![]() ![]() Josef Hofmann’s version was recorded in 1922 and has appeared in his Great Pianists of the 20th Century album. This being a piano roll, the digital stereo sonics are fine though extremely reverberant. Nor is the Friska harsh or flashy in any way, the latter of which is quite the opposite, I would say, of the purported pianism of Liszt himself. The whole impression is one of extreme aristocracy and good taste, and while Friedheim’s technique is everywhere to be heard in the Friska (note the precision of those repeated broken-octave figurations), the Lassan moves on suavely and tastefully, without a hint of sentimental saccharine-ness that would become many later versions’ affectation. ![]() Instead, what we have here is the great Liszt protégé Arthur Friedheim’s piano roll recording, surely a useful, if possibly not entirely authentic, key to the style of this romantic virtuoso of the golden age. The recordingsĭon’t be fooled by the album cover: Liszt never recorded anything on a piano roll. Suffice it to say that the sheer amount of renditions of the piano original out there is enough for me to cover quite a few thousand words. ![]() Therefore, I present you with a comprehensive review on what is arguably the most overplayed Liszt piece ever written: the Second Hungarian Rhapsody.Ī caveat: I’ve decided to eschew all the orchestral transcriptions of the work and instead concentrate my review on the piano versions instead, for the simple reason that I feel the orchestral version fails to capture the innately pianistic writing and color of the original. And two versions by Brailovsky that are my current favorites.After Top Ear’s previous two comprehensives, both on Brahms (the 4th symphony and Ein Deutsches Requiem respectively), we’ve decided we should do our third one on a smaller single work. I have replaced these with my latest Hungarian discovery, Gergely Bogányi in a very exciting rendition of this potboiler, and what I believe might be the best performances of all, those by Gleb Akselrod and Geoffrey Tozer.Īnd Rachmaninoff of course. I had an amazing performance by the superb Hungarian pianist Edith Farnadi, and a famous Paderewski, but they were removed from YouTube. as well as some very excellent pianists who stretch the limits of "taste". This is not to say there aren't some other extremely good ones in the group below, Moiseivitch and Rosenthal are treasures too, and a very fine rendition by Hamelin. ![]() If, for example, one compares the performances of Rachmaninoff, Cortot, Hofmann, Cziffra, and Brendel the wide range of "tasteful" interpretations becomes quite apparent. But even within the range of appropriate personal liberties, there are very interesting and considerable differences. The rhapsody invites a high degree of personalization from the pianist and some of the performances clearly take this too far. And in his 1910 recording, the earlier of two by Paderewski, he adds his own cadenza to the Liszt Rhapsody. While most of the performances use the original Liszt text, there are several, Horowitz, of course, Volodos and Lang Lang, in which the Liszt-Horowitz edition are used. Here is a group of differing interpretations of the second Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody. ![]()
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