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Transcendental Etude #4, Mazeppa. I bow down.

keep practicing. ive never studied it, but i gaurantee you that its nowhere near as hard as it looks/sounds. and make sure you use 24/24 on (i think) all of the triple stave parts.

I would love to hear from someone who has performed this piece in public.

lol, i myself have tried it...proper fingering is key, and practicing slowly is really the only way to get those thirds up to speed. I recommend Arrau's recording of it, Its a must have.

Did you do Liszt's fingerings or did you cheat, heh.

koji (STSD)

Yeah, Arrau does a fantastic job with the Liszt Etudes (and Magaloff more so on the Pagets)

I've tried it and it was quite fun but I wouldnt go past first page.

And Cziffra pretty much owns this piece.

koji (STSD)

It sounds from their recordings like Cziffra doesn't use any pedal and everyone else uses a lot of pedal.

That's because Cziffra was so damn nuts.. lol. It has its own charm, though I think it would only work for Cziffra.

when i first attempted it (btw i haven't gone past the 2nd page) i played the thirds with my left hand only. Its quite possible to achieve the proper speed with just the left hand, but accuracy is tougher though attainable. Then after a long break i re-learned it using the hand crossing that liszt indicates.

I tend to cheat... I'm probably going to relearn it

He's probably the only one who can pull it off.

Yeah, definatly. His HR6 is similar, he uses little pedal, but the octaves sound so smooth and conjunct...

Agreed, I love his HR6. His octaves are amazing, but I prefer Liszt's indications in the octave section. Cziffra pretty much does everything presto. (or -issimo)

I think I recall hearing that he "cheated" on that section. I don't know why, maybe he prefered the sound but I recall hearing that he alternated octaves and single notes instead of all octaves.

I'll see if I can find who said it, they may be BSin...

Im fairly certain that it's BS.

I've heard that too a while ago, I doubt he'd do that. In the video I've seen he doesnt skip any notes, just misses some but they're hardly hearable. He plays them all with 4 - 5 alternating in the upper note of the octave, it looks like a spider crawling over the keyboard, amazing to see.

I'm pretty sure that Cziffra does skip every second note with the thumb.

I like the effect of using little pedal (on the melody notes mostly, I think) with Mazeppa; a clear, crisp sound in the figurations seems to suit the image. It took me years to realise that because the effect is somewhat rowdy and bland in parts, it isn't necessary to play it heavily and strenuously. On the contrary, I find that maintaining a certain lightness helps conserve energy and also adds to the rhythmic force. It also took me a long time to realise that different parts of it need different touches and finger positions. When I was young I kept on trying to play all of it in the same way, and found it very tiring.

I checked my video, he DOES play each octave, he doesn't cheat at all..