Le Festin d'Esope

[perprocrastinate]

I asked someone I know how he thought on the difficulty of Alkan's Op.39-12 Etude, Le Festin d'Esope.
He said it was easy stuff.

Should I be excited that he might be the reincarnation of Alkan?

[j_menz]

I asked someone I know how he thought on the difficulty of Alkan's Op.39-12 Etude, Le Festin d'Esope.
He said it was easy stuff.

Should I be excited that he might be the reincarnation of Alkan?

Or worried that he's just another idiot. 

[austinarg]

It's harder than anything by Liszt.

[perprocrastinate]

It's harder than anything by Liszt.

Are you serious? Wow.

[philb]

It's harder than anything by Liszt.

I wouldn't say that. Pieces like Don juan, Scherzo and March, and hell, even the Dante sonata are much more difficult than this piece.

I wouldn't even place this piece anywhere near the harder Alkan (I.e. Allegro Barbaro, Le Preux, etc.) and would say it's easier than pieces like Scherzo Focoso.

[j_menz]

I wouldn't say that. Pieces like Don juan, Scherzo and March, and hell, even the Dante sonata are much more difficult than this piece.

I wouldn't even place this piece anywhere near the harder Alkan (I.e. Allegro Barbaro, Le Preux, etc.) and would say it's easier than pieces like Scherzo Focoso.

Agreed. Still, not exactly "easy stuff", in anyone's book.

[fftransform]

I wouldn't say that. Pieces like Don juan, Scherzo and March, and hell, even the Dante sonata are much more difficult than this piece.

I wouldn't even place this piece anywhere near the harder Alkan (I.e. Allegro Barbaro, Le Preux, etc.) and would say it's easier than pieces like Scherzo Focoso.

Allegro Barbaro is not one of his more difficult pieces.  The Scherzo Focoso is almost unplayable.  Did you mean the Scherzo Diabolique, which is also in the Op. 39?

What Liszt pieces are you referring to as "Scherzo and March"?  The Mendelssohn transcription?  Also not one of Liszt's more difficult pieces.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I wouldn't say that. Pieces like Don juan, Scherzo and March, and hell, even the Dante sonata are much more difficult than this piece.

I wouldn't even place this piece anywhere near the harder Alkan (I.e. Allegro Barbaro, Le Preux, etc.) and would say it's easier than pieces like Scherzo Focoso.

"much more" ? 

Don Juan's about the same level. Scherzo and March (for clarity, presumably S.177) is tricky, but I don't believe it's as hard. Dante sonata is clearly easier.

Allegro Barbaro is a cakewalk in comparison to Le Festin. It really only tests octave endurance and, to a certain degree, passagework. Le Festin tests much more. Le Preux, Scherzo Focoso and Le Festin all fall into the hard/super-hard Alkan pieces.

[fftransform]

"much more" ? 

Don Juan's about the same level. Scherzo and March (for clarity, presumably S.177) is tricky, but I don't believe it's as hard. Dante sonata is clearly easier.

Allegro Barbaro is a cakewalk in comparison to Le Festin. It really only tests octave endurance and, to a certain degree, passagework. Le Festin tests much more. Le Preux, Scherzo Focoso and Le Festin all fall into the hard/super-hard Alkan pieces.

I don't know how much of that I agree with, either.  With the exception of the Apres un Lecture du Dante, I think that both of those Liszt pieces are more difficult; they're much more exhausting, at the very least, and there isn't too much in the Op. 39/12 that is as unpianistic as some of Alkan's nastier stuff.  A couple of the tempi in the variations are fairly unrealistic, but nobody ever tries to play them at tempo, just like nobody ever tries to play certain passages from the Don Juan at tempo, so in a real performance setting, such things shouldn't be given total priority when judging the difficulty of a work.  Really, I was just commenting on how silly it is to say that the works listed represent the hardest works by Liszt (or at least I assume that's what was being implied), when there are nightmares like these:

But L'Festin d'Esope does not qualify as one of Alkan's hardest works by a long, long way.  Please enjoy some of the following music:

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Really, I was just commenting on how silly it is to say that the works listed represent the hardest works by Liszt (or at least I assume that's what was being implied), when there are nightmares like these:

Yes, that's fair enough, and to that list could be added other of the Douze Grand Etudes, the Tarantella di Bravura from Auber, Hexameron and a few others. I don't think Alkan's 39/10 is quite as hard as a casual inspection of the score would lead one to believe [whereas 39/11 is a damn sight harder than a casual inspection would suggest]; Le Preux on the other hand is very difficult.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Btw, who is this Carlo Lombardi? A midi?

[fftransform]

Hexameron is not super-difficult.  Tannhauser and the Solo Konzert are harder.  Same with the Tarantella di Bravura, although that is definitely harder than Hexameron.

A non-MIDI recording of that Meyerbeer transcription:

I don't know who/what Carlos Lombardi is, but if you click the link to his site, it's pretty hilarious.  I mean, that one was obv a midi.


Op. 39/10 is just as hard as it looks, IMO.  Same with Op. 39/11.