Classical music thread welcoming your suggestions and why...

I never was nor i am a Liszt-o-philliac...

I never love Liszt at all...

I did not know why...

Till i listen pianists able to reveal it FOR ME...The first was Bolet...

Like Scriabin Liszt is not for everybody, he wrote music to be listen in intimate sacred moments ...These two are revelations or acquired taste...For me they were at the same time revelations and acquired taste because of Sofronitsky and E. Ny. who played them in a way no other could...

The music of Liszt and Scriabin on piano has one point in common, it is never first merely written to be pleasant and beautiful music, most of the times it is a moving intensely disturbing music written to reveal soul depth ... It is the reason why it is hard to play the right way by almost every pianists... To give an extreme example: LSD is not bread nor a cake...

Bolet and Arrau are tremendous pianist anybody can live with I discovered Liszt with Bolet perfect playing, it reveal poetry to me unique to Liszt ...But this dont nullify Neuhaus choices in Liszt or others who play it in a more intense way... ...

Music is a journey where the travellers meet but never goes together toward the next stay...

My favorite works of Liszt is not on piano, it is the Christus...With Bach, Haendel Messiah, Bruckner great mass, a work of supreme mastery away from the promethean Liszt ...

And in music thread it is better to speak about less known interpreters and less generally appreciated composers..

My favorite composer is Bach...

I am not much of a Liszt-o-philiac, as I think there is more style than substance there. Some of the Etudes are nice. Claudio Arrau and Jorge Bolet are enough for me, and Brendel in the Sonata

An example from the past of a highly disturbing expressive music and a composer who was a revelation when i listened to him at 25 years old, almost in ectasy, is the great and unique Carlo Gesualdo...

My favorite interpretation by far is by the Quintet vocale Italiano...They convey the emotion before trying to be perfect and plastically beautiful...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c60YJsL37d8

Here the music is saturated "plaint" as saturated Schoenberg Gurrelider will be, the composer goal is to move the listener more than relax him... it is very difficult to interpret...because the singers must not sing for the music to be mere beautiful but emotionnally saturated by chord between harmony and dissinance...

For me Gesulado is not a secondary composer but as Monteverdi and on paqr with him a unique moment in musical history...

For sure i loved poetry all my life and Gesualdo is a supreme poet as Schubert will be in his own masterful way...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGuRiuq_qfY

But la Venexiana ensemble impressed me too, they are more plastic in expression and very clear, less moving than Quintetto Italiano though... it is the same difference between Liszt Bolet and E. Ny. Liszt playing... I like the two pianists and the two vocal ensemble for different reasons...My favoritism dont erase the other interpretations good points ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRuy8UuRwyo

In a word the perfect description of an emotion is not the emotion itself...The image of an emotion is not the emotion... The pianist playing he can play the image in a perfect way or can imperfectly play the emotion, but it is way harder to play the emotion because we must feel it totally and forgot the notes...

The written score playing so perfect it can be cannot replace the emotion rolling from the interpreter hands...

For example here : the perfect description of some "nuage gris" from Liszt score by the great Zimerman ( my best interpreter of Brahms concerto no-2 my favorite concerto by the way ) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnkzBbuyy1M

But now no more a "description" so perfect it was, but the emotion itself so imperfect it was by Ervin Nyiregyhazi: Liszt: Nuages gris S.199

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHSF5oeg8k4

Here we see the clouds with our eyes because the emotion is all over the place... It is no more merely beautiful image or representation we see as with Zimerman... it is sadness through clouds we FELT ...No more a beautiful score marvellously played...But mere emotion flowing from the sounds..

But we cannot listen in a distract way the E.Ny. interpretation at all...Too disturbing to be listen in a distracted relaxed way...

We can listen Zimerman in a distracted relaxed way, because it is perfect...

We must understand music, there is no right or wrong here between the two versions... But one thing is certain Liszt could have never been able to mesmirized crowds and put them in trance with Zimerman playing here... He played like Ervin Nyiregyhazi, who was anyway direct Listz student through his teacher Lamond...

Music is not about our tastes only but about revelations...Animals had tastes human not only had tastes but  they may have revelations...

For me music history is consciousness history too...I explored it with my guiding tastes as anyone of us , but imprevisible revelations disturbed my road  and throw away few times  my past certainties...

Give the Academy of Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields chamber orchestra a try if you are looking for performances of Classical Era and Late Baroque Era repertoire, especially Mozart and Haydn. The fidelity of their recordings ranges from very good to downright excellent. Orchestral string tone is a particular highlight. The band's performances, most notably the ones conducted by Neville Marriner, are unfussy and insightful.  Their LP pressings are never less than excellent. I got a bunch of 'em.  And oh, yeah, I've seen them live a couple of times.

Very good recommendation...

I forget them a bit in the last decade... It is a shame... Marriner is a great conductor... I love everything i heard from him and his orchestra...

Thanks i will try it again soon ...

The only thing i listened a lot in the last years was his "art of the fugue" Bach version... Among my 5 favorite...I listened these 5 versions  one after the other...Impossible to choose...

Give the Academy of Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields chamber orchestra a try if you are looking for performances of Classical Era and Late Baroque Era repertoire, especially Mozart and Haydn. The fidelity of their recordings ranges from very good to downright excellent. Orchestral string tone is a particular highlight. The band’s performances, most notably the ones conducted by Neville Marriner, are unfussy and insightful. Their LP pressings are never less than excellent. I got a bunch of ’em. And oh, yeah, I’ve seen them live a couple of times.