Assignment – Friday, Oct. 18

beau

Readings:Paganini – The Spectacular Virtuoso
Liszt – The All-Conquering Pianist

Listening after the jump.



As you listen to the Liszt arrangements of Paganini, it can be kind of fun to read along with Paganini’s score to hear what has been changed.Paganini_Capricci_2a_Edizione

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10 thoughts on “Assignment – Friday, Oct. 18”

  1. Robin Giesbrecht

    The third Grande Etude de Paganini, called “La Campanella”, actually is a Theme from Paganinis Violin Concerto on which Liszt wrote variations. It’s a technically very demanding piece, one of the most famous in the piano repertoire and a typical representation of Liszt’s styles, where he manages to bring his composition technically up to the edge, without falling off. Andre Watts does a great job, however Rubinstein emphasizes the bell in this piece very well, which is very interesting and an important part of the piece.

    October 16, 2013 at 1:37 pm
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  2. Robin Giesbrecht

    Regarding the Original Theme:
    Liszt changed the key to g# minor and also extended the theme by adding arpeggios in the left hand, which become a significant part of the theme in this étude.

    October 16, 2013 at 1:41 pm
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  3. Katherine Siochi

    I thought it was interesting in Liszt’s Paganini etude no. 4 that he stays very close to the original range of Paganini’s etude (no. 1), without much additional material. It seems rather understated, especially compared to Perlman’s rendition of the original.
    This is very different from Liszt’s other Paganini etudes where he expands the original etude to take advantage of the piano’s greater range of sound, harmonic possibilities, etc.

    October 18, 2013 at 1:07 am
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  4. Elizabeth White

    I really loved listening to Liszt’s arrangements of the Paganini caprices. This is just my opinion here, but I find the Paganini caprices on their own basically impossible to listen to. For me, they are (for the most part) ugly demonstrations of technical prowess. I feel as if Liszt was able to take these technically impressive pieces and turn them into something emotionally compelling to listen to. I may just be biased against Paganini though, being a violinist and all.

    October 18, 2013 at 4:43 am
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  5. Alex Kinmonth

    i like how in the paganini caprices they are often very conversational, especially in no 17; the beginning sounds like 2 different violins answering one another from across the room. Paganini often writes in a style that creates the illusion that 2 people are playing which obviously requires a lot of technique but its a cool effect.

    October 18, 2013 at 5:44 am
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  6. Ben Zannoni

    I haven’t heard the Perlman recordings of the caprices since I was a kid! It was refreshing to hear him play.

    October 18, 2013 at 2:17 pm
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  7. Danny Chang

    As a string player, it’s really interesting to see how Liszt rearrange Paganini’s caprices into different ways,
    Caprice no.5 Liszt turns the main theme into such a lyrical way to express the music
    no.17 it’s really fun to hear how Liszt adds different melodies under the original one and builds up the harmony
    no.9 I love how Liszt turns the music into such a fairy-tale like atmosphere.

    October 18, 2013 at 2:21 pm
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  8. Michael Chiarello

    I loved listening to these caprices. For some reason, on piano they seem so much more etude-like. On violin I find that there’s a lot more drama to be found. This isn’t always true, but in this case I think it is. Mephisto Waltz is also amazing.

    October 18, 2013 at 2:40 pm
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  9. Phil Brindise

    There’s an obvious relation of virtuosity between the etudes and caprices, although the piano etudes seem empty at times. I was really surprised with how difficult the caprices sound, and the Mephisto waltz is really excellent.

    October 18, 2013 at 3:28 pm
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  10. David "Chase" Baird

    Having never heard this music before, the caprices were obviously amazing. The pizzicato portions of the concerto were startlingly virtuosic to me and had an exciting emotional effect. I wonder who someone with no musical training would respond to it. The Liszt arrangements of the Paganini Caprices were significantly less interesting to me than the original works for violin since they seemed much less virtuosic in spite of possessing the same fundamental content. I’ve often felt that (in jazz), performers tend to play/improve/compose in favor of the virtuosic extremes of their instruments, even if unconsciously. Because piano is a relatively simple instrument technically (generating a bearable sound doesn’t take years and intonation is not a consideration for the performer), the virtuosic dimension tends to be intellectual (i.e. improvising in counterpoint, or pursuing a high level of objective complexity in the melodic and rhythmic content). Hearing the Paganini Caprice and then Liszt variations reminded me of this principle; that the same content on two different instruments comes across very differently depending on the technical limitations the performer is combatting. That being said the Liszt arrangements are still pretty amazing on their own.

    October 29, 2013 at 3:14 am
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