Unfortunately you have ignored the a capriccio marking early on in the passage.
Sorry this is just eight bars before the passage we are talking about and is very useful for thoses eight bars where you also in my recording can perceive the tempo changes with more freedom than before, but as I stated before that does not justify to ignore that Liszt has marked in many ways that he wants a change in the sound of the passage we are talking about.
Arrau's light use of the pedal in fact reveals THREE distinct voices when he plays the passage.
This you definitly perceived in the score, and I am glad to notice that you looked in the score which makes discussing much more objectiv. But you can't hear hardly two and absolutly not three independent voices in Araus playing. And pretending that gives me some doubts in your ears.
But stay on the level of the composition, because one reason why you will never be able to hear "three distinct" voices in any interpretation of this passage is the simple fact, that there are just two and not three. The “distinct” voice that you think may result of the upper notes of the chords is nothing else but the lower octave of the melody in the discant. So it is great, that you look in the score but if so, please read more carefully before stating anything which isn’t really there like the pretended “center voice produced by both the RH and LH”
Your recording merely reveals one mass of sound
So we are back at the point where pretentions and judgements of individual personal taste replaces open minds and open ears. This is nothing we can discuss about, since If I were the opinion that what I play will sound the way you described it I of course would not have played like that. But discussing that way will end up with juxtaposing statements like “it is” “ no it is not” “sure it is“ “ no it is definitly not”.
if Liszt wanted it so disjoint and seperated as you play, why didn't he write the LH as singlular quaver notes? Why did he group them in threes?
Because grouping notes does not at all mean notes have to be played legato it just makes the perception of the notes easier for the one who pratices them. Otherwise you will get severe problems with the whole pianomusic written since Bachs times.
And why are some of the Lh chords some of the notes are turned upwards while others are not, don't you think that Liszt is trying to reveal to us part of the inner voice here?
Sorry you did’nt read the notes as I have already showed this is in no way any kind of distinct inner voice but just the slightly metrical displaced octave of the melody, no one would ever hear as distinct melody but more as a kind of pianistic orchestration of this melody.
in my professional opinion
Did you have such a poor confidence in the convincing objectiv reasons of your opinion, that you need to repeat one time after the other that you want to be taken as “professional”. If so let me tell you definitly: I am far from being professional and far from claiming anything like this for me. I just love music I don’t need no pretended “professional” authority for things I do and think. But still I am able to disproof nearly all substancless suspicions stated in this thread by simple facts and still I am able to proof that the things I have done are seriously done and with well reflected musical reasons.
Espressivo means to be expressive when you play, means to be able to form your musical voices clearly and make sure all of it is taken care of individually and with musical consideration. You have merely applied a general expression ignoring Liszt's encouragement of expressive playing to reveal as much as you musically can.
Sorry as I showed you are eight bars to early here. Please try to stay with the passage we are talking about.
Also why do you ignore the rallent which Liszt has clearly marked leading to the leggieramente e staccato (you do a poco poco poco rit)?
At least you admit I have done something and not my computer. And thanks god you have realized that my tempo is changing to. I have already given the reasons earlier, why I don’t think one have to apply the rallentando that excessivly but of course with the discssion of the amount of rubato we are inside the realm of interpretational freedom and in so far it is fo sure a matter of taste. As I said I respect your taste and will not dispute it. So respect the mine that is based on another understanding of this passage as explained earlier.
I would be glad if your recordings inspired me to only enjoy what I am listening to. My analysis of your music is based not on personal issues but based on musical experience from working professionally in the field. Sure it may be only one professional opinion but I am yet to see an opinion other than your own that blows the trumpet of praise for your interpretations.
professional, professional, professional, professional, professional…. ( I can’t see anything convincing in statements like that as I cant in any kind of pretended majorities since I am sure you know that the majority doesn’t listen to Liszts Studies at all but more to Lady Gaga or nonsens like that)
At least you admit here you are unorthodoxed (and certainly you do not have some magical secret view into the composers intentions in the music that no one else knows about), in that case we can relax, this guy isn't trying to fool us, he's letting us know what he does is strange and not the norm.
Yes of course I don’t have any “magical secret” like your mantra “professional”. I only have the score and find ion there enough reason for what I do just in the simple facts written in there. Yes I am glad and proud to be not “the norm” since I am alive and individual and I wish everybody will be more than just the fullfilment of a norm.
The artificial and musically damaging evenness of your recordings highlights a mathematical exactness to your playing.
Here your condemnations are just leaving the proofable facts and this is what ist hat annoying with that constantly repeated assault of being mathematical exact. In truth many of those recordings you can hear in Auditionrooms of the pianoforums of the world reveal a much more stiff and sterile soulless mathematical exactness and less of musical differentiation of the different voices and their phrasing which you can hear followed in colour and subtle tempo changes for nearly any phares of the hunderts of recordings on my site. But by the simple fact that I work with samples you feel authorized to pretend a mathematical exactness my recordings will disprove in every single bar.
Hi tea cup,
This is reasoning with the unreasonable. But behind your statement is just the same suspicion you share with the most others. That thoses Bach, Haydn, and Liszt recordings were products of a kind of inhumane, unmusical automatisation without any personal musical intention. And if it were so let me correct your prejudice. Because as you can see we are all discussing questions of more or less rubato, differentiated articulation phrasing and so on. Which all are not available without a warm thinking and feeling musical intention behind.
Hi iroveashe,
Sorry it moreover seem to me that you confuse the word subtle. Since Arraus rubato is everything else but subtle or complicated. It is just massive compared to the more slightly but very detailed tempochanges of my recording reflecting the structure of every single phrase and harmonic change.
You still are obviously driven by the prejudice and suspicion that I have not at all played the music on my site as it reveals a wording like:“if that was you, playing with your fingers on a real piano, I'd say it's a very mechanical interpretation”
So if you just hear this it, might likewise have its reason that you just listen to your own prejudices against someone who is working with samples instead of wooden instruments and those preudice deceive your ears, as it was with the Bach comparison we have had earlier, where the appreciated “real” version was much more stiff and sterile metrical inflexible than the much more fluently tempo changing interpretation on my site and no one noticed that at all. This is what makes me quite sceptical against ears the louder and the more general and absolute they pretend to judge.
Best
Fahl5