hahahahaha!!! i was waiting for someone to mention this piece!!
I have a recording of Earl Wild playing it, and it is excellent!
You know the story behind the piece, right?
well, I feel like typing, so I will tell you anyway...
(the dates and quotes are from Charles Suttoni's Preface in Dover's collection of the Transcriptions)
--------------------------------------
Liszt introduced this work on March 27, 1841 in Paris at his first solo recital there. It caused such a sensation that the audience attending a second recital that was not to include Robert le Diable demanded he play it on the spot. Then came the famous, or notorious, hehe incident at the fund-raising concert, April 25, 1841, for a monumnt to Beethoven. It was an all-Beethoven program that included Liszt as soloist in the E-Flat Concerto (with Berlioz conducting), among other works. The Parisians, nonetheless, again roared out for Robert and left Liszt no choice but to perform the bravura work, which "the public," noted a journalist present, "interrupted many times with expressions of enthusiasm, if not delirium." Wagner, also present, was scandalized, commenting in the German press: "One day Liszt, in heaven, will be called upon to play his fantasy on the devil before the assembled company of angels."
The day the sheetmusic was published, it sold over 500 copies.
---------------------------------
I love this piece so much, Tony! You have excellent taste in music!!
donjuan