Favorite Liszt Piece?

[ngo_dustin]

My favorite Liszt piece is the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. I'm curious to see what other opinions there are? What's your favorite Liszt piece?

[pbryld]

If one has a single favorite, or even two, one has not listened to enough Liszt.

[onwan]

My favourites are:
HR no.2
Liebestraum
consolation no.3
Trans. Etude no.1,2,4,6,10
Romance in e minor
La Campanella
and my lates love-Hungarian rhapsody no.12.

[zezhyrule]

I am pretty sure this is already a thread and I am pretty sure I listed Funerailles.

[evitaevita]

This is a similar thread:
www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=47600.0

I really love:
(in no order)
Spanish Rhapsody
Totentanz (for solo piano)
Trascendental Etudes No.4 & No.5
Piano Sonata in B Minor
Consolation No.3
Hungarian Rhapsodies No.2, No.6 & No.12

[the89thkey]

The B minor sonata, without doubt, is my favorite Liszt. I don't know how many times I've performed that piece.

[stoudemirestat]

If one has a single favorite, or even two, one has not listened to enough Liszt.

Untrue. I have one favourite - the Sonata - and he's my favourite composer. I've listened to probably 90% of what he wrote and much of it many times.

[p2u_]

What's your favorite Liszt piece?

His second ballade. That's really the best film music ever written...
Claudio Arrau plays Liszt Ballade in B minor
The first and second night Leander is swimming across the Hellespont to get to his beloved one, Hero. He gets there succesfully, but the second time, he is more tired (lower tonality). There's a feast afterwards and we hear threatening waves that spell disaster. Then comes the third night and Leander drowns. Then you hear Hero slowly realizing what has happened and throwing herself into the sea... Linking all those dramatic events, there are passages "spoken" by the narrator.

Paul

[stoudemirestat]

His second ballade. That's really the best film music ever written...
Claudio Arrau plays Liszt Ballade in B minor
The first and second night Leander is swimming across the Hellespont to get to his beloved one, Hero. He gets there succesfully, but the second time, he is more tired (lower tonality). There's a feast afterwards and we hear threatening waves that spell disaster. Then comes the third night and Leander drowns. Then you hear Hero slowly realizing what has happened and throwing herself into the sea... Linking all those dramatic events, there are passages "spoken" by the narrator.

Paul

It's either Hero and Leander or Burger's ballad, "Lenore." But you raise a point that's often missed, and that's the programmatic nature of much of Liszt's music. He was a remarkable musical storyteller and much of the writing he often gets condemned for is tremendously vivid in what he's trying to depict. As a musical storyteller, no one was as distinguished before Liszt: his skill in evocation through pianistic ingenuity was prodigious, and he's still a misunderstood, underrated musical genius.

[chopinfrederic]

I like Hungarian Rhapsody too! I also like Liebestraum No.3 and La Campanella.

[chicoscalco]

2nd Ballade
Sonata
Harmonies du Soir
Consolations, all of them
Totentanz

But there are others...

[illusionary]

Love the Rhapsodie Espagnole - seriously underplayed
Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2
3 Concert Etudes
Trans etudes no. 2 4 5 6 10

[roncesvalles]

I can't narrow it down to a single piece but a single set of pieces.  The Troisieme Annee de Pelerinages is remarkable music, a gauntlet thrown to the musical world of its time, a foster parent to music of its next generation.

[kakeithewolf]

Totentanz. Without a doubt. No questions asked, my favourite Liszt piece.

[lancekupiak]

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2!

[bharatbash]

UN SOSPIRO by Liszt

[mcnuggetspie]

His Sonata.

[theholygideons]

Liszt Valse oubliee No.1

[rachmaninoff_forever]

His Sonata.

Which one?  There's two you know.

Mine is either the b minor sonata or totentanz.

[ngo_dustin]

Liszt only wrote one sonata: the b minor sonata

[j_menz]

Liszt only wrote one sonata: the b minor sonata

So what's the Dante Sonata?

[swagmaster420x]

this by far:

i think this piece is my absolute favorite out of all, including those by other composers, though it might be tied with a few others

[cabbynum]

I always thought the Liszt Sonata B minor was a bit too long, I still love it though.

My favorite is any Hungarian rhapsodies, or Douze grandes etude no.12.

[g_s_223]

An exemplary performance by Oliva Sham.

[stravinskylover]

Spanish Rhapsody
Reminiscences de Robert le Diable
Several Schubert song transcriptions
Grand Etude 10 (I like it better than the transcendental version)
Liebestraume 3
Paganini etude 6

[swagmaster420x]

MEFISTO@!!! I WOULD GET FISTED BY THAT

[cabbynum]

MEFISTO@!!! I WOULD GET FISTED BY THAT

Which one

[kakeithewolf]

Which one

Probably the first, possibility the second, maybe the third, doubtfully the fourth.

[swagmaster420x]

the FIRST MEFISTO WALTZ WALTZES INTO MY POSTERIOR ORIFICES AND FISTS ME ALL DAY

[liszt1022]

My username contains Liszt's birthday (10/22.) He's my favorite.
Favorites of his?
Sonata in B minor, solo Totentanz, Transcendental no. 8, Scherzo & March, Sposalizio, Hungarian no. 6 & 12, Spanish Rhapsody,
and a bunch of arrs and trans.

[khantallis123]

Please don't misinterpret my easier and challenging ideas. This is just the ones that I think are easier than the challenging ones, and the ones so many people (rightfully?)name 8+.
The "easier" ones:
Waltz in A(Not the more well known easier one)
Album Leaves from the Ballade no.x
In Dulci Jubilo(Just because of its medievalness)
The Very "Challenging" Ones:
Schubert's Ave Maria
La Campanella
Ballade no.x(I have no idea why I am so dumb, but I seem to like Thalberg's Op.76 Ballade better!)
Hungarian Rhapsodies II, XI

[nanakwame]

My favorite Franz Liszt Pieces will always be his late pieces for some reason. I enjoyed his early works but as I saw him change I am guessing that is where I started to like him even more.

I love his Nuages gris, Abschied (very beautiful piece), Unstern! Sinistre, Disastro, Funeral Prelude and Funeral March (incredible piece!) Schlaflos, "Resignazione", En reve, and "In festo transfigurationis Domini nostri Jesu Christi."

I could go on forever to be honest.    

[khantallis123]

Ballads
Liebstraumes 1+3
Un Sospiro
Chasse neige
Concerto I
William Tell transcription
Rigoletto Paraphrase
Variations Paganini Etude no.6
La Campanella
Miseretranscription
Lucia di Lammermoor Paraphrase
Die Rossignol
Beethoven Symphonies 5+6+9 transcriptions
Air Suisse

[stoudemirestat]

So what's the Dante Sonata?

Après une Lecture du Dante. More importantly, "Fantasia quasi Sonata." It's a fantasy, not a sonata.

[visitor]

Almost without exception my heart goes to very late Liszt however his Op1 from when he was a wee teenager is so Schubert like I cannot resist

[j_menz]

My favourite!!!!

Though you probably meant:

I find late Liszt his most interesting, but it's rarely good for parties.

[alistaircrane4]

Spanish rhapsody
Harmonies du soir
Mazeppa etude
Eroica etude
Ballade no1
Hungarian rhapsody no 4,6,17,18
Dante sonata
Ricordanza

[alistaircrane4]

and la campanella second versionnnnnnnnnnnn

[themusicworkshop]

It used to be Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, then it was La Campanella, but now it is Spanish Rhapsody. There is a performance of Evgeny Kissin playing it that absolutely blew me away.

[flashyfingers]

the FIRST MEFISTO WALTZ WALTZES INTO MY POSTERIOR ORIFICES AND FISTS ME ALL DAY

dear grief, what is wrong with you!! hahah

[dima_76557]

What's your favorite Liszt piece?

With Liszt, it's very important to come across the "right" performer because some of his works easily become a chain of cheap tricks and meaningless noise if one doesn't have intuition for their programmatic nature. I consider myself lucky to have come across the following performance milestones:

Maestro Claudio Arrau - second ballade

Maestro Lazar Berman - Dante

Maestro Jorge Bolet - Sonata

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Reminiscences de Robert le Diable (Earl Wild)

Isolde's Liebestod

Totentanz (Cziffra)

Norma Fantasy (Rian de Waal, part one)