I know a lot of you are fans of Liszt. Personally, I'm nowhere near a virtuoso, so I don't play any of his music. But never-the-less, I found this article interesting at the New York Review of Books. It talks about Liszt in relation to Chopin, Schubert, etc, and reviews a book about Liszt's translations of other composers. Many interesting comments, such as this one

Josef Hofmann, considered by many the finest pianist of the twentieth century, claimed that nobody could give a satisfying interpretation of all the Chopin études. The composer himself knew that he could not play them as well as Liszt.


Liszt article

The book looks interesting but its cost is prohibitive: $90 U.S.

One of the Amazon sellers is offering it for $69, which is still too expensive. Maybe the price includes a personal reading by the author!

I didn't notice the price. $90?!!! You'd have to be a real Liszt fan to by that! But I imagine for some music scholars, such a book is invaluable.

I liked the article and the book looks interesting. However I don't like the dismissive attitude of Liszt the composer behind the virtuoso piano works.

It is interesting, but I don't much like Rosen's way of weaving facts together with opinion presented as fact.

Looks like a must read for me! (Perhaps a used or galley copy will surface on Amazon. Fingers crossed.)

Rosen's review was IMO very fair, and consistent in tone and sentiment with the chapter on Liszt in his book 'The Romantic Generation'.