Happy 200th Birthday Franz Liszt!

[nik0tine]

Today is the 200th birthday of my absolute least favorite composer, Franz Liszt. A Hungarian born child prodigy, he left us with some of the most technically demanding pieces of music ever written for any instrument. He is also, at least according to popular anecdote, the first person to popularize the modern practice of positioning the piano so that the lid was open and facing the audience. This way the audience could see the pianists hands.

As a composer he left us with a massive body of impossible to play works that I cannot stand. Nevertheless, his music is undeniably on a higher tier than most music ever written so let's give the guy some credit. He is also credited as the inventor of the symphonic poem
As an arranger and transcriber of music he is perhaps the best who ever lived. He is responsible for transcribing all nine Beethoven symphonies for solo piano; no small feat given the size of Beethovens orchestral scoring.
Here is a sample of a lesser known and infrequently played arrangement by Liszt (There is no excuse for this not being insanely popular). This was all I needed to decide that Liszt was the greatest arranger of all time.

Now it's your turn. Spew the party line about how Liszt was a bad composer but the greatest pianist and arranger who ever was. Discuss your favorite pieces by Franz Liszt (Don't forget to provide links!) or torture yourself by actually practicing them. If you are unfamiliar with the composer, perhaps today is a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with his vast and diverse body of works. No matter what you do, I hope we can all come together on this day to celebrate the anniversary of a truly monumental man.

All hail the king of piano. All hail Franz Liszt!

[Pike]

Thank you, Hungarian Rhapsody, for giving us not only a memorable Tom and Jerry cartoon and a memorable Bugs Bunny cartoon, but also a great scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Official cartoon theme song? Official cartoon theme song.

[Madame Adequate]

I am of course no expert on classical music, but I can recognize the talent in Liszt's work even if he's not my very favorite of composers.

[Pike]

There is not nearly enough Liszt love in this thread.

[Shiny]

Love this

Look at his freakishly long fingers that could stretch really far apart. It's no wonder he could do ballads like this.

[Wolf Kanno]

I think he may be my favorite composer. The man was a true rock star of his time, whose technical mastery can barely be recreated. His music just has more passion than other Romantic era composers.

[The Man]

I've been listening to Cyprien Katsaris' performances of Liszt's Beethoven transcriptions. They are really great. The scherzo movement of the ninth symphony may be my favourite. I'm kind of disappointed I didn't remember these existed earlier, although apparently I had downloaded them a couple of years ago and completely forgotten ever to listen to them. I did not realise this until I downloaded them again however. Apparently Liszt did a piano duo arrangement of the symphonies as well, although I haven't been able to find much on those.

I'm going to have to seek out more of Liszt's music.