Yes indeed. Mark Salman is often featured on our local classical station performing and talking about music. Not to be missed.

What in the



I'm not the biggest fan, but not because it's on a solo violin. I don't like how sometimes it gets so dense to try to match all the sonority in the piano, such as the grand D major section a few minutes in. I feel that could have been handled a bit better compositionally speaking, in my opinion.

wow, fantastic playing!!!

I can't help but agree. It really loses something without the thunderous bass notes and stuff. It's very well played, but I think it should be left for the piano. It might work well for a huge orchestra...

Not only is Mark a fantastic pianist, he is also the best teacher I've ever had. He is extremely knowledgeable and is guiding me to develop my own musical ideas rather than dictating them. In addition, I have great admiration for the way he lives his life combining his professional/teaching career with a rich, principled life devoted to his wife and 3 amazing children.

If any of you have an opportunity to take lessons with a concert pianist, (who also happens to be a wonderful human being), you will find it is a most enriching experience. If you live in the Seattle area, don't be shy about asking to become a student! He is especially fond of enthusiastic adults. (He does not take beginners).

P.S. Apropos of the OP, right now he's helping me polish Sonetto del Petrarca 104.

My favorite Liszt Rhapsody is the 11th. Anyone else? Eh, eh? ..

Interesting. Personally I love 2, 4, 5, 6 (which I have played) and 8, though my favourite will always be 9.

It is certainly the most elaborate, and IMO the most inventive of the series.

14 is problematic. Liszt's arrangement as the Hungarian Fantasia for piano and orchestra has always struck me as a rather perfunctory effort, as if Liszt had his mind elsewhere. It is not an awful piece of music -though some commentators have thought so, particularly Hutchinson- but IMO it could have been a lot better.

As a confirmed Lisztian, I find it rather tiresome. Since Liszt was so busy transcribing everything in sight -and several times he absent-mindedly re-transcribed music he had already done- I cannot blame this on his publisher.

Unlike Beethoven, who bowed to his publisher for a piano version of the violin concerto. Beethoven needed the money (and why not?), but there is no evidence (aside from the new cadenza) that Beethoven took it very seriously. 'Moments of piercing eloquence reduced to music box tinkling' as I read once, or something like that.

My favorite bounces around between 2, 9, and 12. Others that I like are 6, 10, 14, and 15.

I really like the 11th, but not among my absolute favourites, which are 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 12. Unlike previous posters, I find 9 to be frustratingly tedious, despite the great pianistic invention. I recently heard an orchestrated version and found it even more tiresome. Of course, I really like the rhapsodies (although I wouldn't say any of them are among my favourite Liszt works) and the 9th is always held in such high esteem, so i'm sure I will find enjoyment in it in time.

Frederic Lamond, a pupil of Liszt.

Perhaps Liszt's most beautiful song among the 80-some that weren't made famous as a solo piano transcription (although there is a solo piano version, I believe I linked it earlier in this thread).

Learning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs5DRxiPq2c this today.
Would be great if there was a thread like this on Johann Sebastian Bach and Robert Schumann to.

Rather amazed at this:

That Kissin recording above me is INCREDIBLE.

I recommend clicking play on every video on this page. It makes quite an awesome sound!

Lovely little piece. Incidentally it became one of the minor movements in Liszt's choral masterpiece, Christus.

From 11:04 - 18:57 in the video.






Indeed. Kissin is one of the very best in all the TE's I have by him - 5, 8, 10, 11, 12. 8 is certainly one of his more impressive recordings.

The 2nd piano concerto has been my favorite of all concertos for awhile now. I have the Zimmerman/Ozawa recording which is excellent. I've been looking for another great recording just for variety, any thoughts?

Spotify has recordings by (other than Zimmerman):
Lazar Berman, Sviatoslav Richter, Julius Katchen, Alfred Brendel, Claire-Marie Le Guay, Wilhelm Kempff, Yefim Bronfman, Claudio Arrau... and more.

A starting point? haha

Simply incredible playing of this masterpiece. Makes me wonder how Liszt himself would have played his late pieces.

Not the most charming performance imaginable, perhaps, but it is still interesting to hear one of Liszt's own pianos. It appears to be in good shape for an old instrument, and has some marvelous qualities, especially in sustaining the sound.

I just heard this for the first time and I'm very moved:



also many credits to Schumann of course...and Kissin!

Here's a work that has quickly become one of my favourites by the maestro. Unfortunately this is the only recording on youtube and it's sung in English rather than the usual German.







In fact all of Liszt's Psalm's are great pieces deserving of more attention. I posted 137 in the OP, but 18 and 23 are also very good.

if you haven't watched this breathtaking Liszt, please do:

This is one heck of a recording! WOW!

Great article on Liszt.

http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/10/17/what-makes-franz-liszt-still-important/

Here's a guy I would have liked to have heard in concert. Electrifying!

The B minor sonata. That is all.

Jesus, I was practicing Mazeppa with the music and I realized that the octaves are faster than 16th notes! They're triplets of triplets, if you get what I mean, so 18 a measure. I don't think anyone comes close to playing them that speed. Maybe Hamelin could do it if he tried.

They're sorta cadenza-like passages, so I don't think they really need to be in time. That's one of the cases where I think you can be flexible with Liszt's rhythm - just hammer out those octaves at a speed which does service to the music without destroying your hands!

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this one yet, but it is definitely one of my favorites.

La Lugubre Gondola no. 2:


A very haunting piece of music, but also quite beautiful.