Piano Forum

Piano Forum »
Piano Board »
Repertoire »
Liszt - S. 253, Spanish Fantasy; primary difficulty?

Pages: [1] Go Down

Topic: Liszt - S. 253, Spanish Fantasy; primary difficulty? (Read 4523 times)

liszt-and-the-galops

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 1539

Liszt - S. 253, Spanish Fantasy; primary difficulty?

on: April 23, 2024, 04:35:38 PM

I've been listening to the Spanish Fantasy a fair bit recently. It's definitely one of Liszt's hardest works, but I can't tell what, exactly, puts it above the rest. Between the trills, leaps, octaves, double notes passages, speed, musicality, hand crossing, repeated notes, etc. which contributes most to the difficulty?

Lastly, is there a good reference point for how hard this piece is? I feel like it's significantly above the level of Galop in A Minor/Rondeau Fantastique, at least.

Sheet music: https://musescore.com/user/33320489/scores/11327425
Synthesia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UfO5KELcKA
Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQRT8_EkGjY
^^^Quite a few wrong notes and slightly below tempo, but it's basically the best I could find. Just goes to show how absurd this piece is.

Thanks in advance!

Logged

Amateur pianist, beginning composer, creator of the Musical Madness tournament (2024-25).
https://www.youtube.com/@Liszt-and-the-Galops
https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/home

transitional

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 792

Re: Liszt - S. 253, Spanish Fantasy; primary difficulty?

Reply #1 on: April 23, 2024, 11:09:54 PM

I'm by no means an expert by this, but I'm getting lots of difficult Liszt techniques. Galop in A Minor's essentially the jumps on steroids, but there's just a ridiculous amount to this piece that I do think adds to the difficulty - insane pyrotechnic passagework everywhere in general and a difficult buildup to execute.

Logged

last 3 schubert sonatas and piano trios are something else

foobarpiano

PS Silver Member
Newbie
Posts: 7

Re: Liszt - S. 253, Spanish Fantasy; primary difficulty?

Reply #2 on: May 02, 2024, 11:49:05 AM

I have seen two other versions of this piece
Huang Yi-Chung

Seon-Yong Hwang

Huang Yi-Chung, in the link, said he worked on the piece everyday for basically 9months and picked the best recording out of 10 times he attempted it, and he is someone who played Alkan Le Preux (since the forum cut the timestamp, Le Preux starts at 2:45:00 exactly) in a competition just after playing Liszt - Réminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia

&t=9895s .

Seon-Yong Hwang sync the piano sheet while he is playing.

Given the lack of video or audio publication, my guess is that there isn't enough profit to spend one year to practice a piece while a pianist could just collect easy money in concerts/teaching or showing up on TV.
And after spending decades practicing 10h a day, who wants to continue to do that for a single piece?

I am just a parent, so I cannot say anything about the complexity, but the endurance, both physically and mentally has to be up there as one of the hardest Liszt piece.

Some times ago, I stumbled on this list which "ranks" Liszt repertoire https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/i1t09y/guide_to_liszt_pieces_by_difficulty/

Logged

liszt-and-the-galops

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 1539

Re: Liszt - S. 253, Spanish Fantasy; primary difficulty?

Reply #3 on: May 02, 2024, 04:06:32 PM

Quote from: foobarpiano on May 02, 2024, 11:49:05 AM

I have seen two other versions of this piece
Huang Yi-Chung

Huang Yi-Chung, in the link, said he worked on the piece everyday for basically 9months and picked the best recording out of 10 times he attempted it, and he is someone who played Alkan Le Preux (since the forum cut the timestamp, Le Preux starts at 2:45:00 exactly) in a competition just after playing Liszt - Réminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia
&t=9895s .

He also hits quite a few wrong notes. Still in tempo though, which is impressive as f***.

Quote from: foobarpiano on May 02, 2024, 11:49:05 AM

Seon-Yong Hwang

Seon-Yong Hwang sync the piano sheet while he is playing.

Not as many wrong notes, but still not nearly in tempo. Even having good accuracy on this piece is still incredible, though.

Quote from: foobarpiano on May 02, 2024, 11:49:05 AM

Some times ago, I stumbled on this list which "ranks" Liszt repertoire https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/i1t09y/guide_to_liszt_pieces_by_difficulty/

Yeah, that doesn't really look right. Some of the Etudes are a bit off, Spanish Rhapsody seems a bit off as well. Rondo Fantastique is a little too high.
Also, GRAND GALOP CHROMATIQUE RANKED BELOW LA CAMPANELLA?!?!?!?!
I'd also argue that Spanish Fantasy should be moved to the top tier along with a few others. Obviously below the 9th transcription.
And that's just the errors I noticed at a glance. There are surely plenty of others.

Logged

Amateur pianist, beginning composer, creator of the Musical Madness tournament (2024-25).
https://www.youtube.com/@Liszt-and-the-Galops
https://sites.google.com/view/musicalmadness-ps/home

Sign-up to post reply

Pages: [1] Go Up

For more information about this topic, click search below!