To have heard Liszt improvise...

[comme_le_vent]

When he sits at the piano and, having repeatedly pushed his hair back over his brow, begins to improvise, then he often rages all too madly upon the ivory keys and lets loose a deluge of heaven-storming ideas, with here and there a few sweet flowers to shed fragrance upon the whole. One feels both blessedness and anxiety, but rather more anxiety...  Heinrich Heine

this single paragraph makes me wish i was born in liszt's time, to have heard HIM!

sigh...

[donjuan]

yeah, me too.  why, oh WHY couldn't recording technology have been around at Liszt's time?  It's rare enough to find photographs of him.  I bet most of Liszt's genius went to waste because the people who were directly influenced by him are all dead and as a result his legend will remain just that- a legend.  This may sound stupid, but once I had a dream I saw Liszt.  For some reason he was teaching a master class at University.  When I approached him, I asked for an autograph.  He demanded 248$ to put his name on a piece of paper for me.  Im sure he wasn't really like that.  Liszt was so brilliant, Im sure he could have improvised a piece of music for every fan that approached him.
donjuan

[Antnee]

I know what you guys mean...

I love the look of his hands in some of those ancient photos... Just imagine how fast and perfectly he would move them!!! I would have loved to have heard some of his interpretations, like Beethoven for example. He would have kicked ass. Plus he was the all time greatest sight reader and read many famous composer's works at sight perfectly the first time. He would have been so cool. An actual program he played once was as follows... The transcription of William tell Overture, Fantasy on Mozart's Don Giovanni, Schubert's Erlkonig, and his grand galop chromatique. MAN I wish I had a time machine...  


-Tony-

[DarkWind]

I would have loved to watch him play the Etude Op. 25 No 2 by Chopin with the right hand in octaves. When Grieg Presented to Liszt his Piano Concerto in A minor, Liszt sight read it perfectly. At the end, Grieg just stood staring, amazed at his incredible talent. Liszt played the Emperor Concerto using his 4 smaller fingers of his left hand. I've always wished I could go back in time and watch him play, play, and play! Oh well, shame that we can not. The only option left to do is for us to practice as hard as possible to become the next Liszt.

[Antnee]

If you stare at the picture long enough, you can almost see his hands gracefully scaling the keys...


-Tony-

[donjuan]

I would have loved to watch him play the Etude Op. 25 No 2 by Chopin with the right hand in octaves. When Grieg Presented to Liszt his Piano Concerto in A minor, Liszt sight read it perfectly. At the end, Grieg just stood staring, amazed at his incredible talent. Liszt played the Emperor Concerto using his 4 smaller fingers of his left hand. I've always wished I could go back in time and watch him play, play, and play! Oh well, shame that we can not. The only option left to do is for us to practice as hard as possible to become the next Liszt.

yeah, ohwell.....hmm, at least there's one thing we can all do better than Liszt..type on computers. you know, I bet he never learned... ::)sarcastic smirk...sorry about that.  I bet if he did ever learn, he would do 300wpm, crossing hands and balancing vases on his nose..
donjuan

[donjuan]

If you stare at the picture long enough, you can almost see his hands gracefully scaling the keys...


-Tony-

that's quite the ghetto piano he's playing isn't it?

[comme_le_vent]

indeed, its quite pimpin.

yo my homies in da hood, godowsky did hake a version of op25no2 with RH octaves...and ive seen it played by libetta, its really good.

[Allan]

Two things in music I would most like to experience:

1.)  Bach playing the organ; and

2.)  Liszt playing the piano!

[Derek]

Does anyone here improvise in 19th century styles?

[donjuan]

Does anyone here improvise in 19th century styles?

That would require us to be Liszts or Horowitzs.  You cant expect us to be able to hear a melody and immediately play 20 variations off the top of your head.  There are only a handful of people who have done that in History.  
donjuan

[thracozaag]

Does anyone here improvise in 19th century styles?

 Hamelin and Levin often improvise their own cadenzas.

koji

[xvimbi]

That would require us to be Liszts or Horowitzs.  You cant expect us to be able to hear a melody and immediately play 20 variations off the top of your head.  There are only a handful of people who have done that in History.  
donjuan

Quite the opposite. In the olden times, pianists were expected to improvise. They were trained to do so; it was common fare. In modern times, Jazz musicians make a living from improvising. It can be done, and it can be done in quite complex ways. The reason only a few classical musicians do it is not that most would intrinsically not be able to, but they don't practice it. Improvisation is a technique, not just talent.

[Derek]

Its too bad, really. Its so unspeakably gratifying I often (naively I suppose) believe that everyone must be doing it.

Just as a side note, I can't imagine even WANTING to play a variation on a melody by someone else.  I'm just an amateur however and have no intention of acquiring professional knowledge of any improvisational style that is neccessary to be competitive in performance...