asked:
Born in 1811, Liszt is notably the best sight-reader ever to play the piano.? The various accounts border on the incredible.? When Grieg heard Liszt sight-read his then manuscript Concerto, the pianist rejoiced.? “He was literally over the whole keyboard at once, without missing a note.? And how he did play, with grandeur, beauty, genius, and unique comprehension.? I think I laughed, laughed like an idiot.”? Ferdinand Hiller told Mendelssohn, “I was with Liszt at Erard’s and showed him the manuscript of my concerto.? He played it at sight – it is hardly legible – and with the utmost perfection.? It simply can’t be played any better than he played it.? It was miraculous.”
He could out-play Chopin on Chopin’s etudes.? Chopin wrote, “Liszt is at this moment playing my Etudes and he transports me out of my proper senses – I should like to steal from him his way of playing my Etudes.”? In his diary, Moscheles recorded that “Liszt sight read three of my studies.? He has completed metamorphosed these pieces; they have become more his studies than mine.”?
Piano Technique
Liszt entirely changed piano playing -?musically, mentally, and physically.? He was said to use the pedals as a sort of breathing apparatus.? According to Rudolf Breithaupt, “What chiefly distinguished Liszt’s technique was the absolute freedom of the arms.? The secret lay in the unconstrained swinging movements of the arm from the raised shoulder, the bringing out of the tone through the impact of the full elastic mass on the keys, a thorough command and use of the freely rolling arm, the springing hand, the springing finger.? He played by weight – by a swinging and a hurling of weight from a loosened shoulder that had nothing in common with what is known as finger manipulation.? It was by a direct transfer of strength from back and shoulders to fingers.”
Website content
Born in 1811, Liszt is notably the best sight-reader ever to play the piano.? The various accounts border on the incredible.? When Grieg heard Liszt sight-read his then manuscript Concerto, the pianist rejoiced.? “He was literally over the whole keyboard at once, without missing a note.? And how he did play, with grandeur, beauty, genius, and unique comprehension.? I think I laughed, laughed like an idiot.”? Ferdinand Hiller told Mendelssohn, “I was with Liszt at Erard’s and showed him the manuscript of my concerto.? He played it at sight – it is hardly legible – and with the utmost perfection.? It simply can’t be played any better than he played it.? It was miraculous.”
He could out-play Chopin on Chopin’s etudes.? Chopin wrote, “Liszt is at this moment playing my Etudes and he transports me out of my proper senses – I should like to steal from him his way of playing my Etudes.”? In his diary, Moscheles recorded that “Liszt sight read three of my studies.? He has completed metamorphosed these pieces; they have become more his studies than mine.”?
Piano Technique
Liszt entirely changed piano playing -?musically, mentally, and physically.? He was said to use the pedals as a sort of breathing apparatus.? According to Rudolf Breithaupt, “What chiefly distinguished Liszt’s technique was the absolute freedom of the arms.? The secret lay in the unconstrained swinging movements of the arm from the raised shoulder, the bringing out of the tone through the impact of the full elastic mass on the keys, a thorough command and use of the freely rolling arm, the springing hand, the springing finger.? He played by weight – by a swinging and a hurling of weight from a loosened shoulder that had nothing in common with what is known as finger manipulation.? It was by a direct transfer of strength from back and shoulders to fingers.”
Website content
