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thank you for all the suggestions/remarks/comments, I heard it performed by Nikikta Magaloff when I was 14, my father, still a fervent musiclover! told me Liszt was ' sweet and flashy, not to be compared to Schubert and Chopin', my teachers told me he was 'too difficult and shallow', what else does one need to propel a teenager towards Liszt...I tried from then on to conquer his masterpiece and have been playing it for more than 30 years, still sometimes doubting if it is the masterpiece I thought it to be in my early teens, and now just in the process of playing it again, wondering if that young eager boy listening to dear Nikita was right, just old memories and daily practice in one.

Which live Gilels are you referring to? I have several, but to my ears, the 1961 live from The Art of Emil Gilels is my favorite.

That one is wonderful. I also very much enjoy the 1965 (Moscow) and 1949 (also in Moscow).

The one on youtube is excellent as well. Gilels is always a contender with any piece.

Gilels definitely gives a great "straight" performance, probably my favourite, actually.

Koji, is that Alain Delon?

Artur Pizarro is for me one of the best

Bingo--good eye! (from Le Samourai)

It is the master piece you thought it to be. Keep working at it! You will get it.

Indeed he will, and that excites me very much.

I'll never forget Andre Watts playing the Liszt sonata -years ago in London- he broke a string! But that awesome moment at the Grandioso... we collectively saw the sun rise, as if it might have been the first time for humanity to experience such a primal birth and passage to light.

A concert to remember, it shook me up for daze.

Watts is a fantastic pianist and musician! I feel like he was even better when younger, but I saw him do the Grieg concerto this summer and it was still rocking.

In my experience, at least, Watts has always been more exciting in concert than any of his recordings I have heard.

Memories -also- of a very kinetic MacDowell D minor. That piece takes no prisoners -Rachmaninov was loftily unimpressed (but imagine how he would have played it?) -yet in the hands of a Watts it comes to life in concert, and makes one realize that some music simply thrives in a real-time environment.

MacDowell's A minor concerto, totally conventional and predictable, only comes to life when the performer truly believes in it and sheds any self-consciousness. (And the 2nd subject in the 1st movement? Who could not be moved by such heart-felt emotion? I love it.)

Friedheim
Cortot
Barere

de Larrocha

Leslie Howard. Coupled with his performance of Totentanz, the disc is just stunning.