Wagner-Liszt - Isoldens Liebestod

[andhow04]

The final scene of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, transcribed for piano by Liszt.

this was the second encore of a recent concert i called "Amantes sunt Amentes" which means "lovers are lunatics."  it featured music about such crazy lovers as romeo & juliet, ophelia, king lear, and of course schumann.  there were also some john dowland arrangements (but all piano solo).

i love to play this piece and have played it for many years...
enjoy!

[pbryld]

Only having listened to the Tannhäuser transcription, which I am far from a fan of, as the only Wagner, I wasn't expecting to like this. But I really enjoyed it. Thanks!

[rachfan]

An extraordinarily beautiful performance.

David

[mike_lang]

An extraordinarily beautiful performance.

David

Agreed!

Cheers,
Mike

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I had to listen to this! You're a fine pianist and this is my favourite transcription. I too love the piece and have worked on it off and on for many years.

I don't agree with your interpretation, but interpretations are personal and if everyone played the same way it would be a very boring world.

I think the first four bars of this piece present a problem for the interpreter. They are Liszt (taking motifs from earlier), not Wagner, and probably they need to be viewed as a prelude to the main event. I'm probably influenced by one of my teachers being a Wagner diehard, but he profoundly objects to the treatment of the Db, C, B natural as a single slide-like unit, saying "nothing ever happens quickly in Wagner". Certainly it always sounds very odd to my ears.

For much of the piece you have good sonorities and the tremolandi are well-controlled (in my experience it's not easy keeping them in the background, though they always sound quieter on record than they seem to be when you're actually playing it live). I wasn't 100% about your control of the melody line on the first two pages: it didn't always seem even and I'm not sure you necessarily led the ear to it. There was a bit of loss of control around the climax; I assume the extra chord in the 2/4 bar was a heat of the moment thing rather than a misreading. I'm really being very picky and your playing is better than I'm making it sound! I wouldn't notice but for the fact that I've spent so much time on the piece. If you want to hear my ideas on the piece, this represents them pretty well: https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=35002.0 (and yes, I have skeletons buried here too!)

Thanks for the upload.