Vallée d'Obermann and other easier piano works by Liszt?

[korlock]

So I haven't played a lot of Liszt before, but I wanted to start.I have tried his third consolation but I had trouble with the triplets and straight quarters. So I recently listened to  Vallée d'Obermann and thought that it sounded fairly simple. However before starting in on it I wanted to ask people about their opinions. Would you say it is an easier piece? And what other compositions by Liszt would you say are easy.

[asiantraveller101]

"Vallee d'Obermann" is NOT easy!! If you have problem with Consolation No. 3, then there is going to be a huge technical disparity between the two. I would suggest a shorter piece from the "Années de pèlerinage" sets, perhaps "Le mal du pays", or "Au lac de Wallenstadt". Or you can try the other consolation pieces. The 2nd one is quite nice.
Have fun!

[korlock]

Haha thank you. I knew it wasn't easy. I haven't tried consolation 3 in a while, but I'd bet it would be a lot easier than before. What about it would you say makes Vallee d'olbermann difficult?

[asiantraveller101]

Vallée is a long piece, with multiple sections. Each section requires a technical aspect that you need to exploit. I think the octave passages are probably the hardest. Even the "slower" more lyrical sections require you to be able to voice your melody above the accompanying parts. Similarly the huge chordal section needs you to be able to voice your melody above the chords, not to be "buried". All-in-all, this piece does contain all the "Lisztian" technical display. Lastly, the many sections need to flow and not sound disjointed. To be able to do that, one has to be very comfortable with each section and to be able to pull together the whole piece so that, as you said it, sounds "easy"!

[korlock]

Well I noticed this had a lot of similarites to Erlkonig by Schubert which Liszt happened to arrange for solo piano. It looks do-able for so I think I'm going to give it a try!

https://erato.uvt.nl/files/imglnks/usimg/a/a8/IMSLP14355-S558v04.pdf

[redbaron]

Consolation No. 4 is very beautiful and straightforward. You should check out ABRSM's Twenty One Short Piano Pieces. It contains 21 easy/easier Liszt pieces and is an excellent starting point.

[korlock]

Yeah I love Consolation 4. And yeah that sounds interesting. Are they Liszt's original works or are they "dumbed down"

[redbaron]

They are all original pieces, some of them are very beautiful.

[mike53]

Yes indeed Obermann is not easy! In my opinion it is one of the 2 or 3 greatest works by Liszt! It is maybe the best example of his thematic transformational techniue and aside from the different technical and sonority changes from section to section,it is the emotional changes that are the real bugaboo. Be sure to study the 3 literary selections with which Liszt prefaces the piece=especially the 2 in French by Senancour who wrote Obermann! These were printed in the first edition in 1855! The EMOTIONAL breadth and depth of this piece are what makes it unique and wonderful and the pianist who takes on this piece has to be ready to live there!