During my teenage years I was rather obsessed with Romanticism and the music of Frédéric Chopin in particular. My tastes have broadened since then, but I’m still very fond of Chopin and piano music in particular, so I decided dive into the piano works of two other Romantic composers; Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt.
Schubert is universally beautiful, but I’m still not sure about Liszt. Most of the work I’ve heard from him comes across as technically complex, but rather cold. Liszt was a piano virtuoso in his days, which accounts for the technical complexity of his works, but so was Chopin. It’s as if Liszt treats the piano as a one-man, one-instrument orchestra, while Chopin is attempting to let the piano sing. It’s a bit hard to explain in words.
Another problem I have with Liszt are the various interpretations by pianists. A popular consensus seems to be that all of his music should be played forte and if possible fortissimo. Now, it could be that they’re just following the original annotations by Liszt, but so much emotion is getting lost by such interpretations. It’s like listening to variations on György Ligeti’s thirteenth étude, “L’escalier du diable” (wonderful music by the way), which has extreme dynamics — fffffff near the end of the piece.
Consider the Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64, No. 1, popularly known as the “Minute Waltz”, by Chopin. This particular piece of music has been raped to death by pianists who frantically try to squeeze all of the notes of the waltz in 1 minute of playing time — which is the amount the nickname and popular myth dictates. Sure, it’s a fast waltz, but it wasn’t at all intended to be played within the constraints of one minute. It’s just as annoying as the musicians who overuse the tempo rubato, just because they’re playing music by Chopin. So much is lost in those interpretations.
It could be that Liszt just isn’t my cup of tea. I don’t care much about Rachmaninoff either, who suffers from the same cold approach to writing for the piano. But I’m going to listen to some more music of him to see if my opinion changes. I’ve got some recordings by Leslie Howard which are a definite improvement over Sviatoslav Richter*, I must say.
*= I know. He’s one the greatest pianists of the 20th century. But still.
I’ve just begun to find my way in the world of ‘classical music’. And believe me, it’s difficult to find out what you like and what you don’t like if you haven’t had any knowledge of the music when you were younger. (Like you obviously have had) The solution is: listen, listen, listen. Just try all the composers people throw at you. Nowadays I am able to say what I like and what I don’t like, and (unfortunately) I must say that Liszt isn’t my cup of tea either.
Hi my young friend. Yes yes, young.
You are trying to compare three geniuses of romantic era. If you dislike Liszt, this mean that you cannot feel the whole power of Chopin’s Polonaise fantasy or Fourth Ballad, Mazurkas … You have not ever feel the real love to somebody, love to die for.
Liszt is outstanding romantic, I’m calling his art meta-romanticism.
I understand, that it’s hard to acquire the logic and the feeling of Liszt’s compositions. For feeling Liszt, you should try to listen each note and harmonic phrase of the composition. Try to realize, that you are performing the composition. Don’t hear, but listennnn.
What about the roughness of Liszt’s pieces, you should know, that in this life there are many hard situations, days, that we lose something, somebody …
Romanticism of Liszt is special because he was trying to go against God, even he was working and staying in capellas for a long time. I can talk a lot about romantics…
I suggest you to listen several compositions listed below.
), Sonata in B minor (performed by Gilels, the last part, fugato). Listen to Rachmaninoff’s preludes performed by Gilels, you can find fragments from concerts in youtube. Try to find some matches between Bach and Liszt, they exist.
Liszt Mephisto Waltz (performed by Horowitz), Spanish Rhapsody performed by Gilels, Polonaise 2 performed by Sviatoslav Richter (not Stanislav
Hi hope this will help you to be one of us, people that live, feel and smile.
Be opened for fantasies !!!
You can reach me at
http://www.facebook.com/hamazasp.avetisyan
First of all, thank you for assuring me of my juvenility, though I fail to see what it has to do with music.
I am indeed trying to compare three great composers from the Romantic era to figure out why Liszt’s music, or Rachmaninoff’s for that matter, doesn’t do it for me. Both the Ballads and Mazurkas are among my favourite of Chopin’s compositions. What Chopin and Schubert have in common is the great amount of lyricism that can be found in their work.
Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Thalberg, to name a few, often seem to prefer technical showmanship above the narrative quality of music. They fit in the later Romantic tradition of directly translating feelings and concepts into music as per a lot of the ideas of programmatic music proposed by Hector Berlioz. When Liszt is angry he often expresses it in a whirlwind of chords and straining pianistic techniques. When Hector Berlioz tries to make a point, the whole orchestra explodes. It’s powerful music alright, but doesn’t work the same way for me as the more intimate music of the early Romantics does.
That’s not to say I dislike all of Liszt’s work, he’s written some beautiful stuff. I have to look for it though, which isn’t the case with most other composers I like.
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