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May I ask why?

Yes De-lux, go read through the sonata, and tell us in detail and in the form of a parable everything you bump into. For example, if you bumped into something nice, you would say you bumped into a bunny or nice frog. Got it?

I like Liszt's music, especially his earlier pieces. I'm working on the TE #10, and it's just horrid! The only reason I'm working on it is because I want to play it. I wish I could play La Camp and the HR #6. I love those pieces!!

I saw a book which analyzed the sonata, an intellectual feat. It's ok music, but he works together so many motifs in such amazing ways.


If performed properly, "Mazeppa" is incredible. We don't often hear that because going that speed is risky, I suppose. Maybe they are lazy, don't want to work up to the speed.

Beethoven's greatest sonatas have been called dramas of the soul. I would call Mazeppa among the greatest of such works.

The professor at my university analyzed it in great detail, complete harmonic structure, comparison of themes, saying things like, "going to c natural is almost too far", "Random leaps upward, unpredictable", "Octatonic scale", or "Wow!"

In one of his classes he spent three weeks teaching about it. It was the pinnacle of the course, I heard. And this was strictly musical intruction, not technical but analytical.

Ernest Hutcheson calls the sonata a peak of literature, Wagnr described it as "beyond all conception." And to take a quote about schumann's fantasy and apply it to Mazeppa, no quotations set forth its grandeur.

TE10 is also great! I would, for music's sake, change some things in it. For instance, at the descending octaves, I would play an octave in the left hand at the c broken octaves, 2nd time and move some notes down for power, but it is amazing! That's a goal for after Mazeppa.

Perhaps just a touch of hyperbole, here?

Regards,

mazeppa is my favorite piece of all time. also, i used to hate the sonata, mostly because i didnt like the main theme, but then it grew on me and i did like how he transforms it throughout, and now its one of my favorites!

Yes. Wrote it at 2 in the morning. Mushed in some quotes from Beethoven, Schubert, etc.
I'll go "tone it down"

Mazeppa is one of my favorite pieces. It's passion and rage is indescribable, the first time I heard it I was absolutely blown away. It's now a workhorse in what I love to listen to.

I'll go out on a limb here and say no. I agreed perfectly with everything that dnephi said.

I love Liszt but I have to agree with those that don't like the sonata. I find it tiresome and forced. Perhaps if I was able to play it I would like it better. On the other hand Mazzepa and the soneto 104 are out of this world. And not to forget his equally amazing transcriptions i.e. Widmung.

I've been listening to some recordings of Liszt's last pieces. Almost atonal and very sad. He was truly ahead of his time.

Still waiting for D's parable... In the meanwhile, here's mine about Liszt's Mazeppa:

A horse--no, I'm not even trying to be original, I'm just telling the story objectively and literally--a horse is sleeping a slightly troubled sleep, perhaps a few premonitions are running through his mind. You can see no rider of any kind, this is likely just about the horse. Small rabbits are jumping around, they're terribly afraid. There's a dark lake nearby, and something big's astir, just below the surface, and it's--AH IT JUMPS OUT OF THE WATER! The horse wakes up and runs away. But the monster runs away behind him. In fact, the horse is only trying to run away, a huge, ugly monster right behind him. He runs and runs, he stumbles, he stumbles again, badly; he recovers and runs again. But the monster ran over him or jumped over him (we are not sure which), while he was stumbling. Now the monster is in front of the horse, and the horse must front it or die horribly. The horse fronts the monster and fights it. He kills the monster, and resumes his earthbound muddy flight, for he knows he cannot really kill the monster and the monster is just playing dead (some monsters do have a sense of fun, this one certainly does). So the flight or pursuit (depending on how you look at it) continues. We'll call it a flight, for man is closer to the horse than to the amphibious sea monster, and can identify much better with the former. So the flight continues. At this point, Liszt abandons his story for purely musical drama, so the story gets a bit surreal, but bear with me. Now the horse wakes up from a dream, and realizes the monster was but an aspect of a dream or nightmare. Unfortunately, the horse wakes up in the year 2801, when there are no other horses anymore, and so he searches for them to no avail for an eternity which feels like a few minutes, and then--

That's what I call a big imagination.

And then the world wonders what on earth is going on?

No, when the eternity I mentioned has passed, the world ends and begins anew. (That means you have to listen to or play the piece again.)

Derulux, come out of your cave or apartment, and accept the challenge!