Help me Pick a Liszt Piece!

[goge88]

Hey guys,
I'm a 15-year-old pianist who's looking for some challenging Liszt pieces to add to his repertoire.
My current repertoire is: Chopin Ballade no. 2, Beethoven Sonata op.31 no.1 1st movement, Prokofiev Sonata no. 2 4th movement. My professor and I were thinking about adding Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 to my repertoire; however, it is a really popular piece so it might not be a wise choice to learn that piece because everyone expects the end result to sound like Horowitz's or George Li's amazing renditions (since it's so popular). I heard an amazing young artist play Liszt's Dante Sonata in a competition but my professor thinks I should wait a year or two to learn it. Any suggestions? Thanks for your time
- George

[visitor]

One of my absolute ffavorite by Liszt. They almostsound like Schubert. So much to love here

[jeffok]

Hey Goge88 -

Well, given the repertoire you list, your choices should be fairly wide. I'll just make 3 suggestions:

If you still want to do a Hungarian Rhapsody, the 8th is among the best and shorter than some of the others but still has plenty of technical challenges.

If you want Liszt in purely original mode (most of the Rhapsodies are based on pre-existing Gypsy melodies) the Concert Etude called "Waldesrauschen" should provide a challenge, but not one that's too crazy.

If you want something a little longer, you might take a look at the Paraphrase on the Quartet from Rigoletto. Brilliant, engaging and fun to play. Don't be put off by the fact that it starts with a 2-page cadenza: the cadenza is a lot easier than it looks.

Anyway, just a few thoughts.
best wishes,

jeff ok

[piulento]

It's sort of a cliche and they're hard as hell, but I think the trancendental etudes are simply awesome. They have so much emotion in them!!! Nothing gets me more worked up than seeing people play them. Just pick your favorite and go for it.