Liszt Schubert transcriptions S425

[irrational]

I have been trawling through Leslie Howard's Liszt set, especially the Schubert transcriptions when I happened on the transcription of the Allegretto from Schubert's Hungarian melodies.

There are a few versions of course, but in this set of transcriptions (Vol.31, CD 2), the Allegretto is 24 minutes. I find it absolutely fascinating to listen to. The piece is quite beautiful.
But, being of limited experience I would love comments on both the piece and the performance.
Musically the start and end are wonderful to my ears, the middle quite interesting. I would really love to see a performance of this.

I know Howard's performances gather varied criticisms and this being a piece I can't find anywhere else, I have nothing to judge it against. I wonder if I will be able to play this one day. I am not so sure.

I would love to read comments and discussions on this piece by accomplished listeners and players.

[diomedes]

The material on that recording could be interesting, Schubert is always worth listening to, and Liszt probably did something meaningful here. My only reservation Leslie Howard can occasionally be uneven in his playing, not that i hold it against him, but it might end up unconvincing. I'll need something to listen to today and have a look. Some stuff there would probably be good recital material.

[diomedes]

Was listening to Purcell and Rameau tonight, and then gave this a listen. What a discovery, it's beautiful and sincere. Thanks for bringing it up, it's something like a sprawling lengthy relative of the f minor fantasy without the structure. Or, on first listening it felt rather loose, but i never got impatient with it. I think if someone like Volodos put this out on a major record label it would become the next undiscovered continent in the classical musical world. I tried downloading the score off of imslp, but the file size is huge.

Thanks again for bringing it up, hopefully others will take the time for music.

[irrational]

Its a pleasure! I love sharing good music.

I got the IMSLP score myself.
It is an eye opener for sure. I am not sure I will be able to play it.
The piece sounds a lot simpler than the notes look. There some really fast octaves and big cord jumps.

There is a youtube video of it but its a terrible terrible computer rendition.
I am rather ashamed to even link it, as its unlistenable, but it displays the score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqGB5pbRVnU

[diomedes]

On the computer the pdf loaded, the first 2 in the set are much more ambitious technically. The 3rd one, well you never know until you're in the middle of learning it. The double note cadenza in both hands (!!!) is probably not entirely necessary, unless you have 10 hours a day to practice. The rest just appears like a vast amount of music to assemble. I'm quite certain it's worth effort, and possibly performance if the audience at least has an explanation of the nature of the music. I'm in a greater state of admiration for Liszt for turning his attention to these efforts as well. I'll probably give this a listen to again tonight and look at the others.