hi there - this is such a beautiful piece and I enjoyed your remarks and performance very much. I've been working on it for a few months now (just an amateur). Interestingly, when I first heard it, it did not really grab me (much that I love Liszt's music, including his late works to a large degree). Then I went back a little while later for an extra listen and that's when it took hold! I think it is actually challenging to present it to an audience in a way that allows them to connect with it on first hearing. It is of course those ambiguous harmonies and sparse writing (which you talk about) that contribute to this. I think one might need to prepare the audience ears with other lead up pieces that help the listener get into that harmonic world. It is also interesting how all performances of this piece generally utilise tempo changes (that are not marked) to help shape it. In particular, in the first two pages - your choices are different to mine which are no doubt different to somebody else's. There is lots of room to manoeuvre! Some people play this piece with, I think, excessive virtuosity (as it accelerates through the climax) - this is not an issue for me ha ha as I don't have the chops for that. However, I like that your rendering, whilst exciting and urgent and brilliant, still has some understatement about it, which allows it to successfully transition again back to the quieter coda. If you happen to read these comments and have a moment, I would be interested in your thoughts on a particular technical issue. Once we move into the climax (starting with no key signature) and the tre corde, where we have all those fast broken chords in the left hand, I find it difficult to negotiate this and keep my left forearm relaxed - I often end up with a lot of tension which is not good. To remediate this, I am trying the following: 1) keep my left hand shape essentially open (but relaxed), 2) on the last of the first four quavers (1/8th notes for you !), such as the descending B G E B put a little staccato on the last B to get off it quickly (the pedal covers this) and then 3) just move hand position down for the second group of quavers (G E B G) before the last two (E E) and then get off the last E quickly to manage the jump for which we have not much time to the next group. What I was originally doing was contracting my hand after the first 4 quavers before beginning the next 4, but I found all that open/close was what seems to be creating the tension for me. I can't say I have completely solved this ergo my interest in your thoughts here. Anyway, if you have any observations on keeping relaxed in this section, I'd be very grateful to hear it (you look marvellously relaxed here but because of the camera angle I don't know precisely how you are negotiating it - probably second nature for you!). Finally, I think you are probably being rather generous to Wagner. There is a lot of evidence that he knocked off many of his musical ideas from Liszt, who, most wonderful human being that he was, never complained. Liszt really did transcend human pettiness on so many occasions, despite many people ill-treating his generosity and talent. I am re-reading Walker's Liszt biography for the first time in decades and am reminded of this a lot !
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Beautifully played
hi there - this is such a beautiful piece and I enjoyed your remarks and performance very much. I've been working on it for a few months now (just an amateur). Interestingly, when I first heard it, it did not really grab me (much that I love Liszt's music, including his late works to a large degree). Then I went back a little while later for an extra listen and that's when it took hold! I think it is actually challenging to present it to an audience in a way that allows them to connect with it on first hearing. It is of course those ambiguous harmonies and sparse writing (which you talk about) that contribute to this. I think one might need to prepare the audience ears with other lead up pieces that help the listener get into that harmonic world.
It is also interesting how all performances of this piece generally utilise tempo changes (that are not marked) to help shape it. In particular, in the first two pages - your choices are different to mine which are no doubt different to somebody else's. There is lots of room to manoeuvre!
Some people play this piece with, I think, excessive virtuosity (as it accelerates through the climax) - this is not an issue for me ha ha as I don't have the chops for that. However, I like that your rendering, whilst exciting and urgent and brilliant, still has some understatement about it, which allows it to successfully transition again back to the quieter coda.
If you happen to read these comments and have a moment, I would be interested in your thoughts on a particular technical issue. Once we move into the climax (starting with no key signature) and the tre corde, where we have all those fast broken chords in the left hand, I find it difficult to negotiate this and keep my left forearm relaxed - I often end up with a lot of tension which is not good. To remediate this, I am trying the following: 1) keep my left hand shape essentially open (but relaxed), 2) on the last of the first four quavers (1/8th notes for you !), such as the descending B G E B put a little staccato on the last B to get off it quickly (the pedal covers this) and then 3) just move hand position down for the second group of quavers (G E B G) before the last two (E E) and then get off the last E quickly to manage the jump for which we have not much time to the next group. What I was originally doing was contracting my hand after the first 4 quavers before beginning the next 4, but I found all that open/close was what seems to be creating the tension for me. I can't say I have completely solved this ergo my interest in your thoughts here.
Anyway, if you have any observations on keeping relaxed in this section, I'd be very grateful to hear it (you look marvellously relaxed here but because of the camera angle I don't know precisely how you are negotiating it - probably second nature for you!).
Finally, I think you are probably being rather generous to Wagner. There is a lot of evidence that he knocked off many of his musical ideas from Liszt, who, most wonderful human being that he was, never complained. Liszt really did transcend human pettiness on so many occasions, despite many people ill-treating his generosity and talent. I am re-reading Walker's Liszt biography for the first time in decades and am reminded of this a lot !
Such a beautiful rendition of it… love the pacing
Great to see this show up in my queue... always partial to Franz...
and his brother...