Search results
- Mephisto Waltz No.1. Liszt wrote four Mephisto Waltzes, named for one of the most renowned demons in German folk literature (also known as Mephistopheles).
- La Lugubre Gondola No.2. The dark and moody La Lugubre Gondola, which translates to The Black Gondola, is an important late work of Liszt’s. Whilst visiting his son-in-law and fellow composer, Richard Wagner, on Venice’s Grand Canal in late 1882, Liszt began composing the piece after having a premonition of Wagner’s death.
- Three Concert Études, No.3: Un sospiro. If there’s one hallmark of Liszt’s piano music, it’s his ability to pack an unthinkable number of notes into just a few seconds.
- Transcendental Études, No.4: Mazeppa. For much of the 1850s, Liszt must have been afflicted by the most terrible earworm – a tune so catchy that he had to use it in two different pieces of music for it to finally leave his head!
- Transcendental Études, Nos 1-12
- Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos 1-19
- Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos 1-6
- La Lugubre Gondola
- Mephisto Waltz No. 1
- Piano Sonata in B Minor
- A Faust Symphony
- Piano Concerto No. 1
- Piano Concerto No. 2
- Totentanz
The Transcendental Études are a set of twelve highly varied and technically demanding compositions that pushed contemporary pianos (and pianists!) to the limit. They cover a wide range of moods and require mastery of a variety of virtuosic techniques. The third and final version of the Transcendental Étudeswas published in 1852 and dedicated to pia...
The Hungarian Rhapsodiesare a set of 19 piano pieces based on Hungarian folk themes and noted for their difficulty. Liszt also arranged versions for orchestra, piano duet, and piano trio. Liszt incorporated many themes he heard in his native western Hungary, which he believed to be folk music though many were, in fact, tunes written by members of t...
The Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos 1-6 are among Liszt’s most extroverted and popular orchestral works. The Rhapsodies are based on Hungarian folk themes and, in their original piano form, are noted for their difficulty. The Hungarian Rhapsody No 2in C sharp minor is by far the most famous of the set. In both the original piano solo and orchestral arrang...
La Lugubre Gondola (The Black Gondola)is one of Liszt’s best late pieces. The deeply introspective piece was first inspired by a premonition Liszt had of Wagner’s death when in Venice in 1882 in response to the striking visions of funeral gondolas on the lagoons of Venice. Wagner, Liszt’s revered son-in-law, was carried to his final resting place i...
Mephisto Waltz No. 1 is the most popular of the four Mephisto Waltzes composed by Liszt. The Waltzesare named after the devil, Mephisto, in the German Faust legend. Liszt’s virtuoso music style is brilliantly displayed in these pieces, which also reflect his fascination with the devil and program music.
The Piano Sonata In B Minor is generally acknowledged to be Liszt’s masterpiece and is a model of his musical technique of thematic transformation. This vast, single-movement sonata for solo piano demands the utmost from the performer musically and technically and is one of Liszt’s best works. Liszt dedicated his Sonata to Robert Schumann in return...
A Faust Symphony In Three Character Pictures was inspired by Goethe’s drama Faust. Liszt does not attempt to tell the story of Faust but creates musical portraits of the three main characters. He developed his musical technique of thematic transformation, in which a musical idea is developed by undergoing various changes. Hector Berlioz had just co...
Franz Liszt composed his Piano Concerto No. 1in E flat major over a 26-year period. He wrote the main themes of his first piano concerto in 1830 when he was nineteen years old. The opening powerful motif contains the essential elements from which all subsequent themes are derived. The concerto’s three movements are joined seamlessly into a single l...
Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major is in one single long movement, divided into six sections, prompting some musicologists to view it as a symphonic poem with piano. Like Piano Concerto No. 1,the whole of this concerto derives from its opening melody, which is transformed throughout the piece.
Horrific scenes during the Paris cholera epidemic of 1832 inspired Liszt to use the Gregorian plainchant melody Dies Irae in a number of works, most notably in Totentanz (Dance Of Death) for piano and orchestra. Since it is based on Gregorian material, Liszt’s Totentanzcontains Medieval-sounding passages with canonic counterpoint, but the most inno...
- 30 min
A playlist of the best piano pieces by Franz Liszt - Classical Music
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Filled with dramatic flourish and sprightly folk-dance melodies, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is both an audience favorite and a time-honored pop culture staple.
- Mephisto Waltz No. 1. Taking its cue from the Faust legend, Mephisto Waltz No. 1 is a scintillating whirlwind of piano brilliance.
- La Campanella. One of the most technically challenging piano pieces ever written, La Campanella (“little bell”) is based on a melody by the king of virtuoso violinists, Niccolò Paganini.
- Three Concert Études: Un Sospiro. The last of Liszt’s Three Concert Études, Un Sospiro uses hand crossing to maintain a never-ending and seemingly effortless cascade of notes that belies its technical difficulty.
Creating a catalog of Liszt works by difficulty proved to be much harder than I realized. There was so much to sift through, download, and read—early works, middle works, the bizarre late works, multiple revisions of the same piece, earlier versions of discarded material, hymns, Christmas pieces (Liszt wrote Christmas pieces?), beginner pieces (Liszt wrote beginner pieces?!), and much more ...
Jul 2, 2017 · Liszt also transcribed plenty of music, taking orchestral arrangements and writing them in a piano-only version. Roughly half of his compositions (400/800) are of this ilk. He’s also credited with the creation of the symphonic poem, which we’ll also be discussing in today’s video.
People also ask
What symphonic poem did Liszt write?
What are the best pieces of music by 19th-century Hungarian composer?
Why is Liszt a great pianist?
Why is Liszt so famous?
4 days ago · Franz Liszt, Hungarian piano virtuoso and composer. Among his many notable compositions are his 12 symphonic poems, two piano concerti, several sacred choral works, and a variety of solo piano pieces.
