no joke, plus the interpretational factor which is definitely much more than the etudes.

[chromatickler]

The clochette fantasy beats them all.

[anda]

h sonata - definitely!

[comme_le_vent]

the sonata is the most difficult musically, and length-wise.
the clochette fantasy isnt as difficult as it looks - theres lots of glitter and runs, but they lie under the fingers easily and are really based upon established technique.
i would vote for the grande etudes - the more difficult versions of the trans etudes - look at the scores - this is music of extreme difficulty - and the only pieces where liszt approaches alkan in terms of physical difficulty.

[Beethoven87]

I haven't heard anyone mention the Dans Macabre...  Certainly endurence, if nothing else, is a factor here?  Not to mention the other insanity (repeating notes!) that goes on.

[Rob47]

It all depends on your hand size and shape....my hand is slightly deformed with my fourth finger being the exact same length as my third on both hands(give or take a couple milimeters), but for playing liszt it works out great!

I agree with whoever mentioned the campanella fantasy. That's a pretty ridiculous Liszt work....the variation a la Paganini ees preety treeky even though it does indicate it should be played moderato....


Or wait a minute what about valse infernale from the opera Robert le diable....that is one ridiclous liszt transcription.....ya a lot of his transcriptions are quite difficult...beethoven symphony 9 transcription....verry nutty.

But you gotta love Liszt for it though

[Gambit]

I dont consider Feux Follets as a etude. Is a piece of musical masturbation  . IMPOSSIBLE.

Wild Hunt and Chasse Neigre (Transendental Etudes) are as hard as hell too.  If you play those three etudes you can play any piece in piano literature.

[Rob47]

the hardest part of the mephisto is trying to do a gliss in the right hand (a relatively fast gliss) and match it note for note with a parallel scale in the left hand....that's a great effect but incredibly difficult i find.

[liszt1022]

Liszt made early versions of both the Transcendental Etudes and the Paganini Etudes. The earlier Paganini Etude no. 4 "Arpeggio" easily contains some of his most difficult writing. It can be seen in Dover's edition. Leslie Howard recorded them, and he has to slow the tempo down considerably to play it.
Also, Liszt thought his "Scherzo und Marsch" was one of his most difficult, none of his students save one could pull it off.
Christina Kiss, who plays everything by Liszt, was asked what SHE thought the hardest pieces were and she said it was between the Beethoven 5th Symphony transcription and the 9th Symphony, and I think I'd vote for the 9th.

[dianna]

All depends about what you consider difficult....to play fast and loud or to find music in what you play. I played Mephisto wals,it was lot of work there,also I played lot of difficult etudes,2nd concerto,and now I am working on h minor Sonata. I think lot of people do not see Liszt true music because of the virtuosity pasages.I never practise for virtuosity,but for the quality of soud and understanding of form,and these way I solve all problems.So,my opinin is that difficulty is other for each of us,because we all are different and understand in our personal way the music:)

[trunks]

Difficulty is something that is to each, his own. It also depends on how much you love the music you are working on. The more you love the music, the more willing you are to practise it and hence succeed in fixing all its technical obstacles.

Take the Apres une lecture du Dante for an example. It had long been a daunting name to me before I got to know the piece in detail. I fell in love for it and finally got the guts to tackle it, and it became one of my war-horses within a month (although it has sort of slipped from memory after some 10 years not having seriously played it).

The Etudes d'execution transcendante was another set that would scare me out of my wits merely on hearing its name. Vladimir Ashkenazy's recording of these pieces, albeit incomplete, introduced me into this fantastic realm and I got the score and actually began to play some of them. No.6 (Vision) became another war-horse, and coming soon will be 11 (Harmonies du soir), 4 (Mazeppa), 9 (Ricordanza) and of course, the fiendishly difficult 5 (Feux-follets). As long as I love these pieces, technical difficulty will be solved - a process in which I take pleasure.

The B minor Sonata is another big thing to tackle not because it is difficult and long, but because it is monumental. What I fear about it is not difficulty, but sheer length. Perseverance is a big element in difficulty.

Talking about difficulty, try the show-pieces - Hungarian Rhapsodies 2, 10, 12, 14 and you'll get some flavour of Liszt's trickiness ^_^