Jeez, this was just perfectly unsettling. The thumbnail and the title (not having heard Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz, despite having heard a lot about it) made me think this was going to be a relatively cute piece. Then it just kept getting stranger - like there’s definitely a dreamlike quality to this (and who better than Filipec to arouse this quality), but there’s also a nightmarish element to it too. I personally felt like I was stuck on an elevator or something. The single-note ending was like “you’ve arrived at your floor,” and somehow I still feel stuck. The structure of this piece lends itself so easily to being cute and quaint, yet the delivered message is terrifying and uneasy - all the way through, but goddamn that ending really fucking solidified it. A very uncharacteristic gem in Liszt’s repertoire. Thank you for uploading!!
Listening to it again just got a laugh out of me. The first 20 seconds is so unassuming, and also contains a phrase that comes back to taunt you again at 3:32. Just incredible
@@casrifay But that was mostly his early to early-middle years, my point is that these pieces alone are not what he should be celebrated for. And even then, some of the 'showpieces' show extreme harmonic maturity compared to contemporary romantics, as well as structural (e.g. the transcendentals are well on their way out of romanticism)
The master was never afraid of taking experimentation but did so, naturally, with the ultimate sound experience he gathered through years of first-hand contact with the best music and musicians of his time.
So sad people didn't appreciate Liszt's music in his later years because it was too ahead of its time. He was basically criticized by people who knew nothing about music, how frustrating
I'd love to see some of Liszt's symphonic works (poems & concertos) on this channel. Few people outside the music elite realize Listz was also a skilled orchestrator. Thanks for all the great things you expose to public eye on this channel!
“The principal task of a conductor is not to put himself in evidence but to disappear behind his functions as much as possible. We are pilots, not servants.” -- Franz Liszt
This is one of the most compelling musical explorations of 'mephistophelian' depravity/corruption - that I've ever heard. This work along with the second and third mephisto waltzes really stood out to me as showing the depth of this vein of Liszt's music. They have a unique way of shrouding a mystical, 'metaphysical' idea of evil under the playful and seemingly empty gestures of wayward dancing.
The last F makes sense if you hear how the opening motif on Measure 9 dwells on F as a nagging persistent thought. Perhaps this piece can be interpreted as Faust as F while the devil plays games with him and then disappears back into the ether...then Faust finally land back on... F
when i was 3 years old, the first dream (and nightmare) I remember having was about cats. I would close my eyes, and then I see this endless white void, along with a black cat walking with blue eyes. There was a walking noise (that I later learned what heartbeat, when I learned what a heartbeat was), and the cat was stepping on beat with the heartbeat. The cat would walk sideways to me, like it was walking around me in a circle, staring at me from it's right side by turning its head. That's not a scary dream, but for some reason I was scared of it. I knew that cats weren't bad but I was scared so much by that dream I just couldn't do anything. And being as young as I was, looking back on those times decades later already feels like some weird warp of time that is really dreamy. SO, I think the mood of this piece is similar to a dream like that. And that's what I feel when I say this piece feels disturbing.
yes, i know that feeling, i used to get sleep paralysis regularly when i was little. i remembered seeing terrifying things and hearing them scream at me and not being able to move from my bed. later in life i thought they were just dreams or some weird fake memories until i got sleep paralysis again and remembered what it was like
Ok what? This sounds so weird. I’m still a novice at music theory so I have no idea why that is (nor will I understand it if someone explains it) but it sounds so unsettling despite being technically a happy melody. Never thought madness could be framed in that way tbh.
Lucias the Goose Yeah but I don’t think I’ve heard something like that from liszt before, like sure I heard unsettling stuff, just not this. I’m honestly constantly surprised the more I dig into his music.
I don’t have a lot of music theory knowledge myself, but if I’m going to talk about this in a really rudimentary way, there are some sections suddenly jolt into a major (instead of minor) form which aids in stirring the weirdness of this piece. The grace notes in the melody definitely contribute as well, along with the twirling sextuplets. Dissonance and unresolved chords really make an otherwise cute piece sound unsettling. Tldr: Liszt had to have been possessed while making this.
Varun well the piece is called Mephisto polka, Mephisto meaning the devil, devilish so that's what Liszt was trying to portray in this piece by using some disonnances, exactly like in his Mephisto Waltzes (especially the first one). Ravel wrote a piece about a devilish character as well an he uses weird chords that don't always sound good (unless you know it was done on purpose to give the feeling of something dark and disturbing, sort of) the piece is called Scarbo, you should check it out if you don't already know it.
This may be coming too late, but part of what gives this piece a feeling of general unease and dissatisfaction is the fact it is mostly if not entirely atonal. There is no specific tonic or tonal center, no cadences even alluding to a tonal center, non-diatonic scales are borrowed from all sorts of keys and modes, and yet none of them are consistent. Liszt intentionally tried messing around with atonality at the end of his life (when he wrote this piece) and likely tried concocting the most tonally unstable piece, confirmed by the very strange and uncharacteristic F natural being the finale note at the Fermata.
the last note is the best, if you just dont notice it is in treble cleff you may at first glance think: aw yes, at leat he finished in A, long live tonality! But then you realize Good gone Liszt, i will add it to my list of tonality jokes
Say what you will about this piece being strange in comparison to his other works and indicative of his late-life physical and mental ailments, it's still a beautifully fun slapper of a piece.
my mom always has kopfkinos to instrumental, typically orchestral (or other traditional european/western instruments) music. when i told her the name of this one she said the F at the end made her perfectly picture mephistopheles himself disappear into a puff of smoke after dancing about!
If you play the Bagatelle sans tonalite right after this, that weird F natural at the end starts to make sense. I believe the two pieces are two parts of one whole. Like the sextuplet motif in this polka appears several times in the bagatelle.
1:00-1:18 I was looking forward to those ossias. Still a great performance of an innovative and unconventional piece. Do you know of any performances where the pianist plays the glissandos?
F for respect
Gbb for respect
Writes E# the whole piece long
Press F for respect
@@ihaka3925 lol
F
F#
Look at the key signature.
that F natural in the finale..
Play F to respect
Welcome to the F world.
Reminds me the end of the 2nd piece in Musica Ricercata, Ligeti.
E# to pay respect
Maybe he forgot to put the bass clef before the note and it should have been an A.
Jeez, this was just perfectly unsettling. The thumbnail and the title (not having heard Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz, despite having heard a lot about it) made me think this was going to be a relatively cute piece. Then it just kept getting stranger - like there’s definitely a dreamlike quality to this (and who better than Filipec to arouse this quality), but there’s also a nightmarish element to it too. I personally felt like I was stuck on an elevator or something. The single-note ending was like “you’ve arrived at your floor,” and somehow I still feel stuck.
The structure of this piece lends itself so easily to being cute and quaint, yet the delivered message is terrifying and uneasy - all the way through, but goddamn that ending really fucking solidified it. A very uncharacteristic gem in Liszt’s repertoire. Thank you for uploading!!
Listening to it again just got a laugh out of me. The first 20 seconds is so unassuming, and also contains a phrase that comes back to taunt you again at 3:32. Just incredible
You made me want to hear this played uncharacteristically over a fight scene in an elevator lol
Was written in late years of Liszt
A playable piece by Liszt? I'm trying it.
it's harder than it seems imo. Especially when you do the optional passages aswell. Good luck though.
I believe it is definitly advanced but if you have a good technique it is definately doable. How is it going?
Ehhh, I doubt you'll play this even technically correct, and I'm not talking about musicality, polyphony, interpretation, etc.
@@lukasantos6991 you literally have nothing to go off of here except a single, 8 word comment. ???
@@lukasantos6991 oof
The ending is genius!! A seemingly random single tone. I love it!
Am I the only one who hear clear anticipation of Bartok, despite, yes, recognize there are no dissonances?
Pietro Landri I agree, Liszt's late period is such a precursor to modern and post-modern music, yet most people just see him as a showman.
@@casrifay But that was mostly his early to early-middle years, my point is that these pieces alone are not what he should be celebrated for. And even then, some of the 'showpieces' show extreme harmonic maturity compared to contemporary romantics, as well as structural (e.g. the transcendentals are well on their way out of romanticism)
The theme is quite similar like Bartok's burlesque 2 tho :) with all those grace notes; created stuttering effect.
@@foxiszt Thanks .............. here's where my ears brought me to ........... but I had not recognized the specific Bartok piece ...
I think mostly of Liszt's late pieces are considered anticipation of Stravinsky and Bartok composition. But mostly Bartok.
2:01 Sextuplets, sextuplets, sextuplets.
The master was never afraid of taking experimentation but did so, naturally, with the ultimate sound experience he gathered through years of first-hand contact with the best music and musicians of his time.
So sad people didn't appreciate Liszt's music in his later years because it was too ahead of its time. He was basically criticized by people who knew nothing about music, how frustrating
S.700i
@@hadrieneverard8121 i don't think anything bad happened with liszt....many composers praised him
@@pleasecontactme4274 as I said he was criticized by his audience so normal people for the most part.
@@hadrieneverard8121 I don't think so, when he performed people really liked it
I'd love to see some of Liszt's symphonic works (poems & concertos) on this channel. Few people outside the music elite realize Listz was also a skilled orchestrator.
Thanks for all the great things you expose to public eye on this channel!
His third concerto was featured here, also some symphonic poems I believe
you can also see his video of the De Profundis concerto too
True... the symphonic version of Mazeppa is one of my favorite pieces by Liszt, and in general
“The principal task of a conductor is not to put himself in evidence but to disappear behind his functions as much as possible. We are pilots, not servants.”
-- Franz Liszt
I've seen a comment similar to this of yours before.
@@therealrealludwigvanbeethoven Likewise.
How tf is this related
do
@@tihamercsepregi7885 It's not. It's just a nice quote from the author.
''The material of music is sound and silence. Integrating these is composing'' - John Cage
Thanks for uploading this!
This is one of the most compelling musical explorations of 'mephistophelian' depravity/corruption - that I've ever heard. This work along with the second and third mephisto waltzes really stood out to me as showing the depth of this vein of Liszt's music. They have a unique way of shrouding a mystical, 'metaphysical' idea of evil under the playful and seemingly empty gestures of wayward dancing.
Sounds like a mix between the Bagatelle sans Tonalité and some parts of the 3rd Mephisto Waltz. Really cool piece
The last F makes sense if you hear how the opening motif on Measure 9 dwells on F as a nagging persistent thought. Perhaps this piece can be interpreted as Faust as F while the devil plays games with him and then disappears back into the ether...then Faust finally land back on... F
Finally a liszt piece I can actually try and learn, maybe only the beginning tho
Nico Nico Yazawa, maybe you should try En Reve, In Festo Transfigurationis, Sancta Dorothea and Wiegenlied for a start.
consolations
Nuages gris
Reminds me of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, "Chickens in their egg shells" . Very neat piece that displays the piano's higher register.
This was one of the weirdest experiences i've had w/ music in a long time
lol
Go watch wild Men’s danse and get an even weirder experience.
I'd like to hear the ossia's. I guess I'll have to play it myself.
when i was 3 years old, the first dream (and nightmare) I remember having was about cats. I would close my eyes, and then I see this endless white void, along with a black cat walking with blue eyes. There was a walking noise (that I later learned what heartbeat, when I learned what a heartbeat was), and the cat was stepping on beat with the heartbeat. The cat would walk sideways to me, like it was walking around me in a circle, staring at me from it's right side by turning its head.
That's not a scary dream, but for some reason I was scared of it. I knew that cats weren't bad but I was scared so much by that dream I just couldn't do anything. And being as young as I was, looking back on those times decades later already feels like some weird warp of time that is really dreamy. SO, I think the mood of this piece is similar to a dream like that. And that's what I feel when I say this piece feels disturbing.
Wow
yes, i know that feeling, i used to get sleep paralysis regularly when i was little. i remembered seeing terrifying things and hearing them scream at me and not being able to move from my bed. later in life i thought they were just dreams or some weird fake memories until i got sleep paralysis again and remembered what it was like
Salut! Super idee, faptul ca postezi doar piese compuse de Liszt. M-am abonat, sunt un mare fan Liszt 🎹. Continua tot asa🆙🆙🆙
What an interesting piece! Sounds so modern with a lot of chromatism... and that end....
Ok what?
This sounds so weird.
I’m still a novice at music theory so I have no idea why that is (nor will I understand it if someone explains it) but it sounds so unsettling despite being technically a happy melody.
Never thought madness could be framed in that way tbh.
it's Liszt
Lucias the Goose
Yeah but I don’t think I’ve heard something like that from liszt before, like sure I heard unsettling stuff, just not this.
I’m honestly constantly surprised the more I dig into his music.
I don’t have a lot of music theory knowledge myself, but if I’m going to talk about this in a really rudimentary way, there are some sections suddenly jolt into a major (instead of minor) form which aids in stirring the weirdness of this piece. The grace notes in the melody definitely contribute as well, along with the twirling sextuplets. Dissonance and unresolved chords really make an otherwise cute piece sound unsettling.
Tldr: Liszt had to have been possessed while making this.
Varun well the piece is called Mephisto polka, Mephisto meaning the devil, devilish so that's what Liszt was trying to portray in this piece by using some disonnances, exactly like in his Mephisto Waltzes (especially the first one). Ravel wrote a piece about a devilish character as well an he uses weird chords that don't always sound good (unless you know it was done on purpose to give the feeling of something dark and disturbing, sort of) the piece is called Scarbo, you should check it out if you don't already know it.
This may be coming too late, but part of what gives this piece a feeling of general unease and dissatisfaction is the fact it is mostly if not entirely atonal. There is no specific tonic or tonal center, no cadences even alluding to a tonal center, non-diatonic scales are borrowed from all sorts of keys and modes, and yet none of them are consistent. Liszt intentionally tried messing around with atonality at the end of his life (when he wrote this piece) and likely tried concocting the most tonally unstable piece, confirmed by the very strange and uncharacteristic F natural being the finale note at the Fermata.
the last note is the best, if you just dont notice it is in treble cleff you may at first glance think: aw yes, at leat he finished in A, long live tonality!
But then you realize
Good gone Liszt, i will add it to my list of tonality jokes
Say what you will about this piece being strange in comparison to his other works and indicative of his late-life physical and mental ailments, it's still a beautifully fun slapper of a piece.
my mom always has kopfkinos to instrumental, typically orchestral (or other traditional european/western instruments) music. when i told her the name of this one she said the F at the end made her perfectly picture mephistopheles himself disappear into a puff of smoke after dancing about!
Aren’t the grace notes supposed to come before the solid notes? This could be my woodwind bias but it bothered me in this recording
Yh that's the only thing I dislike about this recording, but otherwise it was played really well.
When ravel techniques starts to kick in in the piece of liszt
And this work sounds very likable to be orchestrated in a very French style (alla Debussy or Ravel).
Ferenc Liszt was first impressionistic and modern composer!
Also known as "Mephisto's pocket watch"
The last note
He pressed F to pay respects
What an ending, amirite?
If you play the Bagatelle sans tonalite right after this, that weird F natural at the end starts to make sense. I believe the two pieces are two parts of one whole. Like the sextuplet motif in this polka appears several times in the bagatelle.
Spooky!
Holy shit
What the F is that last note about 😂😂
Shades of Prokoffiev in this.
genius
Bartok's certain works sound a lot like this.
Indeed!
1:00-1:18 I was looking forward to those ossias. Still a great performance of an innovative and unconventional piece. Do you know of any performances where the pianist plays the glissandos?
Try Richter's performance I think he plays many of the ossias
@Ling Ling I have the same opinion
@@farrelpermadi5471 me too
How can I donate you?
If you enjoy my work and you would like to support it, you can buy me a $3 coffee here: www.buymeacoffee.com/nr3IjTt
Donate him? Are you gonna sacrifice him to your demon cult?
@@11D7-n8d yes
@@11D7-n8d
lmao
Why are a lot of pieces by Liszt about ghosts or death? lol
People are fascinated with the unknown
F as "Finish"
f
F
Ah yes
He clearly implies f as the tonality often. Not as atonal as people assume. Cool use of theory tho
Where is the repeat???
Dead
F for respect lol
I don't understand why he didn't do the ossia. It was totally doable. You're essentially just playing 4 quarter notes in the left hand lol
Разрешите поинтересоваться,а кто играет?
Goran Filipec
The F at the end was too short.... doesn't make it haunting
No way! Easy and playable? You must be mad, Liszt....
Maybe it sounds like Liszt's later musiks
What a F
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Why does Liszt's pieces always sound like Tom and Jerry music lol
Because Tom and Jerry use a lot of Liszt’s music in the show
Mephisto anyone?
?
Wow, never seen such an easy Liszt piece, not counting his Consolations
No views 4 likes
Funniest shit I've ever seen
musicians arent good enough to write or play this nowadays
?
F
f
f
F
f
F