Classical Music for Aficionados

Jcazador,

I must admit, even as a pianist, I’ve given Liszt a wide berth.  Aside from the Mephisto Waltz, which I performed as a concession to audiences but disliked, i played almost no Liszt.  
I am listening to some of your suggestions and finding some gems.
Thank you.

RV,   I am so glad you are giving Liszt a try as he wrote ( in my opinion ) some of the most beautiful piano music of all time and yes he also wrote some bombastic show pieces to show off his technique. After all it was an age when everyone was vying for the top rung of the ladder and Liszt had to do the same if he wanted to be up there with the rest. A little piece to note is a letter Chopin wrote to a friend and it goes something like " I don't know how I am writing on this page but I am totally consumed by Liszt a few meters away playing my Etudes , Oh how I wish I could steal his technique and way he plays my music". That was Chopin's Op.10 Studies dedicated to Liszt. On the century's most inspired music, in the 18th century it has to be Bach's Goldberg Variations and for the 19th century I would have to go for Liszt's Sonata in B Minor. All I can say just now is thank goodness we now have young pianists of the Calibre of Volodos and some of these young lionesses that can safely surmount the enormous difficuties of his music and present it in a way that gives us a coesive whole that does not look like they are just trying to get through it with as many notes as intact as possible.

@jcazador     Jeremy I have just read your account of the Chopin Godowsky Studies. By not being up technically to Bolet's recordings do you mean Godowsky's technique or the technical imperfections of the recorded sound then. I have read of Bolet going back to his young days when he was a student of Josef Hoffman and how everyone was in awe of Godowsky's technique even Hoffman an Rachmaninov had said that he could do things on the piano that no normal human being could do.

Yes Jim, Godowsky is legendary for his technique, agree.I was referring to the technical aspect of the recordings that I have heard (not to the way the piano was played).I have read that Godowsky's small audience performances were the best of anyone ever, but that he did not play as well in a concert hall, or when recording.  Call it stage fright?  Not for me to say, never heard him, wish I could have.
I have also read that many accomplished pianists do not perform some of his works because they are so difficult. 

Jim,

Yes, I’m aware of Chopin’s admiration and envy of Liszt’s technique.
And, I agree and have always thought Liszt’s B minor Sonata a supreme masterpiece. By a wide margin, the foremost romantic piano sonata, surpassing Chopin’s own and Brahms’ youthful efforts.