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Sun, 12 Dec 1999 02:20:49 -0000 |
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Steve Schwartz on Leslie Howard's Liszt cycle:
>The ones I've heard have been superb (there are at least 40 volumes in the
>series). He turns the finger-tricks into real music. Cziffra is for me
>probably the most exciting Liszt player, but Howard brings out a meditative
>quality in Liszt.
Agreed. The final volume of the Hyperion Liszt Series (#57 The Hungarian
Rhapsodies) was released in september. I own about 20 of the volumes.
Since Howard is a musicologist too, he has discovered (or been given) quite
a number of manuscripts which were scattered all over Europe. I think he
has put a lot of effort in correcting and editing manuscripts and old
editions. The accompanying booklets are always informative and scholarly.
if you want any recommendations you can sewnd me an e-mail.
As for (especially) Gramophone reviews of the Hyperion series, I don't
take them seriously since I discovered that horrible review of the Complete
Works for Piano and Orchestra. It seems like Howard/Liszt got some real
enemies amongst some of the reviewers in that magazine.
>I must admit that I've gone through a hate-love relationship with this
>composer. At one point, after the St. Francis on the water (or was it the
>Sonnetto del Petrarco 123?) had annoyed me for what I hoped was the last
>time, I said to myself, "If that's all it takes to compose a so-called
>masterpiece, I can turn this stuff out by the barrel." I proceeded to try.
>It's a lot harder than it sounds, unfortunately.
Oh yes, how do you imitate his harmonic progressions? To me that's the
greatest mystery........
I've never hated him, but I was puzzled initially (after hearing his 2nd
piano concerto). What a weird (and wonderful?) world! How did he manage
to express so many different moods in just over 20 minutes? This wasn't
like any other romantic music. It sounded much more modern but in a
19-century way.
Indeed, the tonal "instability" and the mood changes makes it quite
difficult to grasp som of Liszt's music.
Renato Vinicius:
>I see in his music a kind of "hormonal effect"
To some extent I can hear that in Berlioz too, but not so much in Wagner.
That excess energy (or emotions) which seems to annoy some people is indeed
a "hormonal effect" which I often associate with eroticism and sex. I
don't find this sexual energy very often in classical music, but it is of
course more frequent in pop/rock music. ("Sex and drugs and rock'n roll",
Ian Dury and the Blockheads).
After composing Missa Solennis, Liszt was accused of bringing Venus into
the church.....
Mikael
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