Don Satz wrote:

>...  Just because John likes Liszt, and Wes and I do not, is hardly
>sufficient reason to question the merit of our tastes.  I have provided my
>subjective reasons for not appreciating Liszt's music and even threw in
>some childhood background.  Wes provided his reasons as well.

Wow.  I have not been reading this thread but thought I'd look at the
latest notes.  I was going to add "...really, liszt" to the thead-title
but remembered that is probably a no-no.

At any rate, I used to HATE Liszt, just couldn't stand anything I heard
by him, as it tended to sound show-offy, glitzy, noisy, hyper -- all the
things I just don't usually like.  But then I heard Bolet play his Sonetto
104 del Patrarca on a videotape.

I see that it's on his Great Pianists CD which I haven't gotten yet.  To
hear him play a few measures of this work (his timing on this piece is
very beautiful) go to

   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000JNPY/andrysbasten ...

My name is on there as I am an Amazon affiliate.  Feel free to just take it
off.  There is another excerpt of this at Amazon by Jando which sounds very
gruff in comparison

There are other pieces from his "Annees de pelerinage, deuxieme annee,
S 161" that I heard in another video tape.  Liszt wrote some beautiful,
reflective music too.  I was very surprised.  Some beautiful stuff.  Also,
if you have the Horowitz in Vienna recital, the Consolation no.  3 in D
flat major is gorgeous.  And he does things with Soirees de Vienne:
Valse-Caprice no.  6 that make it more interesting to me than it had been.

Andrys in Berkeley, CA
http://www.andrys.com/books.html
Search Classical: Sheet Music, Videos, CDs