Liszt Tarantella

[pianisten1989]

Hi.

I have wanted to play this Tarantella for a long time, but now it doesn't feel too impossible. I've played the full waldstein sonata, the first Mephisto waltz, chopin's second scherzo, the revolutionary etude and the op 10 no 8 etude. (I've played some more pieces, ofc, but not in this difficulty)
As exercises I've played some Brahms exercises, and full 40 daily exercises by Czerny.

Do you think I am ready for this Tarantella?
Whatever you answer I will ask my teacher, but it would feel better if some people accauly thought I was ready for it

[thalbergmad]

If you can play the Mephisto Waltz, I cannot see any reason why you should not approach this piece with considerable confidence.

I say go for it.

Thal

[ahinton]

If you can play the Mephisto Waltz, I cannot see any reason why you should not approach this piece with considerable confidence.

I say go for it.

Thal

If we are talking about the Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli, the supplement to the Italian volume of Liszt's remarkable series under the general title of Années de pèlerinage, then yes it's a tough challenge but one to which it is eminently well worth the effort to respond; I recall a recital in Cheltenham Town Hall (UK) at least a quarter century ago in which the inimitable Shura Cherkassky chose this work as the final item before his encores and he brought the house down with his utter spontaneity allied to the kind of über-precision-engineered pianism by which even the most devoted of pedants could have set their clocks.

Speaking of tarantellas for piano, incidentally, I note with interest that the original manuscript of Chopin's (hardly one of his best works but at the same time not one deserving of being ignored) is shortly to come up for sale at Sotheby's in London...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

If we are talking about the Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli, the supplement to the Italian volume of Liszt's remarkable series under the general title of Années de pèlerinage

I hope we are, as if it were the Liszt/Auber Tarantella di Bravura aus Die Stumme von Portici, i would have suggested it be left a while.

Thal

[ahinton]

I hope we are, as if it were the Liszt/Auber Tarantella di Bravura aus Die Stumme von Portici, i would have suggested it be left a while.

Advice which, though wise in its own right, I signally failed to take a long time ago when alluding to it en passant in the opening movement of my piano quintet which then I consigned (having completed that 20-or-so-minute movement) to lukewarm storage status for around a quarter century before finally committing myself to continuing with it (I am working on it currently and hope to complete it some time next year)...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Lukewarm storage.

You put it in your wine cellar??

Thal

[ahinton]

Lukewarm storage.

You put it in your wine cellar??

Thal

Nice one, Thal! but no, I didn't - and, even I had done, I might well be wondering whether the piece was still worth drinking rather than whether or not it merited completion...

Best,

Alistair

[zemyk4e]

Wow. Mr. Hinton, you really are a bit critical of your music. It is something that perhaps has bothered composers for centuries. Did you put it away because of circumstances or just because the music seemed insignificant?

regards,

WP

[ahinton]

Wow. Mr. Hinton, you really are a bit critical of your music. It is something that perhaps has bothered composers for centuries. Did you put it away because of circumstances or just because the music seemed insignificant?

regards,

WP

Greetings!

In this particular case I consigned it to the indefinitely pending drawer because, having completed its first movement, I remained unconvinced about whether that movement could stand alone or whether the other three were essential to it - then it just dropped lower on the list of priorities for an unusually long period of time before I finally decided to re-address the issue and decided that it was, after all, worth exploring the possibilities of its potential remainder and, having gotten back into it, realised that it does, after all, need to be completed as a four-movement work.

Anyway - better return to Liszt here!...

Best,

Alistair

[pianovirus]

I'd agree with the others, go for it. I love the Tarantella, but I think its effect is multiplied when played in the context of the whole Venezia e Napoli. Especially the Gondoliera is just wonderful.

[ahinton]

I'd agree with the others, go for it. I love the Tarantella, but I think its effect is multiplied when played in the context of the whole Venezia e Napoli. Especially the Gondoliera is just wonderful.

Yes - in fact I would go so far as to regard the entire series of Années de Pèlerinage as one of Liszt's most significant achievement as a piano composer, which says rather a lot when one considers that all of his solo piano music (including transcriptions and arrangments) runs to around 100 CDs' worth...

Best,

Alistair

[pianisten1989]

Of course I would love to play the full thing, with the rest of italy. But I really don't have the time atm. I'll play it in a course in august, and b4 that, there will be applyments for some concervatories and stuff, which ends in Mars. And I'll play more than the tarantella, so that will be enough, for now
Thx anyway.

[andro]

I sure you are !

[sehnsucht69]

Wicht do you prefer?