Ariel Lanyi plays Wagner-Liszt Spinnerlied

/ arielfans
Liszt produced a staggering amount of transcriptions and paraphrases of symphonic, operatic, and vocal music. The best-known works of contemporary composers found their way into Liszt transcriptions and became known worldwide in this form. Before radios and records became common household items, and at a time when pianos were ubiquitous in average European middle class homes, most of classical music was popularized in the form of piano transcriptions, and Liszt’s scores covered the widest field. Nothing escaped Liszt’s attention: Beethoven symphonies, Schubert and Schumann songs, selections from the operas of Verdi and Wagner, organ works by Bach, his own symphonic works were all reduced to two staves and made available to ten fingers. The quality varied greatly, from the sublime to the ridiculous. The Spinnerlied from Wagner’s Flying Dutchman is an example of the former, and clearly among Liszt’s best.
Performed as an encore at a recital at Maison Radio France in Paris as part of the Génération jeunes interprètes series.