Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Franz Liszt appreciation thread.

Quite agree on the Howard performance. It is probably my favourite along with the recording by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet on his wonderful CD Hymne à la Nuit.

I've always enjoyed this piece from his Trois morceaux suisses: Un soir dans la montague, with its tranquil, meditative outer sections and the orage-esque storm in the middle (actually a more effective storm than in orage, I think).



And, from the first book of the same collection (well, before the previous piece was revised), the over-the-top, probably un-endearing to most, but actually (almost) appropriate for the subject, one of his most striking early (1835) works, Lyon.

Wonderful piece! Based on his symphonic poem Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe.




Another overshadowed, but good, late piece.

Do listen to this!

In an operatic performance it benefits from being just a tad slower, but in a piano arrangement it seems appropriate at a slightly faster tempo.

This is one of Wagner's most divine moments, for years this has always haunted me. Wagner's primal undulation has caused me to wake up in the middle of the night, sweating profusely, and shivering.

Try the "au bord d'une source". I saw a facsimile of the original. In the margin the master wrote "creation".
It is a wonderful water piece.
Also his Faust.

Here's a great performance of his Concerto Pathetique, a revised version of the Grosses Konzertsolo, for two pianos. I always preferred the Konzertsolo, but after hearing this great recording by Richter and Anton Ginzburg, I now think it the most fully worked out, and best, version of the work. One of his great Weimar works.





He also wrote versions for piano and orchestra, but I find them to be rather dull.

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.

If you do the math you get that he must have lived thousands of years to do it all.

He must have never put the pen down.

As well as being the virtuoso he was early in his career, and the fact that he conducted several seasons of opera in Weimar, as well as other works. His Weimar output is truly absurd given the amount of teaching, conducting, correspondence, as well as the fact that he was learning as an orchestrator after neglecting it for all those years. Still, he completed literally hundreds of works despite all this, most of it of a high - very high quality.

Let's get this thread to 400.

Eight more.

I'm reading his biography right now and enjoying the heck out of it.


This popped up yesterday in my ipod in shuffle mode as I was driving to my piano lesson. Transported... is the word that comes to mind.

Alright, and, considering your previous post, posting high quality works that I don't remember having made appearences yet in this thread for each post

Starting with...





Not as distinguished as his finest efforts in the genre (Norma and Donn Giovanni), but one of his best and most 'musical' operatic paraphrases. A neglected work.

Scherzo Und Marsch.

Les Morts (for orchestra, narrator, choir) (starts at 3:15).



Considered one of Liszt's most important works by Liszt writer Paul Merrick, who states that it "captures the extraordinary atmosphere of the poem exactly...Les Morts isn't just a piece of music, but a psychological document, a key to the understanding of Liszt, the man and the musician."

Unfortunately I haven't been able to come by the text...

Salve Polonia.

Fantaisie sur des motifs favoris de l'opéra La Sonnambula.



Another of the more 'musical' operatic paraphrases.

Sarabande and Chaconne from Handel's opera Almira