Hungarian Rhapsodies

I don't know if any of you have heard of these pieces, but there are 17 of these I believe. You will probably recognize some of the melodies in the 2nd one from the old Looney Toons cartoons. Anyway, I would reccomend listening to Evgenny Kissin's version of No. 12. It inspired me to learn that song, which I did for my senior year project in high school. Very challenging, very fun to play, very expressive. All those equal Liszt.

-T

I know one of them all too well.

Now, if only I could remember which one.

It's Google time...

Aha! #2.

Aha! #2.

I once arranged the orchestral version of that one for "straw choir" - the kind of plastic one that you play like a double reed, verrry approximate pitch - a collection of maybe 10 straws from sopranino to bass, some with slides, some with cardboard funnel bells...never was performed. And I lost it.

I once arranged the orchestral version of that one for "straw choir" - the kind of plastic one that you play like a double reed, verrry approximate pitch - a collection of maybe 10 straws from sopranino to bass, some with slides, some with cardboard funnel bells...never was performed. And I lost it.

You lost it?? That must have been so cool.

I wrote a classical saxophone quartet when I was in high school. I lost that, too. And my first string quartet.

I never tried to learn any Liszt. Even Liebestraum was too much bother for too little reward as far as I was concerned.

Liszt was a B rate composer... a professor of mine always used to complain that he tried too hard to make his music difficult to play while fogetting to make it beautiful. I always seem to get the feeling when listening to his piece that they are approaching beautiful but never quite reach it. That doesn't mean that his music is all junk, such a H.R. no 2 and especially La Campanella (even though it really isn't his.. .the arrangement is great), but that it could have been better.

Cavatina, Liszt is not a B-rate composer. He's one of the most influential composers from the Romantic period. Have you heard any of the following pieces by him?

Les Preludes (orchestral tone poem)
Piano Concerto no.2
Piano Sonata in b minor
Don Juan Fantasy
Tannhauser Overture (arranged for piano)
Les jeux d'eau Ã* la Villa d'Este

These are just a few off of the top of my head. These are some of the most beautiful Romantic compositions in the entire repetoire - many of them way ahead of thier time. I agree that in his etudes, often the difficulty is for the sake of difficulty (but in my opinion it still sounds fine), and this is especially obvious when you see the reworking of the etudes over time. But in his other pieces, the difficulty contained is only used to further some pianistic approach - for example, in Les jeux d'eau Ã* la Villa d'Este the difficulty of the pianistic figures is essential to conveying the effect of fountains and streams of rivers. There is no other composition that is so successful as a "Water" piece until Ravel's Jeau d'eux, in the next century.

BTW, is this the same professor who preferred Mozart to Beethoven because Mozart followed the "rules"?

Regardless of whether he was influential or not, in my mind his music is B-rate. He'll never match a Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Puccini, Grieg, Mahler, Bach. I judge music based on how it sounds to me, not whether a composer is considered influential by a certain number of people.

I've heard of and heard all of the pieces (except Don Juan Fantasy and the Tannhauser Overture - I'll look into them when I get a chance) you mentioned. All very nice, I agree. But not what they would have been had a better composer handled them.

The professor was just a guy I had back in first year. Different from the rules guy. The rules guy was a teacher I had in high school... an english teacher actually. Nice guy. He had some memorable moments. We used to talk a lot about music, etc... I must have been one of the only people in the school who enjoyed classical music (well.... openly), so we got along pretty well. I remember when the two of us stood up during Handel's Hallelujah Chorus and everyone thought we were supposed to leave the auditorium!! IT was funny as all hell... people were so confused as to why we were standing. Good times.

Anyway.... not sure why I told you that story, but hopefully you enjoyed it anyway.

Ok.... I think I understand. So you're basically saying that he is a B-rate composer to you, that there are other works you would rather hear and that you like better. That's fine - everyone is entitled to their own preferences. I thought that you were saying that Liszt actually is a B-rate composer, and musicians don't regard him as highly as a composer.

Ok.... I think I understand.* So you're basically saying that he is a B-rate composer to you, that there are other works you would rather hear and that you like better.

Bingo... Sorry if I wasn't always clear. And I do regard him highly... there's nothing wrong with a B!