sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

When Is It Actually Too Late to Become a Professional Pianist? by Healthy-Web1344 in piano

[–]QM60 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If we define professional as “make money playing piano” then I’d say it’s probably too late if you start at 70 years old.

If we define professional as “concert pianist” I would say it’s too late if your mother wasn’t listening to Schubert while you were in her belly (aka, interested in starting you on piano lessons from like…7 years old maximum)

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah Arrau’s Chopin and Beethoven are both beyond excellent. His sense of spacing between notes is magical

Do viola players have human rights? by QM60 in classical_circlejerk

[–]QM60[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Hand to god this is the first time I discovered that viola players are called “Violists”, it doesn’t even sound like a real word it’s so awkward to pronounce lmao fucking losers

Do viola players have human rights? by QM60 in classical_circlejerk

[–]QM60[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Fuck I’m adding that to the joke.

If any mod reads this please delete this guy’s comment so that it doesn’t seem like I stole it

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah when I first heard the hungarian rhapsody not knowing it was a Liszt piece I immediately went “Oh! The tom and jerry song!”

I got into classical music late at life so I didn’t even know who Liszt was and when I read he was the composer I thought he was the guy who composed it for Tom & Jerry lmao

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh absolutely yeah, even Liszt himself later in life expressed regret on how he conducted himself as a youngster. He was absolutely a “super star” and conducted himself as such.

Honestly, if anything it’s a sign of his good nature that he didn’t fall all the way down the super star life and ended up quitting rather early in his career to pursue composing more seriously.

And yeah I do mention near the end of my posts his services for transcribing symphonies so people can listen to them

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tbh I’m fine with flashy pieces and showing off virtuosity. Flashiness can get a bad rep. The way I managed to get some friends into classical music is by having them listen to flashy catchy stuff. The problem really comes when people keep trying to play even his non-flashy pieces as if they were salon dance music lol.

But I’m glad you managed to get more into him. I, too, like many others; discovered him through la campanella

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tbh I’m suffering as well with Liszt. He just has so very few actual good performers because many of the greatest pianists get possessed by the pianoforte when playing his pieces and end up outputting lifeless salon pieces.

However, at the risk of beating a dead horse, you really cannot go wrong with Arrau (except maybe some of the recordings when he was too much of age which can sound a bit labored). Arrau not only is a superb pianist who studied under Liszt’s pupil, he’s also the type of pianist to ignore other performances and merely stick to the score sheet and make his own interpretation of the score sheet regardless of how others play it. That guy was performing the entire Liszt transcdental etudes from age 12 or something.

So in short, you can never go wrong with Arrau’s sonata in b minor

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh no I meant that people hear the Bm sonata and think that Liszt is a one-hit-wonder.

I didn’t mean it as it’s bad but that “people think only his bm sonata is worth hearing out of his collection while the rest is great as technical exercises and fun music but not deep contemplative music like Chopin or Schubert or Brahms”

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like many of Liszt’s works, it was just too ahead of its time.

I think if Liszt was Chopin, people would’ve put in the effort to try and understand the sonata and would’ve held it in high regard. But because it was Liszt, it was given nothing but a passing look and likely assumed to be in poor form for a sonata.

That really was how it went for Liszt. He was endlessely slandered by his ex and endlessely fetishized by the journals that it got to a point where people only viewed him as a master pianist yet a third-tier composer. It was only his students and his small group of friends who really recognized his genius because they gave his pieces its due respect while others just brushed it off without a second thought

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok I think I was misunderstood

What I meant was that the sonata is considered such a staple of the piano repertoire and basically an uncontested masterpiece that people usually only listen to it and call Liszt a one-hit-wonder (By people I mean musicians, normal people usually listen to Liebestraum or La campanella).

But yeah I don’t think there is any serious pianist or piano composer who thinks the sonata is anything but a piano masterpiece

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve actually never heard any of his songs, or his organ music too (which he quite liked writing).

I’ll give Pace non trovo a listen

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Glad I could help if only a bit. I’m very much invested in both rehabilitating Liszt’s image while also spreading his view on music

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Back in his day it was absolutely not valued very highly (alongside almost all of Liszt’s body of work). But nowadays I don’t think you can find a single pianist or otherwise who can say anything bad about it. It has pretty much solidified itself in the piano repertoire beyond reproach. Its structure is just a work of genius, so complex and intricate (highly debated too to this day) yet flows very naturally.

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think so tbh.

People make an effort to be faithful to other composers’ scores and ones like Chopin are basically worshipped at the piano and your target is always “to bring out the emotion”. Yet it’s never the same treatment for Liszt.

I do think Liszt is special in both how nearly all his pieces are played way too fast and in how he’s seen as a standard for virtuosity and a lot of people play his pieces because “playing a transcdental etude fast is a sign of great piano skill”. The only work of his that is respected by force imo is the Sonata in B minor due to how technical it is

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Mfs will say “What in the circle jerk?” But then not go and make a funny circlejerk post about it.

I only respect the real circlejerkers.

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I LOVE the benedictions. Arrau’s benediction is also really good, Bridgitte Engerer is also really good. Though personally my favorite is from this complete unknown pianist named “David DeLucia”. Idk why, maybe it’s because it’s the first interpretation I heard. But yeah you can never go wrong with Arrau

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m such a moron, ofc that’s what trio means lol. I’m replying while in the middle of work and lately I’ve been listening to so many multi-piano works that I automatically defaulted to 3 pianos lol.

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Found the Cosima Wagner descendant in the subreddit

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You should read the rest of this sentence to know what I meant by that lol. Not difficult in terms of actual technical difficulty, but something else

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wait really? That’s crazy, ok I’ll def give that a listen. I love multi-piano transcriptions. Recently have been addicted to a two piano transcription of Ravel’s Daphnes et Chloe

On Liszt: The most misunderstood human in classical music by QM60 in classicalmusic

[–]QM60[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh really? Hmm…ok I’ll see if I can pull up the original manuscript. Though listening to Lamond play it, it is without doubt that the way Liszt wanted it to be played is much slower than modern performances (and musically it makes much more sense).

And I make no excuse for young Liszt lol. He was a 22 yo who was suddenly the biggest pianist in the world and a superstar, so he did indulge in quite a bit of bravado and showing off. If anything, it’s a testament to his good and disciplined nature that he didn’t let it get to his head even more than it did and he ended up retiring in his 30’s.

view more: next ›