If I Could Choose Only One Work By...LISZT

It Would Have To Be...The Hungarian Rhapsodies
Nationalistic, improvisatory, virtuosic, soulful, harmonically innovative--everything that makes Liszt a keyboard genius.

The List So Far...
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations
13. R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
14. Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
15. Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87)
16. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
17. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
18. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
19. Chopin: Preludes
20. Verdi: Rigoletto
21. Roussel: Symphony No. 2
22. Copland: Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
23. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2
24. Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
25. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
26. Rimsky-Korsakov: Opera Suites (Scottish National Orchestra/Järvi) Chandos
27. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
28. Smetana: Ma Vlást
29. Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
30. Bizet: Carmen
31. Elgar: In the South
32. Sullivan: The Mikado
33. Dvořák: Symphony No. 8; Cello Concerto (Piatigorsky/Munch/Boston Symphony) RCA

[richardegarr]

Christus … an exceptional masterpiece … Handel cross-bred with Early Schoenberg … powerful and colourful music showing the depth of his spirituality

[anwla]

Excellent choice, Dave! Exactly six hours ago today, when you published this, I was visiting Liszt’s apartment in Budapest! Coincidence?
Yes, absolutely! But still 🤯

[gergelykiss]

My choice would be "Via Crucis". I might agree with the great late Reinbert de Leeuw that Via Crucis is THE masterpiece of Liszt. It is typical Liszt in more than one way:
- a prime example of his self-professed aim to "hurl his lance as far into the future as possible", it sounds like it could have been written any time in the 20th or 21st century (it's so jarringly modern his publisher refused to print it),
- it juxtaposes radically different musical materials,
- it features some borrowed material, clad in particularly ingenious ways (Gregorian chant, Bach-chorales),
- it exists in four distinct versions (piano-vocal, organ-vocal, piano solo, organ solo - very typical for Liszt),
Of course, the total introspective focus of Via Crucis makes is rather untypical as well, if we consider Liszt's entire output. But this thought-experiment quickly becomes impossible for any composer :) so I'm happy with the Rhapsodies.

[albuch]

I would choose probably his piano concertos and especially the first( its interesting that most critics find his second to be the better one and i can understand why but i really find the first to be the best representation of Liszt.) You have the most beautiful melodies he ever wrote, quite interesting approach to form(in my opinion in a good way), also the concerto has the most Lisztian theme you can have lol. Beautiful work.

[johnwright]

My choice would have to be the Transcendental Etudes. 100% Liszt and so astounding!

[gergelykiss]

Interestingly, the 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody might be the only early rhapsody which contains mostly original melodies by Liszt (three of the late ones Nos. 16-to-18 are all original). The opening lament/fanfare of No.2 Liszt jotted down in a notebook during his travels in Hungary in the late 1830s/early 1840s, so he must have heard it performed somewhere, but the rest of the melodies have so far proved to be impossible to trace - and they are not in his notebooks either. There was a German pianist who at one point had claimed to have given the material to Liszt, but he provided no proof and Liszt was generally quite particular about giving credit when he was aware of the scources for his melodies (including in the Rhapsodies - like for composers Béni Egressy -No.10 or Kornél Ábrányi -No.19).

A remarkable aspect of the Rhapsodies is often overlooked - the attention and detail with which Liszt reproduces and imitates the characteristic ornaments of contemporary Gypsy violinists and cimbalom players is meticulous to an almost Bartókian extent. These works have true etnomusicological merit - not for their scource materials but in recording performance practice.

[pianistbrunodelorenzo]

Amazing and clever choice! My favorite recording of the Rapsodies is from Szidon. What an incredible cycle!

[donmigueldecuenca]

My first set of the Hungarian Rhapsodies (way back when) was by Gyorgy Cziffra -- staggering virtuosity by an actual Romani artist, and still close to my heart.

[bobflagg]

Transcendental Etude #11 "Harmonies du soir" (Kissin, RCA) from poetic whispers to grand ethereal triumph.

[JackPrestrud]

I agree, Hungarian Rhapsodies. Mischa Dichter's set works best of the few I've checked out. (Been hoping you'll recommend good sets.)
If you'd specified, I would choose #14. Also the favorite of Paderewski.
I was shocked to hear part of it played by marching band at a college football halftime.
Keep up the excellent work Dave

[robertdandre]

I keep an attachment for the 3rd concert study of Liszt "un which reminds me of those walks in the forest with a stream that winds through this vast nature.... refreshing

[salt_cots]

Great choice. I love Jorge Bolet in No.12 but let me mention Roberto Szidon. Szidon (1941-2011), of Hungarian descent, was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1941; he studied with Claudio Arrau. Even though a remarkably gifted child, he avoided the life of a child prodigy, studying medicine alongside his musical education and becoming a medical officer in the Brazilian army. (My own choice would be "Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude".)

[davidaiken]

Delighted that you cited the Campanella recording, which hasn't received a lot of plaudits from critics (at least the ones I am aware of ). In addition to a gorgeous tone, Campanella brings a certain elegance to the Rhapsodies that tempers their showiness and completely avoids vulgarity. I love these pieces, which isn't to slight the Sonata or the three volumes of the Années.

[JG_]

Good choice, I would've chosen the operatic transcriptions/fantasies, although that may not really be fair because that encompasses a lot of work. There is also a lot of late Liszt, which is more radical, that I'd want to keep around. Although that stuff isn't as enjoyable to the average person.

The sonata is incredible, but I feel like operatic transcriptions/hungarian rhapsodies encompass more of what Liszt's most popular style is. I also think the Beethoven symphonic transcriptions would be a good choice, especially the 9th. They are the epitome of pianistic maximalism.

[jackpedder]

Great choice! Three cheers for Tom and Jerry!And two cents on my favourite loopy piano guy, Scriabin. For me it has to be Prometheus, The Poem of Fire. The dizzy summit of orgiastic orchestral music. It is such a srange, demented, explosive, gorgeous mess, that has no real analogue pre WWI (Scriabin needed to be born for something like it to be written). It reconciles Scriabin's pianistic and orchestral genius beautifully, and is bat-excrement insane without sacrificing warmth or sensitivity.

[igorgregoryvedeltomaszewsk]

If I was asked by a non-classical listener "Play me something that really rocks with lots of rhythm and colours" I'd reach out for Liszt's Hungarian Rapsodies.
PS: the word "Verbunkos" derives from the German "Werbung" meaning; Drafting for the military. Hence the Hungarian army's drafting units during the times of the Double Monarchy would tour around with a military band made up of gypsies who would attract the villagers attention with their zesty tunes, to make the prospects of a military career seem like an invitation to a joyride.

[samuelstephens]

A Faust Symphony. That left-footed hopping in the Mephistopheles movement. The fact that he uses one melody for all three characters and manages to tailor it so beautifully to them.

[walter]

For piano music I would have chosen Valle d'Oberman. Such a great work, inspired by amazing prose and poetry. For orchestral music I would have chosen the Faust Symphony. With Liszt, his atypical works are his best.

[batardglouton]

Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude for me. The tune proves just how good a melodist he was. He was so focused or distracted on helping people around him and getting involved in romantic relationships, maybe he just didn't write has much as he should have.

[francoisjoubert]

I am not a Lisztoholic and my knowledge is limited to the piano concertos and piano transcriptions. Therefore, as I have to listen to this music when everything else by Liszt has been obliterated, would be a stack of Schubert/Verdi/Wagner Transcriptions. I chose this as it presents the "Liszt Transcription Machine", and preserves more of Schubert, Verdi and Wagner. It also gives an idea of how stage music, could be made at home, making of course provision for some great pianistic dexterity! And maybe Cancrizan's evil heart would be melted by the "Auf dem Wasser zu singen" transcription.