Am I the only one that thinks his oft-criticized Totentanz is one of his greatest works? A masterful tone poem about the inevitability and relentlessness of death, a work that ought to be taken very seriously indeed. Pianistic writing that is as ingenious as any in the entire 19th century, masterful counterpoint in both the most traditional 'canonic' style as well as the most forward-looking (the fugue), wonderfully vivid, novel orchestration, and overall one of his most original and forward-looking works.

While I'm here, I thought I'd share this. I recently stumbled upon a beautifully presented box-set CD of Berman's recording of the complete Annees de pelerinage. I've listened through it all several times now and am in awe. He makes a lot of these works, especially in the third book, really come alive like nobody else.

One of the best recordings i've heard of his Grosses Konzertsolo, a work that has so many wonderful things in it, but unfortunately I find some of the repeated chords and tremolos to be a little tiresome (a vice that Liszt occasionally falls prey to). It is, however, a good and highly original work that I really enjoy.

Am I the only one that thinks his oft-criticized Totentanz is one of his greatest works?

there's something about it that can seem almost cruel and heartless, when done right, and that puts some people off.

The piano writing is transcendental in every sense of the word, it is genius! And what he does with the Dies Irae is very imaginative.

One of the best recordings i've heard of his Grosses Konzertsolo, a work that has so many wonderful things in it, but unfortunately I find some of the repeated chords and tremolos to be a little tiresome (a vice that Liszt occasionally falls prey to). It is, however, a good and highly original work that I really enjoy.

I don't even think it's necessarily that. A recent amazon.com comment I read accused it as "offering such empty bombast it just blows the lid off of vulgarity." Obviously this is a bit extreme, but I see comments along similar lines often, denigrating it to the realm of a superficial showpiece of no true musical merit. This sort of thing isn't exclusive to the Totentanz in his output, mind you.

As for that hard and steely tone disappearing, what years are you thinking of here? It's an interesting observation.

I guess I meant "in addition to the usual nonsense about empty bombast in Lizst", it can have a certain quality that puts people off. After all, a dance of death isn't "nice".

About that hard and steely thing - I meant it was more or less gone until it showed up in late pieces like the last Mephisto waltzes and the late Hungarian rhapsodies, which seem that way to me. But that's just my personal response - I realize others may not hear the music that way.

By 'hard and steely,' are you referring to this, sort of, darker music with a fixation on death and themes of this kind? I think he probably stopped once he became involved with religious activities in the way that he did. It then returned later, if the Wikipedia article is anything to go by, because:

"Liszt fell down the stairs of the Hotel in Weimar on July 2, 1881. Though friends and colleagues had noted swelling in his feet and legs when he had arrived in Weimar the previous month (an indication of possible congestive heart failure), he had been in good health up to that point and was still fit and active. He was left immobilized for eight weeks after the accident and never fully recovered from it. A number of ailments manifested—dropsy, asthma, insomnia, a cataract of the left eye and heart disease. The last-mentioned eventually contributed to Liszt's death. He became increasingly plagued by feelings of desolation, despair and preoccupation with death—feelings which he expressed in his works from this period. As he told Lina Ramann, "I carry a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound."

He was given several religious duties in 1865, by which time he had already finished the Totentanz (1859). But in the earlier period, I can't really think of many pieces, off the top of my head, that really had this fixation anyway; even though he is quite famous for this now. Apart from the Totentanz, there's, really, only the first Mephisto Waltz, and the Dante Sonata and Funerailles (unless I am missing something) - but maybe his fame for music of this nature can stem from the fact that these some of his most popular works; despite most of his (pianistic) output from the early period being etudes, transcriptions and the rhapsodies.

There are some more...

As in this perhaps?

Before his late period (say, before 1863?) I can think of many works that are 'hard and steely.' Some examples:

That is a very fine recording. Thank-you for sharing it! Like most people I know (both in person and in cyberspace), I'm not the biggest fan of Leslie Howard, though his recording of the Grosses Konzertsolo is one of his best. (At several points, if you listen carefully, you can hear birds chirping outside the studio.)

I think this thread has covered just about everything he wrote...

Yeah right...

Have you ever checked Groves' catalogue? It's a mystery to me where Liszt even found the time to notate all that music, let alone conceive it. This in addition to voluminous amounts of correspondence and teaching. He wrote more choral music than Chopin wrote piano music.