Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Your Favourite Liszt Sonata?

Is this a silly question, since Liszt composed only one sonata? No, no, I mean what's your favourite recording of the sonata. What is it, then?

I also would like to know what makes it your favourite (or one of the favourites)...

Mine may be Fiorentino's, currently... His piano sounds close to what I imagine Liszt's piano would have sounded, except not clangy and also otherwise better (and I think I've heard Liszt's piano, but I don't remember much about it, so I'm not sure). His playing is pretty raw (fresh as fruit, crude like truth). He doesn't mind drowning passages with the sustain pedal, and conjuring them up as big waves which crush you as waves crush weak children who play on the beach. Don't get me wrong, it's always poetic and musically sensitive like the previous sentence is poetic and sensitive. In an overall feel, his is pretty much the opposite of Horowitz's earlier recorded rendering, although there's some similar rawness in Horowitz's later effort... As for the details, he seems to know the score, and respect it (these were the details).

You forgot about the Dante sonata, which is one of my favorite pieces. I'll go with Horowitz when it comes to the B minor, though I haven't listened to many interpretations.

Hough

Lortie, though i also haven't listened to a lot of them either.

Is Dante Sonata pretty hard? And do you like it as absolute music or just as program music.

Thanks.

Maurizio...

Zimmerman

Argerich

Jorge Bolet is far and away the best recording of the Liszt Sonata. Such technique, such tone, such passion, such poetry.

I just love Richter's recording.

Richter for Sonata.
B. Douglas for Dante.

Ivo Pogorelich.
Sviatoslav Richter.

I really can't say, though I do know it is mainly repeated octaves. It's quite long, though not as long as the B minor. I'd say you'd have to have quite a few difficult pieces mastered before doing it.

In its own context, it's one of my absolute favorite pieces for piano. I didn't know what Dante meant (Dante's inferno) when I first listened, and I thought it was the most passionate, firey, ragingly beautiful thing composed on the piano, regardless that "Dante" had anything to do with it. It could have easily been a piece written for the good of the art. The fact that Liszt had Dante's Inferno in mind is an afterthought to me. It's just so angry and lucid! I relate fully with every note of that piece.

I have Brendel's version, and it's fantastic.

Well, Liszt called it "fantasia quasi sonata", so it's not a real sonata even nominally (can something be real only nominally? or can anything be real except nominally?)... Nevertheless, it's also one of my favourite pieces.

PS. you guys haven't given much explanation... but somehow I expected that

IVO POGORELICH!!!

Horowitz. Thirty minutes on the dot.

I like Barenboim, Horowitz...

Yundi Li on his live recital vid. That is incredible.

Horowitz, Zimerman, Arrau

Da Zim FTW :p .