Liszt Ballade No. 2.

[stoudemirestat]

This is one of my absolute favourite works. It has been getting more attention in the latter half  of the 20th century, and today, but it is still neglected. I've been looking around for peoples opinions of it on a few different places, and while some call it one of Liszt's finest works, so many simply call it extremely vulgar and bombastic and all that bullshit that always gets associated with Liszt. They make comments like 'has nothing on Chopin's ballades' and what not. I LOVE Chopin's Ballades, especially the fourth, which is unquestionably a masterpiece and one of my favourite piano pieces...But am I the ONLY one who thinks Liszt's second is every bit as good, and perhaps even greater that Chopin's fourth? It is remarkable. Few works in the entire repetoire encompass so many emotions, and contain as much drama as this work. It, like the Sonata, is a masterpiece in exploiting thematic transformation, and while in some pieces by Liszt such criticism is justified, I simply cannot understand it with this work...

Although I must say it is very rare to find a good performance of it, and it is not the easiest piece to understand, but IMO it is absolutely a work of genius and one of the absolute finest solo piano pieces of the Romantic era...Is anyone with me?

Listen to that performance by Hough...Astonishing. (Make sure it's loud enough to get the full dramatic effect).