Totentanz!

[liszt1022]

This is my current favorite piece, so I'm making a one-stop thread for anyone else interested.
I'm talking Liszt's Totentanz, and specifically the solo piano version.
This thing is great! So stop by here and spend some time with this wonderful crashy bangy piece.

Leslie Howard in 1991 called the solo version "rarely encountered." But it has become a trendy piece, there are at least 20 recordings on Youtube, with the most popular being Lisitsa of course.

At least two forum members have done this, so if koopakool or perfect_pitch have anything to share, please do!

I'm working on it myself. But I can't go very fast. I'm still having a lot of fun. It's like playing a whole bunch of short etudes one after the other.

The score is available online at
https://imslp.org/wiki/Totentanz,_S.126_(Liszt,_Franz)
in both the first edition and New Liszt Edition (for non-US downloaders.)

The best way to buy a book of the score is in this, which reprints the first edition -
https://www.amazon.com/Danse-Macabre-Other-Piano-Transcriptions/dp/0486497313/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1396932202&sr=8-3&keywords=danse+macabre+liszt
It also features the Saint-Saens/Liszt work and other good stuff!

If you want the EMB reprint of the "New Liszt Edition," for that nice modern score look, that's here-
https://www.amazon.com/Totentanz-Piano-Solo-Franz-Liszt/dp/1480304964/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1396932369&sr=8-13&keywords=editio+musica+budapest

Here's a very nice recording by Arnaldo Cohen:

which comes from this CD:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000014FJ/ref=s9_psimh_gw_p15_d5_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=136522HWJFZYEPZQDS75&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

I'm interested in your thoughts, favorite recordings, or anything else!

[liszt1022]

More than any other piece I've worked on, I'm realizing the shortcomings of my digital piano. Perhaps the keybed is too deep (Yamaha YDP-223) but I'm playing along, derp derp derp, and I can't seem to get the cadenzas or big leaps up to speed, but then if I try the same passage on an acoustic piano, it plays so much better. I don't even know why!
I think a shallow keybed and heavy action is the right combination for this piece. That way you can smack all the chords on the first two pages without wrong notes sounding so much, and use the heavy action like a finger springboard.

[liszt1022]

So I'm approaching the end of memorization, and I'm projecting that I won't be able to get this under 19 minutes without losing control. Should I care? What if I still like how it sounds at my speed? What if I'm still enjoying playing it and other people like it too? I don't want to give up learning 10,000 notes just because I can't go as fast as other recordings.

[necropolis]

I'm an amateur and have finished this piece last year and recorded. But just now I listened to it and feel totally noisy. Our expectations are always getting higher, isn't it?
I even performed that at our university piano association recital, about 14:30. The audience were very excited since my piece is the Final part of the recital and the piece before my totentanz is a Bach…… But I know that performance is far away from satisfaction, I was rushing and making lots of mistakes. and it has become a mental obstacle that prevent me from playing this piece anymore.
Anyway, looking forward to your result.

[ngarcia45]

Originally written here
I have been looking at this issue from different standpoints and consulting with my colleagues as well, some are professionals and some are in other fields, like engineers.
I'm an amateur and have finished this piece last year and recorded. But just now I listened to it and feel totally noisy. Our expectations are always getting higher, isn't it?
I have even performed that at our university piano association recital, about 14:30. The audience were very excited since my piece is the Final part of the recital and the piece before my totentanz is a Bach…… But I know that performance is far away from satisfaction, I was rushing and making lots of mistakes. and it has become more of a mental obstacle that prevent me from playing this piece anymore.
Anyway, looking forward to your result.

I've had a similar experience and find it hard to play the piece again coz everytime i hear it I keep recalling how I failed to perform it as I envisioned it.  Have you tried playing the totentanz again?  I've just started playing it again so I can get over that ugly recollection in my life.

[necropolis]

I've had a similar experience and find it hard to play the piece again coz everytime i hear it I keep recalling how I failed to perform it as I envisioned it.  Have you tried playing the totentanz again?  I've just started playing it again so I can get over that ugly recollection in my life.

Maybe twice or three times after the performance? Maybe I would try to repractice that for a better recording, but not now.

[liszt1022]

I should post a work-in-progress recording and make you guys feel better about your own.

[liszt1022]

OK, here's my theme and first three variations. Tell me what you think.

[j_menz]

Tell me what you think.

Schroeder has some serious competition! 

[mjames]

OK, here's my theme and first three variations. Tell me what you think.

Yu made me smile.

[necropolis]

a true genius!!!!!!!

[liszt1022]

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=56619.0
/\ My work in progress.

[liszt1022]

Now I'd like a piece to "balance out" Totentanz.

I'm leaning towards a piano solo arrangement of Les Preludes, the one recorded in Howard's "Complete Liszt" series. Howard believes Liszt had a very heavy hand in the solo arrangement, so that's enough for me. Plus it has this great line to go with it!

"What else is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown Hymn, the first and solemn note of which is intoned by Death?"

-Perhaps Liszt's Benediction would be a good one too. Anybody have a suggestion? Non-Liszt is fine too.