Liszt Fever: Misha Dichter on Why Franz Liszt is a “Towering Genius”

[@nickk8416]

Great stuff! Well done Misha. Spoken from the heart. Liszt wrote so much great and varied music. His transcriptions alone are fabulous. His Sonata, Etudes, Years of Pilgrimage, Liebestraume, one could go on and on.

[@anthonydecarvalho652]

Thank you for this wonderful tribute to lizst. For me Lizst is the greatest complete musician who ever lived. The love and appreciation of Lizst has been with me my whole life. My 96 year old mother as a child studied piano with one of Liszt last students.

[@henrymauer6549]

I saw/heard m.d. in 1970 or 71 perform the brahma 1st piano concerto😂

[@philosophyprof4999]

Listening to Misha Dichter's records from the 1970s, the Schumann, the Liszt, the Beethoven, reveals a gem of a pianist. Dichter is underrated. You may not find his name among Kissin, Pollini, Hamline, but he is their equal.

[@giorgiociomei5030]

Yes 👍

[@Jimyblues]

Chopin was the king of form- that’s the accessibly- Liszt was a visionary

[@Radiatoron88]

I enjoyed this--thank you for sharing it! My only "objection" to what Mr. Dichter had to say was in regard to performing/recording Rachmaninoff. That since we have recordings of Rachmaninoff himself playing his own works, if here were to record/perform the composer-pianist's works, that he would try to duplicate as far as possible exactly what Rachmaninoff did in his own recordings. As impossible as that would be, practically speaking, it also seems like that would be a sterile undertaking. If a performer has nothing of their to "say" via their own interpretation of a given score, then that makes for lifeless performances. With the exception of, say, Ravel, would said that he felt that instrumentalists should be slaves to the printed score, I think most composers welcome hearing new interpretations of their music, even if they differ (and sometimes maybe even because they differ) from their own. I'm interested in hearing what individual pianists "have to say" in their personal takes in various pieces of music. That's a large part of the enjoyment of listening to music--to hear the differences from performer to performer. Switching topics, I remember many years ago in a book of pianist interviews, Mr. Dichter enthused greatly on Schumann's music, and that he felt that Schumann was a a greatly original composer, more original than even Chopin. Regardless of any comparison to Chopin's music, I appreciated his appreciation for Schumann's music! I only wish I could play more of it. If only we could be outfitted with hands that work well at the piano!

[@jdbrown371]

Liszt's late music is some of his best. Some of his less played Hungarian Rhapsodies like no. 5 are great. There are three more Mephisto Waltzes why not play those too?

[@ssleroychannel]

Don’t forget the fountains at the villa d’este!

[@jdbrown371]

The Sonata in b minor ought to be played with the same austerity and simplicity as his Troisiemme Anne´e Pelerinage. It shouldn't be a virtuoso piece at all. Another gem is the Czardas Obstinee. Another one.... Have fun finding them all. We have imslp.

[@stefanbernhard2710]

Now now, let's not think in absolutes. This is art after all.

[@moudar.871]

Are you sure that Liszt's sonata in b minor shouldn't be seen as a virtuousic piece? Virtuousity doesn't only meen playing fast and accurate, but also integrating a very hard programm (which this sonata apparently has) into the piece and being able to express as many types of harmony as possible. If you (re)study the piece and focus on at least those factors you'll maybe change your point on it.

[@man0sticks]

I don’t hear any abandonent of the tonal center in La Lugubre Gondola. It’s clearly F minor.

[@kasajizo8963]

What's the piece at 5:57?

[@AlexanderArsov]

Funérailles.

[@Felix_Li_En]

Funérailles.

[@scotking8565]

I'm curious, when did Misha Dichter make this interview recording?

[@ValzainLumivix]

Cool

[@kasajizo8963]

Do you know the piece at 5:57?

[@ValzainLumivix]

Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S. 173: VII. Funérailles

[@MikeTroy74]

🤘😎👌

[@mrbrianmccarthy]

I have to correct this guy in this video on one thing----He mentions that "If Chopin hadn't existed music wouldn't have changed" as a reference comparing him to Liszt, who "He feels did change music." Yes Liszt had a massive influence of the music of the future, but If you listen to Liszt's piano playing, there is a LOT of Chopin influence-----The fact is,Chopin's pianism changed how people played the piano INCLUDING LISZT. No one played like that til Chopin came around, including Liszt. Chopin got his stuff out there first and his approach to the piano was the first truly modern approach----so if Chopin had not existed, Liszt's playing would have been much different, because Chopin was the one who FIRST taught people how to play "Modern Piano" in the Post Beethoven school .Liszt also took a lot from Mendelssohn(Listen to his "Gnomenreigen" piece, the famous Liebestraum,)

[@MathieuPrevot]

Are you claiming, deducing from something or do you have reference ?

[@PaulMelia]

Chopin was inspired by Irish composer John Field. Field always gets forgotten

[@LuisGonzalez-pw6jy]

I totally agree with Brian. Chopin revolutionized piano music, created textures that changed piano technique, and his harmonic language was very adventurous.

[@CarmenReyes-em9np]

En español.

[@stefanbernhard2710]

Eh, Chopin borrowed heavily from Hummel and John Field. Not as original as he's made out to be. Liszt literally invented the piano recital. There's no comparison

[@jamesmeyer4841]

Very good talk but the quality of the piano sound is very poor.

[@catherinekelly532]

ROCK star? Bad analogy!

[@nanthilrodriguez]

Rachmaninoff commended Horowitz for his performance of his work, and enjoyed the *changes that Horowitz made to his original composition. Seriously, where do you get your opinions from? "How dare we do anything but what Rachmaninoff did" when Rachmaninoff himself was a fan of other interpretations of his music, and also famously interpreted other musicians differently in his variations. Say Beethoven. There was never a composer by the name of Beydoven "How dare you pronounce his name incorrectly"... when its literally spelled out for you in natural language.

[@vincentedelmond5404]

Not much. Making arrangements and transcriptions doesnt make him a Towering genius. Liszt was a great virtuoso and a teacher a one man show piano performer The hardest part of a music is its theme and motive the rest is homework As we see Liszt was perfect in arranging the homework but he seldom has his own themes and motives If ill compare Liszt ill compare him to Thalberg Alkan Czerny and not to Beethoven Chopin and Schubert

[@LeifD958]

As a composer, Liszt is as genius as the greatest composers to ever live. I even understand when people regard him as the greatest COMPOSER of all time. Yes, I wrote composer, not pianist. And not arranger. Because he wrote some of the most profound, magnificent and deep music ever created. His Sonata is widely regarded as the greatest piano work of the romantic age. And many see it as the greatest work of music, of all times. It represents the pinnacle of humanity. And mankind. His greatness as a composer rivals the greatest composers in history. The following quote is by Camille Saint-Saens: "The world persisted to the end in calling Liszt the greatest pianist in order to avoid the trouble of considering his claims as one of the most remarkable of composers". Camille Saint Saens obviously was serious about this, and he is not the only great composer that treasures Liszt as a composer. Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Copland, Wagner, are only a few of the giants that admires Liszt the composer. -Even Wagner said he considered Liszt the greatest musician of all times, and Copland said: “everything Liszt wrote has something of interest in it”. Wagner once wrote a letter to Liszt in which he says that everything he is musicaly thanks to Liszt, and that Liszt´s symphonic poem "Orpheus" influenced him (Wagner) forever. The words from all this great musicians are not without importance and interest. And after continuously listening to all his music since I was 15, where his piano music alone reaches over 100 CD’s(!), I have to agree with what so many composers have said about Liszt as a composer. Liszt’s music is amongst the most spiritual and heavenly music ever created on earth. Not only in the romantic area. But I compare it’s spiritual quality with the music of Händel and Bach.

[@composaboi]

Sounds like you havn’t studied enough of Franz Liszt’s music. Look into his Faust symphony and Christus. An hour and a half and a three hour work full of original material with good counterpoint (nothing like bach, but about as good as beethoven), his own orchestration, which is better than that of Tchaikovsky, (especially since Liszt could write well for harp, unlike Tchaikovsky and his infamous impossible harp part). Through these and many others, he also showed a mastery of musical form and used his technique of thematic transformation. I definitely don’t think he’s the greatest composer, but I think he’s one of the most influential composers and was for sure leagues ahead alkan and thalburg and czerny and can be comparable in many ways to the greats. He’s at the very least good enough to be one of my favourite composers, second only to Mahler.

[@thebones]

I doubt that Lizst would agree with you when considering his status in the composer hierarchy.

[@thanasis_milios]

@@LeifD958Don’t even bother with that dilettante. He has commented on the half of Liszt related media saying all this incomprehensible puerile nonsense. He also shows off that he has studied musicology in Venice or something, as if his attitude didn’t already reveal his narcissism, incompetence and general lack of any self awareness whatsoever.

[@jrodriguezpiano]

Unfortunately for your statements on “Liszt isnt comparable to Beethoven Mozart etc” the majority of the world already made that comparison, so the opinions from the thin herd of Autistically Composer Focused Listener, like yourself, probably should give way to the more in the moment, casual opinion