VIDEO: Sancta Dorothea by Franz Liszt

[michael_sayers]

From a performance on December 13, 2003, in Dallas, Texas.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

This I much prefer to the two Bach pieces. I'm not familiar with the score, so can't say if you've taken any particular liberties. It sounds very much like austere late Liszt (though, unlike some, without any tonal ambiguities) and your performance is quite moving. If I have a criticism, it would be directed at the bringing out of the upper voice, where I think your sound is sometimes a bit sharp when it would be better being more rounded (whilst of course still observing the voicing).

[pianoman53]

I have a question about your use of rubato. Both in the Bach, and this piece, you use it heavily. Why? Pretty much in the end of every phrase you make rubato. This makes any piece, whatever piece you play, fall apart.

I would also suggest you to work a little on your touch. It's very direct, and it needs more variety,

[michael_sayers]

This I much prefer to the two Bach pieces. I'm not familiar with the score, so can't say if you've taken any particular liberties. It sounds very much like austere late Liszt (though, unlike some, without any tonal ambiguities) and your performance is quite moving. If I have a criticism, it would be directed at the bringing out of the upper voice, where I think your sound is sometimes a bit sharp when it would be better being more rounded (whilst of course still observing the voicing).

Thanks!  I turned to Liszt's later music as one of the ways to find inner solace and work through the tragic event of my best friend killing himself back in 2000.  The Sancta Dorothea may be a transcription of a short choral work as with some of the other short, late Liszt piano compositions.  I'm not really sure.  With shorter grands, especially those less than seven feet in length, I tend to push the voicing more, which isn't always satisfactory and especially with a bright sounding piano.  That was back in 2003 . . . some of the pianos around nowadays sound as brittle and shrill in the treble as shards of glass striking the floor!

I have a question about your use of rubato. Both in the Bach, and this piece, you use it heavily. Why? Pretty much in the end of every phrase you make rubato. This makes any piece, whatever piece you play, fall apart.

I would also suggest you to work a little on your touch. It's very direct, and it needs more variety,

You are right, I was a bit of a rubato addict back then - not as much now - and in these recordings there are moments where, at least to my ears, disintegration can be heard.  And the touch does lack range and nuance - at least with these recordings.  There are some real recordings with no audience and on a very nice 1940 N.Y. Steinway D of late Liszt, Chopin Preludes and some Nyiregyhazi, that I'll upload later.  That 1940 D is a very special piano and is not like a modern D in feel or sound though it does sound like a Steinway.  It is all original parts except for the 2001 Steinway hammers/hammer shanks which since then have been boxed away as the hammers no longer hold voicing very well.  There is an extra 2001 set that is unopened and has never been installed so it may be possible to recapture the sound heard on those recordings or a sound that is very similar.