i liked Buster as Flash better than Holland
Posted on 10/21/2011 3:17:12 PM PDT by Borges
On Oct. 22, 1811, Franz Liszt was born in the Hungarian (now Austrian) village of Raiding. His bicentenary follows hard on the heels of Chopin’s, last year, and anticipates Wagner’s and Verdi’s, in 2013.
But whereas no one really doubts the greatness of Wagner or Verdi, and Chopin seems universally beloved, things are not so straightforward with Liszt. He was, to be sure, an unrivaled performer (“A god for pianists” in Berlioz’s words), a man of unusually catholic artistic interests and the 19th century’s nearest approach to a Hollywood superstar. But although he is surely significant enough to celebrate, the question whether his music is actually any good has never really gone away.
It probably never will. Liszt, like his music, was constructed of paradoxes, as he well knew. “Half Gypsy, half Franciscan monk,” he called himself; another contemporary called him “Mephistopheles disguised as a priest.” But if his life was to some extent a touring soap opera played out publicly on various European stages, what the more prudish Mendelssohn described as a “constant oscillation between scandal and apotheosis,” it was at least a drama with a sympathetic protagonist. And for all his worldly success, Liszt didn’t have a particularly easy ride.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The Beethoven transcriptions are titanic, likewise the Wagner.
Not the full version, but it’ll have to do:
Beethoven’s Kiss
Andor Foldes wrote of his first praise as a pianist at the age of sixteen, during a “time of personal crisis” with his music teacher.
“Then the renowned pianist Emil von Sauer, Liszt’s last surviving pupil, came to Budapest and asked me to play for him. He listened intently to Bach’s toccata in C major and requested more. I put all my heart into playing Beethoven’s “Pathetique” sonata and continued with Schumann’s “Papillons.” Finally, von Sauer rose and kissed me on the forehead. “My son,” he said, “when I was your age I became a student of Liszt. He kissed me on the forehead after my first lesson, saying, ‘Take good care of this kiss — it comes from Beethoven, who gave it to me after hearing me play.’ I have waited for years to pass on this sacred heritage, but now I feel you deserve it.”
DSOTM’s got some really good sax work on side two.
Monks in the Middle Ages lived off by themselves in monasteries, away from the general population, praying and working (at least those who were serious about keeping their vows), staying put in one place. The Franciscans and Dominicans began in the early 13th century as mendicants, preaching to the people in the towns, begging for food to stay alive (inspired by chapter 10 of the Gospel according to St. Luke). To be sure as time passed the mendicant orders settled down, possessed houses to live in (friaries) and books, taught in universities, etc., but the difference between them and monks never entirely disappeared.
Beautiful. Never heard this story before. Many thanks.
The Lone Ranger had the William Tell Overture. Flash Gordon used Les Preludes.
The original (by the pianist mentioned) appeared in Reader’s Digest in the 1980s.
10:21 long. It gets revved up around 6:16.
It has been about 150 years since he died and and we know who Franz Liszt.
Y’all forgot “Rhapsody in Rivets”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTlWMRf4Hjs
So many of the great composers went to folk songs and the people’s music for inspiration for their compositions. Dvorak comes to mind, and so many others. Don’t understand why that would factor in on who is great or not, as so many of the greats pulled from the folk music of the areas they lived in.
The Buster Crabbe series, not the Steve Holland series. I think some of it was on The Lone Ranger (along with Wagner's Flying Dutchman, etc.)
There is a Katherine Hepburn move “Song of Love” about Robert and Clara Schumann. In one scene, Clara (Hepburn) hinted that Liszt is shallow compared to Robert.
One of Liszt’s friends declared, “She has insulted you!”
Liszt replied, “She has done worse than that. She has described me!”
Please add me to your ping list if you would, thanks!
Definitely one of my favorites too.
Liszt was and is better than very good.
This article may be good or it may not. But those three little letters...’NYT’ prevent me from reading it.
WOW! I thought I had seen them all!
Were those UNION construction workers? LOL!
i liked Buster as Flash better than Holland
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