Martha Argerich plays Franz Liszt – The Piano Sonata in B-Minor S.178

ArgerichHD

Published on May 24, 2013

Complete performance with gapless playback. Section markings are noted in annotations.

Sheet music: http://bit.ly/151ayA2

historic musical bits: Sviatoslav Richter – Liszt – Piano Concerto No 2 in A major

Sviatoslav Richter – Liszt – Piano Concerto No 2 in A major

Opus 21

Published on Apr 25, 2014

Franz Liszt
Piano Concerto No 2 in A major, S 125

00:00 Adagio – Allegro agitato assai
07:16 Allegro moderato – Allegro deciso
14:47 Marziale un poco meno allegro
18:48 Allegro animato

Sviatoslav Richter, piano

London Symphony Orchestra
Kyrill Kondrashin, conductor

Cziffra plays Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies No.1-9

EvaYoungPianist

Published on Jul 1, 2012

Franz Liszt:
Hungarian Rhapsodies:
No.1 in E Major 00:00
No.2 in C-sharp Minor 12:49
No.3 in B-flat Major 23:04
No.4 in E-flat Major 27:28
No.5 in E Minor 32:52
No.6 in D-flat Major 41:56
No.7 in D Minor 48:58
No.8 in F-sharp Minor 54:09
No.9 in E-flat Major 1:00:54

Georges Cziffra: piano

 

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MrBeethovenfan

Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.4 in D minor, S.359 No.4 (orchestral version)
Herbert von Karajan / Berliner Philharmoniker

Not the best known of the Hungarian Rhapsodies, this would certainly be recognizable as one on first hearing.

• Music

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Historic musical bits: VICTOR MERZHANOV – Liszt. Six Grandes Études de Paganini (1851), S.141, great compositions/performances

VICTOR MERZHANOV – Liszt. Six Grandes Études de Paganini (1851), S.141

robshelrobshel

VICTOR MERZHANOV, piano

Franz Liszt. Six Grandes Études de Paganini (1851), S.141

1. Étude No. 1 (g minor)
2. Étude No. 2 (E-flat Major) 04:59
3. Étude No. 3 (g-sharp minor) (La Campanella) 09:46
4. Étude No. 4 (E Major) 14:37
5. Étude No. 5 (La chasse) (E Major) 16:38
6. Étude No. 6 (Theme and Variations) (a minor) 19:20

Recorded in 1951 (2, 6) and 1955

**************************************************************

Victor Merzhanov at Moscow Conservatory (2010)

Merzhanov was born in Tambov and studied at Tambov Musical College with Solomon Starikov and Alexander Poltoratsky. Between 1936-1941 he studied at the Moscow Conservatory in the classes of Samuil Feinberg (piano) and Alexander Goedicke (organ), graduating with distinction.

He achieved international recognition as a pianist in 1945 when he won the first prize (shared with Sviatoslav Richter) at the Third All-Soviet-Union Piano Competition. In 1949, he was placed tenth at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Merzhanov became a Moscow Philharmony soloist in 1946.

Merzhanov was a Professor at the Moscow Conservatory from 1947 until his death. Among his students are prize-winners of international competitions: Vladimir Bunin, Oleg Volkov, Igor Girfanov, Joanna Li, Yuri Didenko, Mikhail Olenev, Hideyo Harada, Nazzareno Carusi, Tatiana Shebanova, Ruslan Sviridov, Irina Khovanskaya, Anna Yarovaya, Anahit Nersesyan, Elena Ulyanova and many others. His name is inscribed on the Moscow Conservatory’s marble wall along with those of Alexander Scriabin and Sergei Rachmaninoff. He was also a professor at the Tambov Rachmaninov Institute.

During his 60-year stage career, Merzhanov gave more than 2,000 recitals and concerts in Russia, Europe, the United States, China, and other countries, with such conductors as Lorin Maazel, Kurt Sanderling, Kirill Kondrashin, Nikolai Anosov, Aleksandr Gauk, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Yuri Temirkanov and Yevgeny Svetlanov.

His recordings (recorded for the Soviet label Melodiya and subsequently also released by various labels in the United States, Italy and Japan) show his repertoire, including works from the Baroque period to contemporary music, from works by Bach and Beethoven to those by Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

From the start of his career he championed contemporary classical music. He was chosen by Prokofiev to give the first performance of his Sixth Sonata. He sat as a jury member in more than 40 international competitions including the Rachmaninov Competition (which he founded), the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, the Bartók-Liszt Competition in Budapest, and international competitions in Montreal, Tokyo, Brussels and others. In addition Merzhanov was the artistic director of the Rachmaninov Piano Courses and contributed to the Rachmaninov Museum at the Ivanovka estate near Tambov.

Victor Merzhanov died on December 20, 2012 in Moscow. He is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
*************************************************************************
 The Grandes études de Paganini are a series of six études for the piano by Franz Liszt, revised in 1851 from an earlier version (published as Études d’exécution transcendante d’après Paganini, S.140, in 1838). It is almost exclusively in the final version that these pieces are played today.

The pieces are all based on the compositions of Niccolò Paganini for violin, and are among the most technically demanding pieces in the piano

literature (especially the original versions, before Liszt revised them, thinning the textures and removing some of the more outrageous technical difficulties). The pieces run the gamut of technical hurdles, and frequently require very large stretches by the performer of an eleventh (although all stretches greater than a tenth were removed from the revised versions).

Grandes Études de Paganini

Revised version (1851), S.141 – dedicated to Madame Clara Schumann

• Étude No. 1 in G minor (Preludio, Andante; Etude – Non troppo lento) (“Tremolo”) – after the 6th caprice (with the introduction and coda of the 5th).
• Étude No. 2 in E-flat major (Andante capriccioso) – after the 17th caprice.
• Étude No. 3 in G-sharp minor (Allegretto) (La campanella) – after the final movement of Paganini’s Violin Concerto #2 in B minor.
• Étude No. 4 in E major (Vivo) (“Arpeggio”) – after the 1st caprice. Written on one line only, omitting the usual separate line for the left hand. Furthermore, its lowest tone is the g, the score thus mimicking a score for violin.
• Étude No. 5 in E major (La chasse) (Allegretto) – after the 9th caprice.
• Étude No. 6 in A minor (Theme and Variations) (Quasi presto, a capriccio) – after the 24th caprice.

Franz Liszt – Via Crucis, S53/R534

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Published on Nov 9, 2012

Conductor: Diego Fasolis
Choir: Lugano Radio Svizzera Choir
Artists: Crivellaro, Paolo; Fasolis, Diego; Labusch, Dorothee; Rausch, Ulrich; Zanasi, Furio

Franz Liszt – Via Crucis, S53/R534

Vexilla regis prodeunt 00:03:47

Station I: Jesus wird zum Tode verdammt 00:01:04
Station II: Jesus tragt sein Kreuz 00:01:53
Station III: Jesus fallt zum ersten Mal 00:01:28
Station IV: Jesus begegnet seiner heiligen Mutter 00:01:41
Station V: Simon von Kyrene hilft Jesus das Kreuz tragen 00:02:10
Station VI: Sancta Veronica 00:02:23
Station VII: Jesus fallt zum zweiten Mal 00:01:22
Station VIII: Die Frauen von Jerusalem 00:02:13
Station IX: Jesus fallt zum dritten Mal 00:01:14
Station X: Jesus wird entkleidet 00:01:21
Station XI: Jesus wird ans Kreuz geschlagen 00:00:46
Station XII: Jesus stirbt am Kreuze 00:06:53
Station XIII: Jesus wird vom Kreuz genommen 00:03:08
Station XIV: Jesus wird ins Grab gelegt 00:04:34

• Music

  • “Station VI: Sancta Veronica” by Diego Fasolis (Google Play • iTunes • eMusic • AmazonMP3)

LISZT: Concerto no. 2 – Riccardo Muti, conductor / Paolo Restani, piano

Cesare Flaiano

Published on May 22, 2012

Franz Liszt: Concerto no. 2 for piano and orchestra R. 456
Riccardo Muti, conductor
Paolo Restani, piano
Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala
June 27, 2004
******************************************************
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franz Liszt wrote drafts for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A major, S.125, during his virtuoso period, in 1839 to 1840. He then put away the manuscript for a decade. When he returned to the concerto, he revised and scrutinized it repeatedly. The fourth and final period of revision ended in 1861. Liszt dedicated the work to his student Hans von Bronsart, who gave the first performance, with Liszt conducting, in Weimar on January 7, 1857.

A typical performance of this concerto lasts about 20 minutes.

Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for solo piano, three flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets in A, two bassoons, two horns in E, two trumpets in E, three trombones (two tenor, bass), tuba, timpani in D and A, cymbals and strings.

Form

This concerto is one single, long movement, divided into six sections that are connected by transformations of several themes:

• Adagio sostenuto assai

  The key musical idea of this concerto comes at the beginning. Quietly yet confidently, half a dozen woodwinds, no more than five at a time, play a sequence of two chords—an A major chord with a C sharp on top, then a dominant seventh on F natural. The first chord sounds very ordinary. The second opens possibilities unhinted by what preceded it. One note connects the two chords—an A. This sequence sounds colorful and strange yet inevitable and easily grasped.

• Allegro agitato assai

  This is technically the scherzo of the piece. It starts in B-flat minor and ends in C-sharp minor.

• Allegro moderato

  This section contains a great deal of lyricism and proceeds at an unhurried pace. Among its charms is a metamorphosis of the opening theme, played by solo cello while accompanied by the piano, showing the influence of Italian bel canto on Liszt’s work.

• Allegro deciso
• Marziale un poco meno allegro

  Yet another transformation of the gentle opening theme, this movement has also nearly always been attacked as vulgar and a betrayal of both the initial character of this theme and the concerto on the whole. American musicologist Robert Winter disagreed. He called the march “a masterstroke that demonstrates the full emotional range of thematic transformation.”^[1] The march contains the force and weight needed to reestablish the home key of A major, from which the music has been moving quite far since the concerto opened.

• Allegro animato

Overview

The second concerto, while less virtuosic than the First Piano Concerto, shows far more originality in form. In this respect it reveals a closer link to Liszt’s better known symphonic poems in both style and structure. Also, while the final version of the First Concerto could be considered a soloist’s showpiece, the Second shows Liszt attempting to confirm his compositional talent while distancing himself from his virtuoso performance origins. Liszt is less generous with technical devices for the soloist such as scales in octaves and contrary motion; instead of an overbearing virtuoso, the pianist often becomes an accompanist to woodwinds and strings. The soloist does not dominate the thematic material—in fact, after the opening, the pianist never has the theme in its original form. Instead, his role is to create, or at least seem to create, inventive variations that lead the listener through a series of thematic transformations. The various pauses and silences are not intended breaks in the musical flow but rather as transitions in the musical discourse. “Organic unity” lends structure to the entire work.^[2]

Franz Liszt – 14 Schubert Lieder , great compositions/performances

Franz Liszt – 14 Schubert Lieder

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Published on Nov 14, 2012

Oxana Yablonskaya, piano
Franz Liszt – 14 Schubert Lieder
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 2. Auf dem Wasser zu singen 00:04:59
Schubert – Winterreise, S561/R246: No. 6. Wasserflut 00:02:30
Schubert – Mullerlieder, S565/R249: No. 2. Der Muller under der Bach 00:07:10
Schubert – Schwanengesang, S560/R245: No. 8. Ihr Bild 00:02:34
Schubert – Schwanengesang, S560/R245: No. 7. Standchen (Leise flehen meine Lieder) 00:07:06
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 9. Standchen (Horch, horch! Der Lerch’) 00:02:47
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 1. Sei mir gegrusset 00:06:06
Schubert – 6 Melodies, S563/R248: No. 4. Trockne Blumen 00:04:15
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 7: Fruhlingsglaube 00:05:00
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 3. Du bist die Ruh 00:06:08
Schubert – Schwanengesang, S560/R245: No. 12. Der Doppelganger 00:04:41
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 8: Gretchen am Spinnrade 00:04:28
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 11. Der Wanderer 00:07:16
Schubert – Schwanengesang, S560/R245: No. 3. Aufenthalt 00:03:51

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Claudio Arrau. ” Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178 “. Franz Liszt . * , great compositions/performances

Claudio Arrau. ” Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178 “. Franz Liszt . * Pinturas de Catrin Wels Stein *

Caminodeita

Claudio Arrau León (1903-1991)

“The greatest pianist of Chile to the World”

Claudio Arrau was born in Chillán June 1st February 1903. His father, Carlos Arrau Ojeda, died when he was only a year. His mother, Lucrecia Leon, piano teacher, directed his first steps and learning in the world of music. His ability was such that at 5 years performed his first concert at the Teatro Municipal de Chillán.

By 1909, he completed a series of hearings before Congress and the President Pedro Montt, which resulted in the delivery of a scholarship –a lasted ten years from 1911 to study in Germany, at which point it would become a true citizen of the world. Moved to Berlin with his mother and brothers, Carlos and Lucrecia, began his studies with teachers of great prestige. In 1913, from the approach that came with Rosita Renard, who was studying piano at the same European city, the teacher Martin Krause was linked. Their relationship went beyond the academic, Arrau considered it as his father figure. Krause‘s death in 1918, resulted in the young a setback.

Already enshrined in Germany around 1920, both seasoned classic–romantic music and avant-garde contemporary compositions interpreter, Arrau undertook several tours of North America, South America and Chile which eventually confirmed his virtuosity world.

In 1933 he debuted musically in Mexico. There, three years later he played the music of the film José Bohr Dream of love, based on the life of Liszt, and participated in the film by the same director Who Killed Eve?

At the start of World War II left, with his wife, his residence in Nazi Germany, settling in the United States.

It began to be extensively disseminated through two piano rolls, produced in London in 1922, but it was with the countless musical productions made from the 1950s that saw the mass of Arrau worldwide, reaching audiences of the most varied segments.

The appellant Arrau repertoire consisted of works by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin and Debussy. Chilean authors could only have a few works of Pedro Humberto Allende, Acario Cotapos and Domingo Santa Cruz.

His life was marked by the absence of Chile, even when about twenty musical visits, always characterized by the warm reception popular feature. In his eighties he was awarded the National Prize of Musical Arts.

He died in the city of Mürzzuschlag in Austria, June 9, 1991.

(Memoriachilena.cl)

* Paintings by Catrin Welz Stein *

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Part of page 9 from the original music manuscript of the sonata.

The Sonata in B minor (German: Klaviersonate h-moll), S.178, is a sonata for solo piano by Franz Liszt. It was completed in 1853 and published in 1854 with a dedication to Robert Schumann.

Scholar Alan Walker described it as “arguably one of the greatest keyboard works … of the nineteenth century”.^[1] The piece has received a lot of analytical attention,^[2] particularly regarding its musical form.

Sviatoslav Richter – Liszt – Piano Concerto No 1 in E flat major, great compositions/performances

Sviatoslav Richter – Liszt – Piano Concerto No 1 in E flat major

Opus 21

Published on Apr 21, 2014

Franz Liszt
Piano Concerto No 1 in E flat major, S 124

00:00 Allegro maestoso
05:08 Quasi adagio – Allegretto vivace
13:49 Allegro marziale animato

Sviatoslav Richter, piano

London Symphony Orchestra
Kyrill Kondrashin, conductor

Liszt Chasse-neige Transcedental Etude #12, Valentina Lisitsa:, great compositions/performances

Liszt Chasse-neige Transcedental Etude #12 Valentina Lisitsa

   ValentinaLisitsa

Liszt has chosen a fitting title- “Chasse-neige” – for his brooding “finale” of 12 Transcendental Etudes. While today this word in French means totally different things ( I had quite amusing conversations with native French speakers about it and i am sure there will be heated arguments here too:)) – it is associated with skiing and actually can mean “a snowplower”, Liszt had other things in mind.
Loosely translated as “Snowstorm”, “Blizzard”, “метель” in Russian – this is a truthful depiction of one of the most fearsome expressions of Mother Nature powers. If anyone could paint with notes, Liszt certainly did. We can literally see and hear the ominous lead-black clouds, snow being driven horizontally by fierce howling winds, everything disappearing under a thick shroud of white snow, muffled cries of help from faceless victims… Even today, with all our modern technology, we are helpless in a face of nature’s fury. Our roads close, our planes unable to fly, our phones do not work, our lights and heat go off…
Thus, an average human being, living a pampered life with indoor plumbing in New York City of 21st century turns out to be just as helpless and vulnerable as our ancestors on villages of middle ages. And the whole “civilization” facade melts away under few dozen inches of rising water or couple of feet of snow. A sobering thought.

more from Valentina Lisitsa HERE , HERE

Sheng Cai plays Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 (Super Crazy version !!! ): great compositions/interpetations

Sheng Cai plays Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 (Super Crazy version !!! )

EraPianist

Follow SHENG CAI on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sheng-…
Live at Markham Flato Theatre
Sheng Cai plays Liszt-Horowitz Hungarian Rhapsody No.2

Recorded live on January 19th, 2014

Franz Liszt: Années de Pèlerinage: Make music part of you rlife series

Années de Pèlerinage

  booktunesblog

a Booktunes soundtrack to Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

Artist:
Lazar Berman

Composer:
Franz Liszt

Album:
Années de Pèlerinage (side b)

Première Année: Suisse
Le Mal Du Pay
Les Cloches De Genève
Deuxième Année: Italie
Sposalizio
Il Penseroso
Canzonetta Del Salvador Rosa
Sonetto 47 Del Petrarca

Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Melodies AKA XIV.Hungarian Rhapsody for Piano & Orchestra S123

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Melodies
AKA XIV.Hungarian Rhapsody for Piano & Orchestra S123
Oravecz György (piano)
Budapest Symphony Orchestra
Kocsár Balázs (cond.)
Recording Year: 1995

00:00 Andante mesto
01:55 Adagio
02:41 Allegro molto
02:57 Allegro eroico
04:40 Piu animato
05:22 Molto adagio, quasi fantasia
06:09 Moderato.Fest.
07:00 Allegretto a la Zingarese
09:00 Molto animato
09:50 Adagio
10:33 Vivace assai
12:45 Frisch
12:50 Prestissimo

Other recommended live-video with Oravecz György:
Tom & Jerry – The Cat Concerto from Hungary/Budapest, 2012,June 8.
Liszt II. Rhapsody for piano & orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7rxj0…

Recordings with Oravecz György:
[Oravecz György] Liszt: XIV.Hungarian Rhapsody for Piano Solo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgOCO-…
[Oravecz György] Liszt: Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Melodies for Piano & Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBuuwA…
[Oravecz György] Liszt: Totentanz for Piano Solo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01zFys…
[Oravecz György] Liszt: Totentanz for Piano & Orchestra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2FPuP…

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Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto #1 in Eb S.124(Richter)

  SuperOllywood

Performed by: Sviatoslav Richter
Better quality, all in one video and in widescreen!
00:04 – 1st Movement – Allegro Maestoso
05:14 – 2nd Movement – Quasi Adagio
10:14 – 3rd Movement – Allegretto Vivace
14:12 – 4th Movement – Allegro Marziale Animato

• Purchase

  • Piano Concerto No. 1, in E-Flat: Allegretto vivace: Allegro animato (Google Play • AmazonMP3 • iTunes • eMusic)

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Frédéric Chopin – 24 Études Op. 10 & Op. 25 and 3 Nouvelles Études | Claudio Arrau, piano: make music part of your life series

Frédéric Chopin – 24 Études Op. 10 & Op. 25 and 3 Nouvelles Études | Claudio Arrau, piano

Frédéric Chopin – 12 Études Opp. 10 & 25. 3 Nouvelles Études. (Claudio Arrau, “The Philosopher of the Piano”, 1956) (2007 Digital Remastering)
Recorded: 15-22 & 29.VI. and 5.IX.1956, No.3, Abbey Road Studios, London. First issued in 1957 by Columbia Ltd. Mono/ADD
“Great Recordings of the 20th Century”. EMI Icons, EMI Classics, 2011 & Warner Classics, 2013.

I. Book No.1: 12 Etudes for Piano Op.10, 1830-32.
Before Chopin, there was a tradition of writing studies for the development of keyboard technique, but the pieces were primarily didactic. This set of 12 Études, dedicated to Liszt, represents a new form: concert pieces that serve a secondary function as development of advanced piano skills. Each étude begins with a pattern of pianistic figuration, which creates the specific technical problem for the étude and persists for the duration of the piece. That Chopin was able to create poetry in spite of such controlled and limited means of expression is a testament to his creative genius. The twelve Études published as Chopin’s Opus 10 are an indispensable tool of the modern pianist’s craft: they are a rite of passage that no serious pianist can ignore.
00:00 Nº 1 in C major. Allegro
01:59 Nº 2 in A minor. Allegro
03:23 Nº 3 in E major. Lento ma non troppo (Tritesse – L’intimite) – http://youtu.be/FKDir13g7ow
07:55 Nº 4 in C sharp minor. Presto (Torrent)
10:10 Nº 5 in G flat major. Vivace (Black Keys)
11:55 Nº 6 in E flat minor. Andante
14:49 Nº 7 in C major. Vivace (Toccata)
16:26 Nº 8 in F major. Allegro
18:51 Nº 9 in F minor. Allegro molto agitato
21:00 Nº 10 in A flat major. Vivace assai
23:14 Nº 11 in E flat major. Allegretto
26:17 Nº 12 in C minor. Allegro con fuoco (Revolutionary – Fall of Warsaw)

II. Book No.2: 12 Etudes for Piano Op.25, 1835-37.
This Op.25 collection bears a dedication to Liszt’s mistress, Countess Marie d’Agoult, a writer who used the pseudonym Daniel Stern (the Op.10 Études are dedicated to Franz Liszt). One reason Chopin attempted to capture Liszt’s sympathies with the dedications had to do with the performance design of the pieces in the two sets: each was written to highlight some facet of pianism.
28:57 Nº 1 in A flat major. Allegro sostenuto (Aeolian Harp – Shepherd Boy)
31:21 Nº 2 in F minor. Presto (Balm)
33:05 Nº 3 in F major. Allegro (Carwheel)
35:08 Nº 4 in A minor. Agitato
37:28 Nº 5 in E minor. Vivace
40:52 Nº 6 in G sharp minor. Allegro (Thirds)
43:00 Nº 7 in C sharp minor. Lento (Cello)
48:21 Nº 8 in D flat major. Vivace (Sixths)
49:30 Nº 9 in G flat major. Allegro assai (Butterfly)
50:35 Nº 10 in B minor. Allegro con fuoco
55:04 Nº 11 in A minor. Lento – Allegro con brio (Winter Wind)
58:41 Nº 12 in C minor. Allegro molto con fuoco (Ocean)

III. Trois Nouvelles Études for piano, 1839-40.
Chopin composed this set of etudes for the Méthode des methods, a publication of Ignaz Moscheles, a leading pianist and composer of his day who was not always in agreement with Chopin’s compositional techniques, and François-Joseph Fétis, a now largely forgotten Belgian musicologist.
1:01:26 Nº 1 in F minor
1:03:31 Nº 2 in A flat major
1:05:56 Nº 3 in D flat major

As always with Arrau, the Pianist takes a back seat to Music Making, are a prime example of how myth making regarding Arrau’s Recordings. Arrau approaches Chopin’s Etudes as a genuinely mature musician and sensitive interpreter. In Opus 10, No. 3, for instance, he infuses the music with a deep sadness that recalls its XIX Century title, “La Tristesse.” Incidentally, this record received the Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin from the Warsaw Chopin Society when it was re-released in 1990.

The 24 Études of Frédéric Chopin (divided into two separate opuses, 10 and 25, but actually composed almost simultaneously) remain the most significant entries in that particular musical genre. Chopin refers, in a letter dating from the fall of 1829, to having written a study “in [his] own manner,” and indeed, a great chasm stands between his achievements and the far drier études of his predecessors (one thinks of Moscheles, Czerny, and Hummel in particular). It was not Chopin’s intent, as it was with many nineteenth-century pianist-composers, to create studies of mere technique and raw dexterity; here, instead, are works with an inexhaustible array of textures, moods, and colors to explore. These are works meant for the concert hall as well as for the practice room

Despite the slightly cramped, airless sonics, Arrau’s characteristically warm and ample sonority makes itself felt in these 1956 recordings. The pianist uncovers layers of depth and disquiet in the slower Études that others merely prettify. The treacherous extensions in the E-Flat Étude, for instance, are distinctly projected and balanced, rather than strummed. Arrau’s spectacularly honest technique enables him to articulate Chopin’s sparkling figurations with a liquid legato unaided by the pedal.

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Études de concert (3), for piano, S. 144 – Claudio Arrau – HD: great compositions/performances

FROM:

    hellsan631

Études de concert (3), for piano, S. 144 – Claudio Arrau – HD

Includes all 3 movements. Taken from “Liszt: The Piano Concertos; 3 Etudes de Concert (1976)”

1. Il lamento  0:00 to 10:40

2. La leggierezza  10:50 to 16:16

3. Un sospiro  16:24 to 22:28

**Quality – AAC, audio bitrate: 320kbps
Video MP4 – 348kbps

***Perhaps the most Beautiful piece of music is the 3rd movement. There is another version of it on YouTube, but it is in extremely low audio quality. With this recording, you can sometimes hear the performer’s clothes move, or his breathing, only slightly.

***If I enjoy the rest of the CD enough, I will upload the other 2 piano concertos.

Credits:
Franz Liszt
Claudio Arrau (Piano)
Recorded in London England, November of 1976
Philips Classics

*Change to 720p Video to get the a 192 kbps Audio Stream (the highest you can get on YouTube)

Liszt: The Piano Concertos; 3 Etudes de Concert
Études de concert (3), for piano, S. 144 (LW A118)

MQ0001081958
MC0002358753
F 2049358
C 11442

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Three Concert Études (Trois études de concert), S.144, are a set of three piano études by Franz Liszt, composed between 1845–49 and published in Paris as Trois caprices poétiques with the three individual titles as they are known today.^[1] As the title indicates, they are intended not only for the acquisition of a better technique, but also for concert performance. The Italian subtitles now associated with the studies – Il lamento (“The Lament”), La leggierezza (“Lightness”), Un sospiro (“A sigh”) – were not in early editions.^[2]

Étude No. 1, Il lamento

Il lamento is the first of Liszt’s Three Concert Études. Written in A-flat major, it is among the composer’s longest pieces in this genre. It starts with a four-note lyrical melody which folds itself through the work, followed by a Chopin-like chromatic pattern which reappears again in the coda section. Although this piece opens and ends in A-flat major, it shifts throughout its three parts to many other keys including A, G, B, D-sharp, F-sharp and B.^[1]

Étude No. 2, La leggierezza

La leggierezza (meaning “lightness”) is the second of the Three Concert Études. It is a monothematic piece in F minor with a very simple melodic line in each hand under an unusual Quasi allegretto tempo marking, usually ignored in favour of something a bit more frenetic.^[3] It starts with a fast, but delicate sixteen chromatic-note arpeggio divided in thirds and sixths under an irregular rhythmic subdivision and cadenza so as to underline the light atmosphere of its title.^[3] The technical difficulties involved are fast passages of minor thirds in the right hand and light, but quick leggiero chromatic scales.

Étude No. 3, Un sospiro

The third of the Three Concert Études is in D-flat major, and is usually known as Un sospiro (Italian for “A sigh”). However, it is likely that the title did not originate with Liszt. Although there is no evidence that he actively attempted to remove the subtitle, none of the editions or subsequent printings of the Three Concert Études published by Kistner during Liszt’s lifetime used them; he simply ignored such subtitles in later years, always referring to the piece by key.

The étude is a study in crossing hands, playing a simple melody with alternating hands, and arpeggios. It is also a study in the way hands should affect the melody with its many accentuations, or phrasing with alternating hands. The melody is quite dramatic, almost Impressionistic, radically changing in dynamics at times, and has inspired many listeners.

Un sospiro consists of a flowing background superimposed by a simple melody written in the third staff. This third staff—an additional treble staff—is written with the direction to the performer that notes with the stem up are for the right hand and notes with the stem down are for the left hand. The background alternates between the left and right hands in such a way that for most of the piece, while the left hand is playing the harmony, the right hand is playing the melody, and vice versa, with the left hand crossing over the right as it continues the melody for a short while before regressing again. There are also small cadenza sections requiring delicate fingerwork throughout the middle section of the piece.

Towards the end, after the main climax of the piece, both hands are needed to cross in an even more complex pattern. Since there are so many notes to be played rapidly and they are too far away from other clusters of notes that must be played as well, the hands are required to cross multiple times to reach dramatic notes near the end of the piece on the last page.

This étude, along with the other Three concert études, was written in dedication to Liszt’s uncle, Eduard Liszt (1817–1879), the youngest son of Liszt’s grandfather and the stepbrother of his own father. Eduard handled Liszt’s business affairs for more than thirty years until his death in 1879.

In film

• It was part of the film score in the 1948 Paul Gordon film “Concert Magic“.
• The piece was used as the recurring musical theme in the 1948 Max Ophüls film Letter from an Unknown Woman.
• It was the main theme from the Franz Liszt bio picture of 1960, Song Without End.
• It was also part of the critically acclaimed ensembles of the 1996 Scott Hicks film called “Shine” about a pianist’s struggle.
• It was also an inspiring piano piece in the 2000 Jun Ichikawa film called Zawa-zawa Shimo-Kitazawa for a Japanese girl finding her way in life.
• It was featured in the 2009 TV show Kings twice in the pilot.
• It appeared in the 2011 film The Green Hornet when the character Kato is playing the piano with Lenore on their first date.
  

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Liszt Concerto #2 file1 Valentina Lisitsa (audio): great compositions/performances

FROM:

  ValentinaLisitsa

Liszt Concerto #2 file1 Valentina Lisitsa (audio)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franz Liszt wrote drafts for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A major, S.125, during his virtuoso period, in 1839 to 1840. He then put away the manuscript for a decade. When he returned to the concerto, he revised and scrutinized it repeatedly. The fourth and final period of revision ended in 1861. Liszt dedicated the work to his student Hans von Bronsart, who gave the first performance, with Liszt conducting, in Weimar on January 7, 1857.

Form

This concerto is one single, long movement, divided into six sections that are connected by transformations of several themes:

• Adagio sostenuto assai

  The key musical idea of this concerto comes at the beginning. Quietly yet confidently, half a dozen woodwinds, no more than five at a time, play a sequence of two chords—an A major chord with a C sharp on top, then a dominant seventh on F natural. The first chord sounds very ordinary. The second opens possibilities unhinted by what preceded it. One note connects the two chords—an A. This sequence sounds colorful and strange yet inevitable and easily grasped.

• Allegro agitato assai

  This is technically the scherzo of the piece. It starts in B-flat minor and ends in C-sharp minor.

• Allegro moderato

  This section contains a great deal of lyricism and proceeds at an unhurried pace. Among its charms is a metamorphosis of the opening theme, played by solo cello while accompanied by the piano, showing the influence of Italian bel canto on Liszt’s work.

• Allegro deciso

• Marziale un poco meno allegro

  Yet another transformation of the gentle opening theme, this movement has also nearly always been attacked as vulgar and a betrayal of both the initial character of this theme and the concerto on the whole. American musicologist Robert Winter disagreed. He called the march “a masterstroke that demonstrates the full emotional range of thematic transformation.”^[1] The march contains the force and weight needed to reestablish the home key of A major, from which the music has been moving quite far since the concerto opened.

• Allegro animato

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Franz Liszt – Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo: make music part of your life series

Franz Liszt – Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo

FROM

  Fledermaus1990
Happy 200th Birthday to Franz Liszt!

Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 — July 31, 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.

Liszt became renowned throughout Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age and perhaps the greatest pianist of all time.

Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo.

Franz Liszt composed his Tasso, Lamento e trionfo (Tasso, Lament and Triumph) in 1849, revising it in 1850-51 and again in 1854. It is numbered No. 2 in his cycle of 13 symphonic poems written during his Weimar period.

Liszt’s first sketch for this work is dated August 1, 1849. He had heard the principal theme for Tasso in Venice, Italy several years earlier, however, using it in the 1840 version of his piano piece “Chant do Goldolier” in Venezia e Napoli. Liszt completed the 1849 verion of Tasso as an overture in two sections, giving it to August Conradi to orchestrate. This version was performed in Weimar, Germany on the centennial of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe‘s birth as an overture to his drama Torquato Tasso. Liszt later corrected Conradi’s score and had Joachim Raff produce a new score in 1850–51. Liszt then revised this score extensively, adding a central section. This version was performed on April 19, 1854 in Weimar, conducted by Liszt.

Conductor: Michel Plasson
Orchestra: Dresdner Philharmonie

make music part of your life series: Franz Liszt: Au lac de Wallenstadt S160 no. 2

[youtube.com/watch?v=LCjvHVzjs_s]

Franz Liszt: Au lac de Wallenstadt S160 no. 2

Liszt – Années de Pèlerinage
I. Suisse
2.Au lac de Wallenstadt

great compositions/performances: Johann Sebastian Bach – Fantasy and fugue in G minor BWV 542

[youtube.com/watch?v=-Br08w4qd80]

Johann Sebastian Bach – Fantasy and fugue in G minor BWV 542

Franz Hauk at the Great Klais Organ of Liebfrauenmünster Ingolstadt

*****From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia*****
The Great Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542, is an organ prelude and fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach. It acquired that name to distinguish it from the earlier Little Fugue in G minor, which is shorter. This piece is not to be confused with the Prelude and Fugue in A minor, which is also for organ and also sometimes called “the Great”.

It was transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt as S.463.

 

Robert Huw Morgan plays Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G minor on the Fisk-Nanney organ at the Stanford Memorial Church in Stanford, California.

 

 

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Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No 1 In C Sharp Minor

[youtube.com/watch?v=n-Juap63AA4]

 

Great Compositions/Performances: Liszt 3 Concert Etudes No 3 Un Sospiro Arrau Rec 1974

From Beckmesser2:  “For me. the most fascinating aspect of this recorded performance, by Claudio Arrau,is the interpolation of material not found in the original text. I suspect that these additional measures ,found after the second cadenza and three measures before the end, came from Liszt through his pupil Martin Krause, Arrau’s teacher.”

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Great Compositions/Performances: Franz Liszt: Liebeslied S 566 (Schumann: Widmung)

[youtube.com/watch?v=9GJfWGvQsxs]

Franz Liszt: Liebeslied S 566 (Schumann: Widmung)

Lang Lang

Berlin, April 28, 2011
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D 957, No. 4 Standchen ~ Franz Schubert

Schwanengesang (“Swan song“) is the title of a posthumous collection of songs by Franz Schubert.

The tombstone of Franz Schubert (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Unlike the earlier Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, it uses poems by three poets, Ludwig Rellstab (1799–1860), Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) and Johann Gabriel Seidl (1804-1875). Schwanengesang has the number D 957 in the Deutsch catalogue.

The collection was named by its first publisher Tobias Haslinger, presumably wishing to present it as Schubert’s final musical testament to the world.

In the original manuscript in Schubert’s hand, the first 13 songs were copied in a single sitting, on consecutive manuscript pages, and in the standard performance order. Some[who?] claim that the last song, Taubenpost, text by Johann Gabriel Seidl (1804–1875), catalogue number D 965 A, is not part of the cycle as Schubert conceived it. However, it’s not clear that Schubert intended it to be a cycle at all, or if he did, that he completed it before he died. It may have been Tobias Haslinger, Schubert’s publisher, who conceived of it as a cycle, or attempted to finish an incomplete work by adding Taubenpost onto the end. So most people consider Haslinger’s published version ‘the’ version, and that’s how it’s performed today. Taubenpost is considered to be Schubert’s last Lied.

Franz Liszt later transcribed these songs for solo piano.

Schubert also set to music a poem named Schwanengesang by Johann Senn, unrelated to this collection (number D744 in the Deutsch catalogue). ~Taken from Wikipedia

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Make Music Part of Your Life: Horowitz plays Wagner-Liszt Isolde’s Liebestod

Last but not least. It took the legendary pianist three separate days to record this piece to his satisfaction, and he died a mere four days after its completion on November 5, 1989. 

Horowitz did not record the other Liszt transcriptions of Wagner such as the Tanhauser Overture, though the biography by authored Harold Schonberg noted that he played an enormous amount of his own transcriptions of operatic music, including the Ride of the Valkyrie. However, Horowitz did not programme most of them once he arrived in the United States.

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Classical Music Mix – Best Classical Pieces Part II (2/2)

A mix with some of the best classical pieces in the world. Part II

Compositions name list:

00:00 – Amilcare Ponchielli – Dance of the Hours
05:20 – Bach – Tocata And Fugue In D Minor
12:03 – Beethoven – 5th Symphony (1st movement)
19:08 – Beethoven – 9th Symphony (Ode To Joy)
25:23 – Beethoven – Für Elise (piano version)
28:18 – Carl Orff – O Fortuna (Carmina Burana)
30:57 – Georges Bizet – Habanera
33:06 – Frederic Chopin – Funeral March
38:16 – Delibes – The Flower Duet (Lakmé)
42:49 – Edvard Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King
45:17 – Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 (orchestra version)
55:48 – Georges Bizet – Les Toreadors
58:07 – Händel – Messiah – Hallelujah Chorus
1:02:08 – Mozart – Serenade No 13 (Allegro)
1:07:53 – Offenbach – Can Can
1:10:05 – Rossini – William Tell Overture
1:13:29 – Aram Khachaturian – Sabre Dance
1:15:53 – Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture
1:24:19 – Tchaikovsky – Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
1:26:48 – Vivaldi – Four Seasons (spring)

 

Great Compostions/Performances: Rhapsodie D’Auvergne for Piano and Orchestra By Saint-Saens

Rhapsodie D’Auvergne for Piano and Orchestra By Saint-Saens

(2008 Annual Concert at Glenn Gould Studio Toronto Soloist:Emily Pei’En Fan Conductor: Tony Fan with Chinese Artists Society of Toronto Youth Orchestra)

Saint-Saens: Later years

Camille Saint-Saëns, 1915.

In 1886 Saint-Saëns debuted two of his most renowned compositions: The Carnival of the Animals andSymphony No. 3, dedicated to Franz Liszt, who died that year. That same year, however, Vincent d’Indyand his allies had Saint-Saëns removed from the Société Nationale de Musique. Two years later, Saint-Saëns’s mother died, driving the mourning composer away from France to the Canary Islands under the alias “Sannois”. Over the next several years he travelled around the world, visiting exotic locations in Europe, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America. Saint-Saëns chronicled his travels in many popular books using his nom de plume, Sannois.

In 1908, he had the distinction of being the first celebrated composer to write a musical score to a motion picture, The Assassination of the Duke of Guise (L’assassinat du duc de Guise), directed by Charles Le Bargy and André Calmettes, adapted by Henri Lavedan, featuring actors of the Comédie Française. It was 18 minutes long, a considerable run time for the day.

In 1915, Saint-Saëns traveled to San Francisco, California and guest conducted the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, one of two world’s fairs celebrating the completion of the Panama Canal.

Saint-Saëns continued to write on musical, scientific and historical topics, travelling frequently before spending his last years in Algiers, Algeria. In recognition of his accomplishments, the government of France awarded him the Légion d’honneur.

Saint-Saëns died of pneumonia on 16 December 1921 at the Hôtel de l’Oasis in Algiers. His body was repatriated to Paris, honoured by state funeral at La Madeleine, and interred at Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

Relationships with other composers

Saint-Saëns was either friend or enemy to some of Europe’s most distinguished musicians. He stayed close to Franz Liszt and maintained a fast friendship with his pupil Gabriel Fauré, who replaced him as organist and choirmaster when he retired. Additionally, he was a teacher and friend to Isidor Philipp, who headed the piano department at the Paris Conservatory for several decades and was a composer and editor of the music of many composers. But despite his strong advocacy of French music, Saint-Saëns openly despised many of his fellow-composers in France such as Franck, d’Indy, and Massenet. Saint-Saëns also hated the music of Claude Debussy; he is reported to have told Pierre Lalo, music critic, and son of composer Édouard Lalo, “I have stayed in Paris to speak ill of Pelléas et Mélisande.” The personal animosity was mutual; Debussy quipped: “I have a horror of sentimentality, and I cannot forget that its name is Saint-Saëns.” On other occasions, however, Debussy acknowledged an admiration for Saint-Saëns’s musical talents.

Saint-Saëns had been an early champion of Richard Wagner‘s music in France, teaching his pieces during his tenure at the École Niedermeyer and premiering the March from Tannhäuser. He had stunned even Wagner himself when he sight-read the entire orchestral scores of Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, andSiegfried, prompting Hans von Bülow to refer to him as, “the greatest musical mind” of the era. However, despite admitting appreciation for the power of Wagner’s work, Saint-Saëns defiantly stated that he was not an aficionado. In 1886, Saint-Saëns was punished for some particularly harsh and anti-German comments on the Paris production of Lohengrin by losing engagements and receiving negative reviews throughout Germany. Later, after World War I, Saint-Saëns angered both French and Germans with his inflammatory articles entitled Germanophilie, which ruthlessly attacked Wagner.^[2]

Saint-Saëns edited Jean-Philippe Rameau‘s Pièces de clavecin, and published them in 1895 through Durand in Paris (re-printed by Dover in 1993).

On 29 May 1913, Saint-Saëns stormed out of the première of Igor Stravinsky‘s Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), allegedly infuriated over what he considered the misuse of the bassoon in the ballet’s opening bars.

 

Great Compositions/Performances: Claudio Arrau Liszt Transcendental Etudes No. 11 Harmonies du soir

Claudio Arrau Liszt Transcendental Etudes No. 11 Harmonies du soir
In D-flat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

 

Cover of Franz Liszt

The first three bars of the Transcendental Étude No. 11

Transcendental Étude No. 11 in D-flat, “Harmonies du Soir” is the eleventhétude of the set of twelve Transcendental Études by Franz Liszt. This étude is a study in harmonies, broken chords played in quick succession, full octave jumps,chromatic harmonies, chord variations, interlocking hands, bravura, massive chords, especially proper pedaling, and performance as a whole.

This piece is considered one of the most artistic of the études, along with No. 12 “Chasse-neige”.

Origin

“Harmonies du Soir” was rooted from the seventh of the Études in Twelve Exercises, which was a study in alternating hands. However, the similarities in melody are apparent.

Content

 

Franz Liszt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The piece begins with an introduction containing slow broken octaves in the left hand and chords in the right hand. After a group of arpeggios, the main theme is introduced in the left hand, a beautiful descent followed by a chromatic ascent with harmonies changing with each note. It is accompanied in the right hand by bass notes (crossing over) and octaves which seem to “sing along” with the left hand. Eventually, after a build up with large chords in the right hand and octaves deep in the bass in the left hand, this theme is played again this time with harp like arpeggios in both hands. The piece continues in this manner for a while until the second theme, a chordal section marked Poco piu mosso is introduced. It begins pianississimo but then grows to an appassionato climax. The music then seems to fade out, followed by an entire new section of the piece, marked Piu lento con intimo sentimento. This section’s song like melody is accompanied by arpeggiation in both hands (bringing out the main melody is a surprising technical feat, due to the wide spacing of the arpeggios in each hand). After a recitative passage, the music goes somewhere unexpected. The second theme is brought back, this time fortissimo and marked triomfante with chords in both hands. The most technically difficult part of the entire piece consists of multiple pages of chordal jumps and repetition, requiring a large amount of stamina. The music eventually dies down, and after an arpeggiated variation of the first theme, the music dies out
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FABULOUS COMPOSITIONS/COMPOSERS: SMETANA MA VLAST – MOLDAU

 

Statue of Bedřich Smetana by the Vltava river (Photo credit: Jorge Lascar)

Má vlast (Czech pronunciation: [maː vlast], meaning”Mycountry/homeland”) is a set of six symphonic poems composed between 1874 and 1879 by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. While it is often presented as a single work in six movements and – with the exception of Vltava – is almost always recorded that way, the six pieces were conceived as individual works. They had their own separate premieres between 1875 and 1880; the premiere of the complete set took place on 5 November 1882 in Prague, under Adolf Čech, who had also conducted two of the individual premieres.

 

In these works Smetana combined the symphonic poem form pioneered by Franz Liszt with the ideals of nationalistic music which were current in the late nineteenth century. Each poem depicts some aspect of the countryside, history, or legends of Bohemia.

 

Vltava [DIE MOLDAU]

 

The Vltava in Prague

 

Vltava, also known by its German name Die Moldau (or The Moldau), was composed between 20 November and 8 December 1874 and was premiered on 4 April 1875 under Adolf Čech. It is about 12 minutes long, and is in the key of E minor.

 

In this piece, Smetana uses tone painting to evoke the sounds of one of Bohemia’s great rivers.^[2] In his own words:

 

The composition describes the course of the Vltava, starting from the two small springs, the Cold and Warm Vltava, to the unification of both streams into a single current, the course of the Vltava through woods and meadows, through landscapes where a farmer’s wedding is celebrated, the round dance of the mermaids in the night’s moonshine: on the nearby rocks loom proud castles, palaces and ruins aloft. The Vltava swirls into the St John’s Rapids; then it widens and flows toward Prague, past the Vyšehrad, and then majestically vanishes into the distance, ending at the Labe (orElbe, in German).

 

 

The piece contains Smetana’s most famous tune. It is an adaptation of the melody La Mantovana, attributed to the Italian renaissance tenor Giuseppe Cenci (also known as Giuseppino),^[3] which, in a borrowedMoldovan form, was also the basis for the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah. The tune also appears in major in an old folk Czech song Kočka leze dírou (“The Cat Crawls Through the Hole”), and Hanns Eislerused it for his “Song of the Moldau”.
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Schumann, Albumblatt op. 124 Nr. 16 (Schlummerlied), Wolfgang Weller 2012.

Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856)
Albumblätter op. 124 Nr. 16 “Schlummerlied”
Wolfgang Weller

Tempo Giusto

This recording is part of the ongoing Schumann-Project:
ROBERT SCHUMANN / COMPLETE PIANO WORKS / WOLFGANG WELLER

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LISZT La Campanella (S.141/3) – F.R.Duchable, 1974

Franz LISZT: Grandes études de Paganini, S.141, LW.A173 (1851)0:10 / No.3 – La Campanella. Allegretto in G-sharp minor (based on Paganini‘s 2nd Violin Concerto Op.7) [4’36”]
François-René DUCHABLE, piano
(rec: Paris, Salle Wagram, 1974)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

 

The Grandes études de Paganini are a series of six études for the piano by Franz Liszt, revised in 1851 from an earlier version (published asÉtudes d’exécution transcendante d’après Paganini, S.140, in 1838). It is almost exclusively in the final version that these pieces are played today.

The pieces are all based on the compositions of Niccolò Paganini for violin, and are among the most technically demanding pieces in the piano literature (especially the original versions, before Liszt revised them, thinning the textures and removing some of the more outrageous technical difficulties). The pieces run the gamut of technical hurdles, and frequently require very large stretches by the performer of an eleventh (although all stretches greater than a tenth were removed from the revised versions).

 

GREAT PERFORMANCES: Sviatoslav Richter – Liszt – Piano Concerto No 2 in A major, S 125

Franz Liszt
Piano Concerto No 2 in A major, S 125

00:00 Adagio – Allegro agitato assai
07:16 Allegro moderato – Allegro deciso
14:47 Marziale un poco meno allegro
18:48 Allegro animato

Sviatoslav Richter, piano

London Symphony Orchestra
Kyrill Kondrashin, conductor

 

Fabulous Composers/Compositions: Franz Liszt: Liebeslied S 566 “Widmung” by Robert Schumann Rare Transcription

Franz Liszt: Liebeslied S 566 “Widmung” by Robert Schumann Rare Transcription
Pianist Pablo Cintron performs a rare version of Franz Liszt Transciption Robert Schumann’s “Widmung” (“Dedication”) opens his song-cycle Myrthen (‘Myrtles’), which was appropriately named after the blossoms traditionally associated with marriage festivals, as it was his wedding present to his bride, Clara Wieck. He began composing songs as a means of proving his financial stability as a future husband, and in “Widmung”, as was the case with all his compositions of this genre, he deeply expressed his most heart-felt emotions; passion and devotion, fears and longing, frustration and suffering from their separation, and the hopes and dreams of their life together. He began the cycle in the early part of 1840, finishing it in April, well ahead of his self-established September deadline. When complete, “Widmung” and its accompanying poems were lavishly bound with a red velvet inscription, which affectionately read “To my beloved bride.” The song-cycle also contained the composition “Zum Schluss” (“‘In Conclusion'”), that together with “Widmung” made up the two Lieder der Braut (‘The Bride’s Songs), which form the most passionate outpouring in Myrthen. 

“Widmung” was one of five songs in Myrthen with texts from the poems of Friedrich Rückert. When Schumann became captivated by Rückert’s mastery of the rhythmic and technical aspects of poetry, he temporarily turned away from setting Heine’s writings. Schumann was at ease with Rückert’s words as they were slightly easier to set to music than those of the other poet. In “Widmung”, Schumann confessed all of the things Wieck was to him; his peace, angel, repose, rapture, heart, soul, grave for sorrows, better self and his heaven. In this carefully balanced arrangement of text and music, he revealed the depth of his engagement as a poet-musician. This spirited song contains a few devices which reappeared in his later works, including sweeping keyboard passages and the haunting enharmonic progression (A flat major to E flat major) to the central section. He altered the text by repeating the final verse, and these last measures contain a thoughtful instrumental effect, which eclipses the text and introduces a new motif. The work contains the tempo marking “Innig, Lebhaft 3/2,” and is often sung too slowly. The pattern of the accompaniment, rising and falling, reappeared in “Helft mir, ihr Schwestern Op. 42/5” and the melody was paraphrased in the heroine’s song of “Die Löwenbraut Op. 31/1”. “Widmung” was performed on several occasions throughout Schumann’s life, once with his “Das Paradies und die Peri Op. 50″ and another time with his Symphony in B flat major, at a benefit concert on March 31, 1841. The depth of the song had a widespread acceptance and effect, and in France, in 1849, Franz Liszt paved the way for Schumann’s influence, with a publication of “Widmung”, for solo piano. Only 40 of Schumann’s 150 solo songs are still commonly heard in recital halls; popular among vocalists at all levels, “Widmung” is included in that first number, as one of the 

 

Ave Maria Schubert Liszt Valentina Lisitsa

The most beautiful and inspired melody ever written, isn’t it? I don’t feel any kind of video or visual is adequate for this music. Too much action , with hands flying all over the keyboard ( Liszt made sure it is one of the most difficult transcriptions – ever ) . To fully enjoy it , download a free MP3 at my Google Music store:
https://market.android.com/details?id…
Outside of US download here : http://tinyurl.com/7zz3ewc
If you feel creative, please go ahead and make better visuals – or just use it as a soundtrack for a self-made Christmas card, or share it with your friends as is… Enjoy – and Merry Christmas !!!!
The video was recorded a week ago , in Hannover – for “Liszt project”, my attempt to recreate old style recording — with final result being an fully analogue vinyl LP…
PS. Turns out Google music is not available for non-US users. I uploaded it on file-sharing and links are available at my twitter account ( ValLisitsa) and Facebook. or directly:
http://tinyurl.com/7zz3ewc

Sheet music is available at IMSLP here ( it is a beautiful first edition in public domain ): 
http://tinyurl.com/7sln8xh

 

Fabulous Performamces: “Liszt Project” Recording Old-Fashioned Way:-) Analog Tape to Vinyl LP. Lisitsa

Recording of Liszt album in all analog ( or analogue if you will :-)) 1/4 inch Studer tape , no edits allowed !!!! 6 tapes , each one 40 minutes long is what it takes to get approximately 53 minutes of final result. I always knew that Liszt was dangerous 🙂 One tape was gone for sound tests , and another wasted on takes that had a squeeky pedal ( or was it a boot )? Anywya, here is more technical stuff…
Digital back-up ( lol) on Sequoia digital platform .
Interviews with the producer Michael Fine, sound engineers Wolf Dieter Karwatky and Wim Makkee. Liszt Ballade #2, Hungarian Rhapsody #12, Verdi – Liszt Aida, Schubert – Liszt songs (Ave Maria, Gute Nacht, Der Erlkonig, Der Muller und der Bach, Das Madchen Klage), Rondo Fantastique “El Contrabandista”.

 

Franz Liszt – Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (Orchestral Version)

The Mephisto Waltzes are four waltzes composed by Franz Liszt in 1859-62, 1880-81, 1883 and 1885. No. 1-2 were composed for orchestra, later arranged for piano, piano duet and two pianos, whereas 3 and 4 were written for piano only. 

Of the four, the first is the most popular and has been frequently performed in concert and recorded.

Conductor: Franz Welser-Most 
Orchestra: Wiener Philharmoniker

 

CHOPIN: Scherzo in E, Op. 54 – GEORGE WALKER

George Walker, piano

from Albany TROY697 (2005)

http://www.albanyrecords.com

The songs for voice and piano by George Walker are among the finest written by an American composer and are “as outstanding as they are varied” according to Fanfare Magazine. Modus for Chamber Ensemble was commissioned by the Cygnus Ensemble. It received its premiere in New York in March, 2001. The four movements are characterized by recurring motives and highly rhythmical sections of great intensity. The title, Modus, refers to the elegant techniques used to transform and unify the movements. The Prayer for Organ was composed in 1996, 50 years after Walker’s famous Lyric for Strings, a memorial to his grandmother, was written. The similarity between these two works lies in the use of contrapuntal techniques. The Improvisation on St. Theodulph is a fantasia on the melody stated before the work begins. The Prayer and the Improvisation were commissioned by the regional chapter of the American Guild of Organists in Washington, D.C. Spires was commissioned for performance by Dr. Mickey Thomas Terry at the Convention in Denver of the National Chapter of the American Guild of Organists in 1998.

Contents:
George Walker, composer
In Time of Silver Rain
Patricia Green, mezzo-soprano, George Walker, piano

George Walker, composer
I Never Saw A Moor
Patricia Green, mezzo-soprano, George Walker, piano

George Walker, composer
Mother Goose
Patricia Green, mezzo-soprano, George Walker, piano

George Walker, composer
Response
Patricia Green, mezzo-soprano, George Walker, piano

George Walker, composer
Softly, Blow Lightly
Patricia Green, mezzo-soprano, George Walker, piano

George Walker, composer
Wild Nights
Patricia Green, mezzo-soprano, George Walker, piano

George Walker, composer
Mary Wore Three Links of Chain
Patricia Green, mezzo-soprano, George Walker, piano

George Walker, composer
Modus for Chamber Ensemble
Tara O’Connor, flute, Robert Ingliss, oboe, William Anderson, guitar, Oren Fader, guitar, Calvin Wiersma, violin, Susannah Chapman, cello

Franz Liszt, composer
Sonetto del Petrarca 104
George Walker, piano

Franz Liszt, composer
Valse Oubliee No. 1
George Walker, piano

Frederic Chopin, composer
Mazurka in C, op. 33, no. 2
George Walker, piano

Frederic Chopin, composer
Mazurka in D flat, op. 30, no. 3
George Walker, piano

Frederic Chopin, composer
Mazurka in f minor, op. 63, no. 2
George Walker, piano

Frederic Chopin, composer
Etude in G flat, op. 10, no. 5
George Walker, piano

Frederic Chopin, composer
Scherzo in E, op. 54
George Walker, piano

George Walker, composer
Prayer
Trent Johnson, organ

George Walker, composer
Improvisation on St. Theodulph
Trent Johnson, organ

George Walker, composer
Spires
Trent Johnson, organ

 

Carl Maria von Weber – Polonaise Brillante, Op. 72 (arr. Franz Liszt)

Jerome Rose, piano. Philharmonia Hungarica, Richard P. Kapp.

 

Carl Maria von Weber – Polonaise Brillante, Op. 72 (arr. Franz Liszt)

Jerome Rose, piano. Philharmonia Hungarica, Richard P. Kapp.

 

LISZT Un Sospiro Etude de Concert 3 D flat major – Pianist Michel Mananes

For better audio Franz Liszt Etude de Concert no. 3 ” Un Sospiro ” click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVhFQy…

Michel Mañanes plays Franz Liszt Etude de Concert no. 3 ” Un Sospiro ” in D flat Major. With recitals for Europe and south america especially. He won first prize in several young piano competitions. He is Piano Teacher in Madrid and continue to give concerts. 
http://www.myspace.com/michelmananesc…
Michel Mañanes has obtained, recently, the University Title of “Expert in Pianistic Interpretation”, gotten with “Cum Laudae” by unanimous vote (International University of Andalusia)

“Un sospiro” (Italian, for “a sigh”) is the third of Franz Liszt’s Trois études de concert (Three Concert Études). It is also sometimes referred to as Étude No. 39, and is a piano solo in D-flat major. However, it is likely that the title did not originate with Liszt. Although there is no evidence that he actively attempted to remove the subtitle “Un sospiro,” none of the editions or subsequent printings of the Trois études published by Kistner during Liszt’s lifetime used them; he simply ignored such subtitles in later years, always referring with his pupils to the piece by key.

Franz Liszt – Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo

Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 — July 31, 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.

Liszt became renowned throughout Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age and perhaps the greatest pianist of all time.

Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo.

Franz Liszt composed his Tasso, Lamento e trionfo (Tasso, Lament and Triumph) in 1849, revising it in 1850-51 and again in 1854. It is numbered No. 2 in his cycle of 13 symphonic poems written during his Weimar period.

Liszt’s first sketch for this work is dated August 1, 1849. He had heard the principal theme for Tasso in Venice, Italy several years earlier, however, using it in the 1840 version of his piano piece “Chant do Goldolier” in Venezia e Napoli. Liszt completed the 1849 verion of Tasso as an overture in two sections, giving it to August Conradi to orchestrate. This version was performed in Weimar, Germany on the centennial of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe‘s birth as an overture to his drama Torquato Tasso. Liszt later corrected Conradi’s score and had Joachim Raff produce a new score in 1850–51. Liszt then revised this score extensively, adding a central section. This version was performed on April 19, 1854 in Weimar, conducted by Liszt.

Conductor: Michel Plasson
Orchestra: Dresdner Philharmonie

 

Franz Liszt – 14 Schubert Lieder

Oxana Yablonskaya, piano
Franz Liszt – 14 Schubert Lieder
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 2. Auf dem Wasser zu singen00:04:59
Schubert – Winterreise, S561/R246: No. 6. Wasserflut 00:02:30
Schubert – Mullerlieder, S565/R249: No. 2. Der Muller under der Bach00:07:10
Schubert – Schwanengesang, S560/R245: No. 8. Ihr Bild 00:02:34
Schubert – Schwanengesang, S560/R245: No. 7. Standchen (Leise flehen meine Lieder) 00:07:06 
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 9. Standchen (Horch, horch! Der Lerch’) 00:02:47
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 1. Sei mir gegrusset 00:06:06
Schubert – 6 Melodies, S563/R248: No. 4. Trockne Blumen 00:04:15
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 7: Fruhlingsglaube 00:05:00
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 3. Du bist die Ruh 00:06:08
Schubert – Schwanengesang, S560/R245: No. 12. Der Doppelganger00:04:41
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 8: Gretchen am Spinnrade00:04:28
Schubert – 12 Lieder, S558/R243: No. 11. Der Wanderer 00:07:16
Schubert – Schwanengesang, S560/R245: No. 3. Aufenthalt 00:03:51

 

Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4 (for Orchestra)

Franz Liszt (1811-1886), Magyarország / Hungary
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4 (for Orchestra)
Philharmonia Hungarica
Christoph von Dohnányi

Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9 in E-flat major “Pesther Carneval”

Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 — July 31, 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.

Liszt became renowned throughout Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age and perhaps the greatest pianist of all time.

Hungarian Rhapsodies.

The Hungarian Rhapsodies, S.244, R106, (French: Rhapsodies hongroises, German: Ungarische Rhapsodien, Hungarian: Magyar rapszódiák) is a set of 19 piano pieces based on Hungarian folk themes, composed by Franz Liszt during 1846-1853, and later in 1882 and 1885. Liszt additionally arranged versions for orchestra, piano duet and piano trio.

Piano: Artur Pizarro

 

Liszt: Piano Concerto n. 2- Enrica Ciccarelli Piano-Playlist

From Wikipedia:  Franz Liszt wrote drafts for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A major, S.125, during his virtuoso period, in 1839 to 1840. He then put away the manuscript for a decade. When he returned to the concerto, he revised and scrutinized it repeatedly. The fourth and final period of revision ended in 1861. Liszt dedicated the work to his student Hans von Bronsart, who gave the first performance, with Liszt conducting, in Weimar on January 7, 1857.

Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No.6 in D flat major

Hungarian Rhapsody No.6 in D flat major S.244/6. Author: Franz Liszt (1811-1886).
Pianist: Artur Pizarro

Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody no.2

Today’s Birthday: FRANZ LISZT (1811)

Franz Liszt (1811)

Liszt was a revolutionary figure of romantic music. Born in Hungary, he made his debut at age 9 and studied in Vienna with Salieri. After his father’s death and a disastrous love affair, he almost gave up music for the priesthood. Nevertheless, “Lisztomania” swept Europe in the 1840s, and Liszt enthralled audiences with his astounding technique and grand, dramatic style of playing. Thereafter, he taught and composed prolifically. In 1861, he nearly married a princess but was thwarted—by what? More… Discuss

Liszt’s Paganini Etude S.161 No.3 “La Campanella” (Vladimir Mischouk)

Daniel Barenboim plays the famous Liebestraume by Franz Liszt.

Bedrich (Bedřich) Smetana-Vltava(Ma vlast)

Excerpts from Wikipedia: “Má vlast (traditionally translated as “My Country“, though more strictly meaning “homeland”) is a set of six symphonic poems composed between 1874 and 1879 by the Czech composerBedřich Smetana. While it is often presented as a single work in six movements and – with the exception of Vltava – is almost always recorded that way, the six pieces were conceived as individual works. They had their own separate premieres between 1875 and 1880; the premiere of the complete set took place on 5 November 1882 in Prague.

In these works Smetana combined the symphonic poem form pioneered by Franz Liszt with the ideals of nationalistic music which were current in the late nineteenth century. Each poem depicts some aspect of the countryside, history, or legends of Bohemia.

Vltava, also known by its German name Die Moldau (or The Moldau), was composed between 20 November and 8 December 1874 and was premiered on 4 April 1875. It is about 12 minutes long, and is in the key of E minor.

In this piece, Smetana uses tone painting to evoke the sounds of one of Bohemia’s great rivers. In his own words:

The composition describes the course of the Vltava, starting from the two small springs, the Cold and Warm Vltava, to the unification of both streams into a single current, the course of the Vltava through woods and meadows, through landscapes where a farmer’s wedding is celebrated, the round dance of the mermaids in the night’s moonshine: on the nearby rocks loom proud castles, palaces and ruins aloft. The Vltava swirls into the St John’s Rapids; then it widens and flows toward Prague, past the Vyšehrad, and then majestically vanishes into the distance, ending at the Labe (or Elbe, in German).

The piece contains Smetana’s most famous tune. It is an adaptation of the melody La Mantovana, attributed to the Italian renaissance tenor Giuseppe Cenci(also known as Giuseppino), which, in a borrowed Moldovan form, was also the basis for the Israelinational anthem, Hatikvah. The tune also appears in major in an old folk Czech song Kočka leze dírou(“The Cat Crawls Through the Hole”) and Hans Eisler used it for his “Song of the Moldau”.
(from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1_vlast)