Ending of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

[JPRitchie]

Please find an mp3 with the ending of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 herewith. It's e-music. So feel free to comment critically on sound quality, interpretation, whatever...

Jim Ritchie

[Teddybear]

I'd say it's too mechanical and strictly in tempo. Come on, have fun. More playfulness!

T

[JPRitchie]

Thanks Teddybear. I asked for a critique and you gave one. Plugging in the notes with the sequencer is simply following directions. But after that, there are a lot of choices that can be made at my discretion.  The tempo does slow throughout the measures before the Prestissimo section. And I did slow it slighty for the presto end. Other than that, I don't see any tempo marks in the 1904 Ditson edition edited by Orth, which I used as a primary source. Do other editions have more extensive variations ?

Regards,
Jim Ritchie

[Goldberg]

So it literally was sequenced? That explains why it sounds like a MIDI playing through a digital piano or softsynth or something...

Sorry to say something negative and leave it at that...I can't really recommend anything constructive because with my limited experience it is impossible to make a computer play like anything more exciting than a brick. But maybe it's not..

[JPRitchie]

Goldberg, thanks for your frank reply. Of course it's sequenced - I did it myself.

Liszt has been played for over a hundred years now. I wanted to do something faithful to the original. I haven't yet heard a manual performance that doesn't have all kinds of tempo variations - typically a slowing, especially around the ascents in the sections herewith. Liszt marked certain other sections "scherz." or "Capricciosamente" where one might take more liberties. But, yes, using MIDI, sequencers, digital pianos, soft synths, etc. it is possible to create a performance that otherwise would not be heard.

Sincerely,
Jim Ritchie

[bachmaninov]

Liszt has been played for over a hundred years now. I wanted to do something faithful to the original. I haven't yet heard a manual performance that doesn't have all kinds of tempo variations - typically a slowing, especially around the ascents in the sections herewith. Liszt marked certain other sections "scherz." or "Capricciosamente" where one might take more liberties. But, yes, using MIDI, sequencers, digital pianos, soft synths, etc. it is possible to create a performance that otherwise would not be heard.

Sincerely,
Jim Ritchie

And Liszt would be offended by that recording. Sorry but you forget this isn't baroque we are talking about here. This is a Hungarian Rhapsody, and probably the biggest show piece ever made. You are suppose to tease, and 'wow' the audience with style and interpretaton, especially with this piece! A trust me, a bunch of right notes doesn't impress anyone.

[Bulgarian]

Goldberg, thanks for your frank reply. Of course it's sequenced - I did it myself.

Liszt has been played for over a hundred years now. I wanted to do something faithful to the original. I haven't yet heard a manual performance that doesn't have all kinds of tempo variations - typically a slowing, especially around the ascents in the sections herewith. Liszt marked certain other sections "scherz." or "Capricciosamente" where one might take more liberties. But, yes, using MIDI, sequencers, digital pianos, soft synths, etc. it is possible to create a performance that otherwise would not be heard.

Sincerely,
Jim Ritchie

I am sorry Jim but I 100% disagree with your comment about faithfulnes. Do you really believe that if we follow LITERARY the written text we will arrive at a performance which is faithfull to the List's REAL intentions???
Don't you think that Lists REAL intentions were to express human feelings, and he, like any other composers actually made huge compromise chaining the music to the imperfect and rigid world of notation. 

[Nana_Ama]

it was kind of ...flat... make it more lively!  Go over it with your teacher

[JPRitchie]

I really appreciate the last few comments, to which I reply:

1. Regarding faithfulness:  Having all the right notes isn't the end of interpretation - it's the beginning.  Using the computer, it's possible to interpret a work free of the mechanical requirement of getting the correct fingers on the desired keys at the right time. So, artistic interpretation comes before performance.

2. Let me ask about something specific. The last two measures in the score appear with the marking "Presto". In them, three eighth tones and rests alternate, with the last rest extended to the end of the measure by a quarter rest, with a fermata over it.  I programmed three equal length tones, because the fermata indicated to me that the composer wanted to accent the silence. The fermata appears over the quarter rest, with the eighths being notated identically. Yet performers frequently don't do it that way - what is the justification for deviating from something apparently so specific ? Or, put another way, for such a short section why shouldn't these two measures be played as written. Or, why wouldn't Liszt have given at least some indication of something different if he intended it?

3. As a route to my further development, would reviewers care to point me toward specific recordings that illustrate their points ? Something less flat say ?

Regards,
Jim Ritchie

[Atrus]

I agree with Nana_ama that you should go over it with your teacher. It just sounds too plain. Try putting some emotion in it!

[JPRitchie]

Thanks for the additional reply.

I haven't found anyone who has can program HR #2 better than I and would offer to teach me how to do it. There's another problem too. I am not manually playing HR#2, nor attempting to do so. Simply asking a piano teacher how they play it, and then programming it or some slight modification - to me that would be theft of some kind. I've had teachers who guided me through all of Alfred's adult piano course. Are there manuals beyond that ?

I've also looked at MIDI recordings of HR#2. There are some interesting differences between them and what's here. For example, when someone manually plays the piano it's rare that 1) all the notes of a chord sound simultaneously and 2) all the notes in a chord are played at the same velocity. There are also variations in tempo. These three factors account for a lot of what's called expression, even if it's not in the score. But, the recording here didn't include these factors; that may account for some of the reviews. Instead it gives a very strict but not completely pre-defined rendition of the score - and one that's obviously different from manual performances. I'm always open for suggestions about a good recording or a good book to purchase. Horowitz did a recording of a Carnegie Hall performance, but AFIK,it's in private hands. Cziffra also did one that I'm trying to get hold of.

Sincerely,
Jim Ritchie