Piano Forum

Print

Pages: [1] Go Down

Topic: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are? (Read 68639 times)

buhdaporn

PS Silver Member
Newbie
Posts: 21

5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

on: January 23, 2009, 10:16:08 AM

Hi, I love classical music and I love Liszt to because his song is pleasing, sweet and fast. I quite confuse about Liszt piece that is the hardest. I would like to know 5 hardest pieces? What do you think? Do you have any suggestions? (1 is the hardest)

Thanks for any ideas.

Logged

Music contest and forum: https://www.ommino.com/
Blixflip-social bookmarking: https://www.blixflip.com/
uswikipedia-free for everyone: https://www.uswikipedia.com/

smiggy

PS Silver Member
Jr. Member
Posts: 45

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #1 on: January 23, 2009, 12:39:32 PM

Hmm...

- Hungarian Rhapsodies
- La Campanella
- Transcendental Etudes

Logged

Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3...Monumental!

Etude

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 908

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #2 on: January 23, 2009, 01:01:33 PM

- Reminiscences de Don Juan (look what it did to Scriabin)
- Grande Fantaisie de bravoure sur La Clochette

Logged

edwardweiss

PS Silver Member
Jr. Member
Posts: 76

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #3 on: January 23, 2009, 05:29:02 PM

Take a look at the 1838 versions of the Paganini Studies and the 12 Transcendental Studies-they must also be considered among the master's most difficult works.

Logged

thalbergmad

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 16741

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #4 on: January 23, 2009, 05:44:47 PM

Transcription of Beethoven 9th Symphony
1837 Etude 10
Don Juan depending or depending how fast you wanna play it, the transcription on Aubers la Muete.

Thal

Logged

Curator/Director
Concerto Preservation Society

communist

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 1100

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #5 on: January 23, 2009, 10:10:22 PM

Quote from: Etude on January 23, 2009, 01:01:33 PM

- Reminiscences de Don Juan (look what it did to Scriabin)
- Grande Fantaisie de bravoure sur La Clochette

It was not necessarily to hard for him he just could not reach one of the chords and was a little to motivated on learning it.

Logged

"The stock markets go up and down, Bach only goes up"

-Vladimir Feltsman

pwla

PS Silver Member
Jr. Member
Posts: 32

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #6 on: February 01, 2009, 06:34:53 PM

1.Hungarian Rhapsody no.12
2.Totentanz
3.Reminiscences de Don Juan
4.Sonata in B minor
5.Transcendental Etude No.4 "Mazeppa"

Logged

communist

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 1100

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #7 on: February 02, 2009, 01:00:39 AM

Don Jaun Fantasy

Sonata in b minor

Norma Fantasy

Spanish Rhapsody

Nuages Gris

Logged

"The stock markets go up and down, Bach only goes up"

-Vladimir Feltsman

shinerl

PS Silver Member
Jr. Member
Posts: 73

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #8 on: February 02, 2009, 02:11:49 AM

They all fall in the transcandental etudes.

Logged

God made the world and the rest was made in China.

richard black

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 2104

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #9 on: February 02, 2009, 10:39:07 AM

Well, like most people here I don't actually know all of Liszt's vast output so I could easily be missing something, but for my fingers and brain the hardest I can recall are (in no particular order):

Feux Follets
Norma paraphrase
Le Nozze di Figaro variations (completed by Busoni)

Logged

Instrumentalists are all wannabe singers. Discuss.

punkpianist360

PS Silver Member
Full Member
Posts: 169

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #10 on: February 02, 2009, 12:27:22 PM

This is pointless, you just can't compare ANY piece with another! Each piece is difficult in its own way, and each bring different challenges for the pianist. You just can't compare, it's nonsense.

Logged

Inspire, be Inspired, and Aspire.

https://www.musicbymyles.com

thierry13

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 2292

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #11 on: February 02, 2009, 08:46:13 PM

Quote from: punkpianist360 on February 02, 2009, 12:27:22 PM

This is pointless, you just can't compare ANY piece with another! Each piece is difficult in its own way, and each bring different challenges for the pianist. You just can't compare, it's nonsense.

A punk making sense, now that's something!

Logged

punkpianist360

PS Silver Member
Full Member
Posts: 169

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #12 on: February 02, 2009, 10:24:18 PM

Quote from: thierry13 on February 02, 2009, 08:46:13 PM

A punk making sense, now that's something!

Surprised? Hah.

Logged

Inspire, be Inspired, and Aspire.

https://www.musicbymyles.com

thierry13

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 2292

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #13 on: February 04, 2009, 04:35:55 AM

Quote from: punkpianist360 on February 02, 2009, 10:24:18 PM

Surprised? Hah.

Skeptical.

Logged

punkpianist360

PS Silver Member
Full Member
Posts: 169

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #14 on: February 04, 2009, 01:22:10 PM

Quote from: thierry13 on February 04, 2009, 04:35:55 AM

Skeptical.

Just because I'm a veteran spammer, cusser, or whatever, doesn't mean I don't know anything about music

.

Logged

Inspire, be Inspired, and Aspire.

https://www.musicbymyles.com

thierry13

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 2292

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #15 on: February 04, 2009, 04:43:41 PM

Quote from: punkpianist360 on February 04, 2009, 01:22:10 PM

Just because I'm a veteran spammer, cusser, or whatever, doesn't mean I don't know anything about music .

Well I don't know about your spam, this was actually the first post I saw by you! This was purely about your nickname.

Logged

punkpianist360

PS Silver Member
Full Member
Posts: 169

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #16 on: February 04, 2009, 06:40:36 PM

Oh, then don't mind what I said, haha.

Logged

Inspire, be Inspired, and Aspire.

https://www.musicbymyles.com

michel dvorsky

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 390

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #17 on: February 04, 2009, 10:11:22 PM

Feux Follets.

Logged

"Sokolov did a SH***Y job of playing Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto." - Perfect_Pitch

Sokolov's Rach 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwp_pP09WPk

ahinton

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 12149

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #18 on: February 04, 2009, 10:37:43 PM

Hey ho - it's that "hardest piece" thing rearing its uinwarranted, unwelcome and largely uninvited head here yet again! Yes, of couse, there are pieces like the wonderful Feux-Follets that are admittedly, by most people's standards, difficult to bring off as they should be, but in the end we are surely in something of a self-defeating situation here, to the extent that what might be difficult for some pianists may be less so for others, just as in the work of Alkan, Sorabji, Godowsky, Rakhmaninov, Skryabin, Medtner and/or any other major piano composer that anyone may or may not care to name and, when added to this consideration is that of the vast array of different difficulties to be encountered in piano repertoire of one kind and another, one may as well debate the question of whether Evryali or Song 9 are "harder" than Chopin's F minor Ballade or Alkan's Concerto...

Best,

Alistair

Logged

Alistair Hinton
Curator / Director
The Sorabji Archive

mikey6

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 1406

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #19 on: February 06, 2009, 02:42:06 PM

People - just give up trying to talk sence into these guys or girls! The ones that know how pointless these threads are need to somehow - literally - restrain themselves from wasting time and bandwith to point out the same thing over and over and over and over.....

and over....

and over.....

again!

Logged

Never look at the trombones. You'll only encourage them.
Richard Strauss

punkpianist360

PS Silver Member
Full Member
Posts: 169

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #20 on: February 06, 2009, 02:49:11 PM

Quote from: mikey6 on February 06, 2009, 02:42:06 PM

People - just give up trying to talk sence into these guys or girls! The ones that know how pointless these threads are need to somehow - literally - restrain themselves from wasting time and bandwith to point out the same thing over and over and over and over.....

and over....

and over.....

again!

Give up dude, there is no point complaining about it.

Logged

Inspire, be Inspired, and Aspire.

https://www.musicbymyles.com

mikey6

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 1406

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #21 on: February 06, 2009, 02:55:40 PM

Quote from: punkpianist360 on February 06, 2009, 02:49:11 PM

Give up dude, there is no point complaining about it.

I did intend to include myself as one of those who should give up!

Logged

Never look at the trombones. You'll only encourage them.
Richard Strauss

zoltan95

PS Silver Member
Newbie
Posts: 1

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #22 on: July 19, 2012, 07:58:00 PM

1. Mazeppa S.138
2. Reminiscences de Don Juan
3. Totentanz (solo piano version)
4. Hungarian Rhapsodies
5. Etudes d'execution transcendentes s.141

Logged

keyboardkat

PS Silver Member
Full Member
Posts: 103

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #23 on: July 22, 2012, 03:12:39 PM

The scherzo from Liszt's transcription of the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. If Liszt could really play what he wrote at the required tempo, he must have been a superman. Or the last page of the Hungarian Rhapsodie No. 14.

Logged

sphince

PS Silver Member
Jr. Member
Posts: 46

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #24 on: July 23, 2012, 11:01:45 AM

1. Rondo fantastique "El Contrabandista"
2.12 Douze Grandes Etudes(Hardest is no.8 )
3.Paraphrase on themes from Verdi's Rigoletto
4.Dante Fantasia quasi Sonata
5.Grand Sonata in B minor
Note*Lots of people mentioned the trancedentals.In terms of technical difficulty they would be around 10th or 11th place*

Logged

(\_/)
(O.o)
(> <)

liszt_forever

PS Silver Member
Newbie
Posts: 4

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #25 on: July 23, 2012, 11:36:32 AM

There are many, but top 5:
"Feux Follets"- Transcendental Etude no.5 (all transcendental etudes in general)
Paganini Etudes
Sonata in B minor
Après une lecture du Dante (Dante Sonata)
Opera paraphrases

Logged

rachmaninoff_forever

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 5038

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #26 on: July 23, 2012, 01:14:17 PM

Quote from: smiggy on January 23, 2009, 12:39:32 PM

Hmm...

- Hungarian Rhapsodies
- La Campanella
- Transcendental Etudes

Lol not even close

Logged

Live large, die large. Leave a giant coffin.

rachmaninoff_forever

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 5038

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #27 on: July 23, 2012, 01:16:55 PM

Quote from: liszt_forever on July 23, 2012, 11:36:32 AM

There are many, but top 5:
"Feux Follets"- Transcendental Etude no.5 (all transcendental etudes in general)
Paganini Etudes
Sonata in B minor
Après une lecture du Dante (Dante Sonata)
Opera paraphrases

Hey what's up! Nice to meet you Liszt_Forever! I'm...

Rachmaninoff_Forever!

Logged

Live large, die large. Leave a giant coffin.

philb

PS Silver Member
Full Member
Posts: 175

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #28 on: July 23, 2012, 05:25:19 PM

Symphonie Fantastique, Original Paganini etudes No. 4 V 2, Symphony No. 9 transcription, Ab Irato (I'm only aware of one person who can do this etude justice.) I believe you are bound to find that Liszt's earlier output is much more difficult than his later output (obviously).

Logged

werq34ac

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 720

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #29 on: July 23, 2012, 06:19:17 PM

Just a note to everyone who is saying most of the transcendental etudes,
Some of them are actually not that difficult. The big ones in that set are Mazeppa, Feux Follets, and Chasse Neige. Chasse Neige (I hear) actually isn't that difficult technically. But musically, it's incredibly difficult to play.

As for the Hungarian Rhapsodies, are you really sure? I mean some of them are pretty rough, but I wouldn't say they're as difficult as say the Beethoven Symphony transcriptions.

Whoever said La Campanella must be listening to Richard Kastle and that one youtuber who thinks everyone who plays HR2 is a fake other than Richard Kastle, who claims La Campanella is the 2nd most difficult Liszt piece. My ass.

Logged

Ravel Jeux D'eau
Brahms 118/2
Liszt Concerto 1
Rachmaninoff/Kreisler Liebesleid

thalbergmad

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 16741

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #30 on: July 23, 2012, 08:42:05 PM

Quote from: liszt_forever on July 23, 2012, 11:36:32 AM

Opera paraphrases

I think it might be wise to be a little more specific given the huge amount of paraphrases there are.

Some are bloody difficult, others in comparison rather easy.

Thal

Logged

Curator/Director
Concerto Preservation Society

49410enrique

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 3538

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #31 on: July 23, 2012, 08:56:08 PM

though i do agree with the comment FROM 2009 that these list and difficulty posts are silly, i'll play along sometimes when the mood strikes.

super surprised this piece hasn't been included. i mean super hard as it is, then you also have worry about ensemble and balance issues and interpreting your part in relation to what's coming out of the other piano for the not too shabby length of 17-20 minutes or so!
"Concerto Pathétique" for Two Pianos, S.258

Logged

csano

PS Silver Member
Newbie
Posts: 16

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #32 on: July 24, 2012, 05:08:17 AM

By hard, if you mean technically challenging,

1) Transcendental Etudes After Paganini #4 1st Version (pretty sure only Howard and Petrov recorded this one)
2) Transcendental Etudes After Paganini #2 (only 3 or 4 people recorded this)
3)Grand Etudes 10
4) Trans Etudes after Paganini #3"La Campanella"
5) Trans Etudes After Paganini #6"Themes and Variation"

would be my pick.

1) I seriously consider 1 to be unplayable, and if any modern pianist plays it, I'd be surprised.
2) The right hand plays thirds, about 2x faster than what is played in feux follets
3) It's just generally hard
4) the second theme in Ab Major is hard, and impossible to play on tempo (it is so fast that it is physically impossible to play this on some uprights on tempo because the hammer doesn't catch up) although, nobody actually played this on tempo.
5) #6: Left hand plays tenths on 16th notes, Var I 's right hand, etc.

Logged

cadenza14224

PS Silver Member
Full Member
Posts: 103

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #33 on: August 15, 2012, 04:14:13 PM

lol where the hell is transcendental 12 "chasse-neige" ? those incessant tremolos are a mind-f***

Logged

cuberdrift

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 618

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #34 on: January 31, 2015, 04:29:12 AM

The Liebestraum is a really hard song. It's even harder than flight of the bumblebee. I'd like to see you try.

Logged

stevensk

Sr. Member
Posts: 641

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #35 on: February 01, 2015, 08:33:42 PM

Hardest? -Hardest for who?

Logged

maestroanth

Jr. Member
Posts: 81

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #36 on: February 04, 2015, 09:12:15 PM

The forum topic should be: the 5 coolest piano pieces liszt wrote.

Who cares about the most difficult.

Logged

awesom_o

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 2630

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #37 on: February 04, 2015, 09:32:48 PM

Quote from: maestroanth on February 04, 2015, 09:12:15 PM

Who cares about the most difficult.

Everyone and his brother, it seems....

Logged

mjames

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 2557

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #38 on: February 05, 2015, 02:32:14 AM

6 year old thread...

Logged

j_menz

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 10148

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #39 on: February 05, 2015, 02:55:27 AM

Quote from: mjames on February 05, 2015, 02:32:14 AM

6 year old thread...

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Logged

"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left" -- Oscar Levant

stevensk

Sr. Member
Posts: 641

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #40 on: February 05, 2015, 08:22:20 PM

....and the next thread is "whats the the 5 loudest Liszt pieces are?"
.....or "whats the loudest, fasterst and hardest Liszt pieces in alphabethical order are?"
..what comes on the sixth place??

Logged

rob47

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 997

Re: 5 Hardest Liszt pieces are?

Reply #41 on: February 07, 2015, 06:36:35 PM

great comic about liszt and chopin
https://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=302

Logged

"Phenomenon 1 is me"
-Alexis Weissenberg

Sign-up to post reply

Print

Pages: [1] Go Up

For more information about this topic, click search below!

SMF 2.0.19 | SMF © 2021, Simple Machines