Franz Liszt's big day!

Hi Monica, life is full of contrasts - I am glad you're in a good mood. When I am upset even to play or listen to music, I get out my telescope and peer deep into the stars for 30 minutes. Then I feel how petty and small my worries are and I feel better. You can also try a good pair of binoculars too.
Hey, tell me about those killer spots! It really helps to have a large hand for La Campanella. I realize I couldn't just practice this piece like any other piece. It helps to adapt this piece to your hand; and not try to adapt your hand to the piece like we do with most other pieces. For example, one problem (of many) I've had with this piece is that my 5th finger is too short. I kept missing the high D#. My 4th finger is almost as long as my 3rd finger, so in my later attempt I find that I can nail the D# octaves and jumps with my 4th finger much better instead of using the 5th finger.

Hi Andrew, all his transcriptions have amazing piano-technics! The stories from those labor camps are gruesome, for those who survived to tell it. I first heard of Cziffra and his uncommon style when I was 13 - I remember signing out the Cziffra LPs of Liszt music from the public library almost every week one summer. Yes, the Hungarian Dance No. 5 is a bit harder. I also tried playing the Sabre Dance - forget it! Guaranteed carpel tunnel syndrome. I thought you might like to hear the original, Vecsey playing the Valse Triste from a 1913 recording. He truly captures the Hungarian soul with such a nostalgic and seductive gypsy air. It's very unfortunate that he died at only 42... Ahhh, don't get me started!... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQkCK_rJVPI

 

Hi Monica and Andrew, why torture yourselves with Cziffra videos, unless you want to end up with carpel tunnel syndrome at the end? :shock:
Virtuosos don't phase me one bit. The piano-technics are dazzling, and the keyboard will have to be cooled down with a fire extinguisher after each performance, but at the end of the day, Rubinstein, late Horowitz, or Bolet will make me less edgy. I don't know about you, but I love Bolet for Liszt music!
Watching music videos?... I love watching concert videos for inspiration with a glass of vino. when I hear a great recording, video, or a concert I feel the urge to go to the piano (sobriety optional at that point). It's funny, I can watch these videos and praise the fact that I didn't become a professional musician. No regrets. But, Cziffra is impossible to emulate, imitate, or even regurgitate. Since I don't have to perform music as a profession, some can enjoy music for personal enrichment without the demands and stress of a musical career. My hat's off to those with musical careers!

Absolutely Monica, Google Sky is nice, I use SkyEye and velcro my phone flat against the telescope. BTW, if you you're up until midnight, in the eastern sky, "Granados's Star" (Horsehead nebula) located on the bottom of Orion's belt near N2024 (Flame Nebula) and Alnitak. Unfortunately, it's not visible to the eye, you have to hook up a camera to the scope to see the beautiful star gases and nebulas. But, Jupiter is fun with its 4 moons - that you can see with good binoculars.

 

The Vecsey recording is a lovely piece of old-world fiddling, and in surprisingly good sound considering its age. Thanks for posting that George.

Pity that Cziffra had to get his big paws on it and vulfarize it with his inevitable furious cadenzas and tremolos. I know this is not going to win me any friends here, but I have to say the more I hear Cziffra I find him a circus artist rather than a musician.

I did not not know about his life story, that certainly gives another perspective. But I don't think we should let such things influence our judgement of someone's playing. It's a bit like wooing kid prodigies just because they are so young.

But I have to hand it to Cziffra, there's never a dull moment with him. If you like show and excitement, and heaps of scales, octaves and double notes at every occasion, he's your man. I'm sure Liszt would have wet his pants over him. As for being musical, I'm not sure Cziffra could do that without spontaneously combusting every few bars. He had no limits, but also, IMO, no retraint, or dare I say, no taste.
Ducking and running now ;-)

 

Hard to say given the dismal sound quality. I'm surprised to find him play some more intellectually challenging music (was wondering if he ever ventured outside romantic virtuoso spheres) which is a brownie point from me. Not badly played but also not very accurate and rather soggy and haphazard compared to more incisive modern accounts. I have the version by Ashkenazy and Solti which IMO is excellent and far superior to this one (not just sonically).

That last one surely must be apocryphal ! Russians forgetting to drink... fat chance

I'll try to find some literature on Cziffra's life story. Much as I don't like his piano playing style, it must be a good read.

 

Thanks for that ! I'll go and read it at earliest convenience. I might even understand the man better, if probably not like his playing more.

 

I use Pocket Universe on my iphone. I don't know about the others, but it allows me just to hold up towards any portion of the sky and uses it's internal sensors to know what to display. I too have a refractor telescope (geek all the way). Joseph Lhevinne was an avid sky-gazer, even known to sky-watch during concerts in an amphitheater. :roll:

 

Hi Monica, no, it's not a name in the star registry. Remember, a while back I sent a photo of the Horsehead Nebula in honorarium for his brilliant work Cant de Les Estrelles. The native Castilian horses came to mind while I was looking for a fitting tribute in the heavens for Uncle Rico. Along with Beethoven's 9th, ancient Armenian duduk music, I still play that piece in the background when scoping the night sky. 8) Here's a telescope photo. You can't see the gases or nebulae visually; this is a several minute exposure with a camera attachment which reveals hidden information. The bright star on the left is Alnitak in the Constellation of Orion (located at the bottom of the belt) - this you can see even without binoculars.

Wow, I didn't know that Lang Lang and Josef Lhévinne were amateur astronomers.

Andrew, that is some amazing reading! Those who suffer, always have something to say... I'll finish up later.

Hi Chris, don't worry I won't be chasing you down!

Hi Eddy, I finally got a larger APO refractor, which should give a better image, I am just waiting until Orion rises higher up in the horizon... I usually take my scope to Cape Cod in the summer where the skies are much darker. After a cookout, and a few drinks, everyone takes turns looking through the scope. Before you know it, we're seeing double-stars! Sometimes, we'll joke around among friends late at night while looking for a particular star... It'll go like this, "Well, I don't know about Saturn, but from here I can see Uranus!" :lol:

 

Hey George, good to hear from you again! I will never forget the first time I saw Saturn WITH MY OWN EYES through a little telescope. The image was very small and had no detail other than the disk of the planet and its rings, but I was seeing the real thing! It was awe inspiring for me and left an indelible mark. I have two works for piano that I premiered while working on my DMA at Cincinnati, by a composition grad student named Steve Kowalsky. They are titled: "First Observations" for Piano (1988). No.1 NGC 224 "Andromeda", and No.2 Remnant: Crab Nebula. The style is very modern with porportional rhythms and cells, changing time signatures but no meter to speak of, etc. The amazing thing is that it sounds "spacey." Maybe someday I'll look at them again.

I just wondered about Steve and found the following from a 1991 Chicago tribune:
"Another new American piece, also a CSO commission and Chicago premiere, occupied the first half. It was La Grange composer Steve Kowalsky`s "Last Voyage," winner of the Illinois Young Composers` Competition and first performed by Barenboim and the CSO during the orchestra`s Downstate tour last fall. At first hearing, Kowalsky`s sound-collage impressed as a pretty but banal piece of orchestration. What a shame that the first statewide composers` competition-a worthy idea-could not have turned up a more substantial score.

It sounds like the critic didn't care too much for it.