Hi!!I am new to classic music and piano learning...but i have been listening a lot recently, mostly solo piano music.My favourites composers are Beethoven, Chopin and Shumman.Yesterday i bought a double CD containing the Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies. The interpreter is Georges Cziffra, who i have read is considered a Listz expert.I really did not like it at firsts listenings. It sounded strange to me, and i was not able to find the melodic line in the pieces.Question:is Liszt that difficult to understand compared to Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Shumann?Should i insist, and it will finally click on my head, or is it better to keep it aside and assume i am not a Liszt lover?Merry Christmas and happy new year !!!
Please don't give up !!! Keep on listening to new things : Liszt, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Bartok and so on. Let your ears get used to different sounds. Also listen other things than piano : symphonic music, chamber music, jazz. I promise you : you will like it."You can't like something without learning it and you can't learn something without liking it." (Samson François)
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies are based on popular Romanian music (for some strange reason Liszt believed it to be Hungarian music) so maybe something that can help you understand the nature of this music is to close your music, wipe your mind of any other though and feel the sensation of East Europe gypsy music let the music draw for you images of paesan dancing or else let the music draw for you the image of life in Bucarest, it's houses and parks
I too have ten Hungarian Rhapsodies by Cziffra.I love all the Rhapsodies, but they did take me listening to them around 3 times to really appreciate them though.My favorite are no.2,no.6 (such a catchy tune),no.9 "Carnival in Pest",and Rakoczy March.To be honest I like the way Cziffra plays them except no.2 .Maybe it's just because i know this piece better, but it sounds like he gets a little carried away towards the end to the point that he doesn't even match the left hand with the right.That's just what feel, but these are great pieces that you can enjoy without having to sit there with the score to understand them.