Key: Methods used to simplify Liszt
_______ Eliminating opposite hand direction movements -Faking it
_______ Not hammered - shortening the distance the hands move
_______ Easier version with only some of the hard octaves
_______ Playing very slow
_______ Changing speeds to play the hard part slower
_______ Not attempting - smashing notes with open hand
x One missed note or one left out octave (indicated below)
xxxxxxxxx Many missed notes or left out notes
~~~~~~~ Losing control of
rhythm
_______ No faking, no illusions, octaves hammered as written
Link to YouTube post of 17 pianists faking or attempting to play the ending
Someone on YouTube edited three groups of pianists playing ending of the Hungarian Rhapsody. The first group is 5 vintage recordings almost 100 years old. The second group is 5 pianists who were touring when I was a kid. The third group is 7 current performers. In this group, 3 of us have recorded the Rhapsody for record labels. Denis and I have recorded for major labels (BMG, Virgin). Marc recoreded it for a minor label. Lang is not in the group. He recorded the easier version, not the one by Liszt. When you hear the other pianists messing up and/or faking, you will know why Lang recorded the easier version. Check out the link. The hardest part is the last few seconds of each segment.
Blog:
Modern Virtuosos do not develop their brains the way Liszt did. As a result, they have to choose between diluting the technique at the end of his most famous piece or risk the piece ending with an uncontrollable chain reaction of wrong notes.
The history of recordings can't be ignored. It begins with a pianist who was around when America had slaves. Generations of pianists who made recordings, before my release on Virgin Records in 1991, were diluting the technique and most of them still stumbled through the passage on their best take. 100 percent of them left faked and failed performances, despite hundreds, or perhaps a thousand attempts in the studio.
The live performances are much worse. Many of them tend to have a chain reaction of wrong notes, as many as fifty, when they attempt the passage on stage where they have only one chance to get it right. My scholarship is correct. You can see for yourself by clicking on the names of each pianist. They are all linked to the performances on YouTube that document the failure at the end of Liszt's most famous piece.
I always thought that the premise of how they educate virtuosos was silly. It goes like this: Sign up for lessons at a school like Juilliard and if you practice hard enough, you will be able to play the piano as Liszt did. Never mind developing your brain the same way Liszt did. You will be playing the piano with your fingers, not your brain.
I studied with the Horowitz student who won the Liszt Competition. Noone knew the faking methods that are described on this page better than him. He raved about his teachers arrangement with the easier ending and insisted that noone would ever know that virtually everyone on stage dilutes Liszt's technique.
Pop Culture
The Hungarian Rhapsody was effecting popular culture, even before it was the Hungarian Rhapsody. Liszt created it by arranging melodies from his childhood that were popular in the 1810's. In addition to other pianists playing the published score, Liszt himself increased the pop culture value of the melodies when he improvised them at the end of his live shows. It was evident that it was still popular when he was old, because he complained about how it was all they wanted to learn at his master classes. At one point, he refused to teach it to the new generation. None the less, it still remained popular at the turn of the 20th century and continued to be performed in concert halls as they grew from hundreds to thousands of seats.
The inception of motion pictures created a new format for a resurgence of exploitation of this popular culture phenomenon. The Academy Award Winning Tom and Jerry cartoon was created for theatrical release in the days when cartoons were shown in theaters as an oveture to the featured movie. The inception of television created another format for this cartoon and its pop culture appeal to take center stage, only this time it went directly into the children's homes where pianists like Lang Lang and myself took notice and arranged our development accordingly. Record labels continued to record new versions, even as the audience for piano virtuosos shrunk. Virgin told me that they couldn't market an album for the younger generation unless it featured the Hungarian Rhapsody.
The internet created yet another format for exploitation of Liszt's pop culture phenomenon. This time, the cartoons and studio recordings are placed side by side with some new unrecorded professionals and aspiring students. The new format creates an environment for the piece to be over analyzed. On the good side, the audience wil be more well educated, but, on the bad side, there will be an inevitable increase in activity by the lunatic fringe.
When Virgin released Streetwise, I learned that I have a higher level of lunatics on my fringe than other performers that are much more famous than I. It became evident as I toured as the opening act for Jay Leno. He said, "Beat them back with a stick!" after a stalker, who was followng me from one city to another, broke into my dressing room while I was performing. They left Jay alone, because he wore a suit. My rock star attire attracts the crazy element. In addition, being different from the other performers creates an increase in lunacy by supporters and detractors. My manager's cousin is a principal member of the Go Go's, a rock act that was different from the rest when they were first released. They were the first all girl rock band. Because of that, they had an army of lunatics following them around where ever they went.
Most classical performers have little to no effect on popular culture and are ingored by the lunatic fringe, because their CD's have generic clip art on the cover. Record labels view them as faceless performers that fill in holes in the label's catalogue, so they tend to put a vase of flowers on the album covers. This is not the case with Lang. You can tell he has pop culture appeal, by the number of lunatics on his fringe. The
"I hate Lang Lang" post on YouTube draws over a hundred thousand views. The new conductor of the LA Philharmonic will experience the same effects, as his haircut draws "crazies" out of the woodwork.
Most people don't even know about my identity thief on YouTube. He uses sheet music graphics and my name in the title as a way too lure viewers over to his weasel worded misrepresentations that mutate into libelous conclusions. It took him over a year to finally admit that the pianist playing the ending of the Hungarian Rhapsody was not me. He says he did it because he was bored. Get a life.
Blog:Modern Virtuosos do not develop their brains the way Liszt did. As a result, they have to choose between diluting the technique at the end of his most famous piece or risk the piece ending with an uncontrollable chain reaction of wrong notes.The history of recordings can't be ignored. It begins with a pianist who was around when America had slaves. Generations of pianists who made recordings, before my release on Virgin Records in 1991, were diluting the technique and most of them still stumbled through the passage on their best take. 100 percent of them left faked and failed performances, despite hundreds, or perhaps a thousand attempts in the studio. The live performances are much worse. Many of them tend to have a chain reaction of wrong notes, as many as fifty, when they attempt the passage on stage where they have only one chance to get it right. My scholarship is correct. You can see for yourself by clicking on the names of each pianist. They are all linked to the performances on YouTube that document the failure at the end of Liszt's most famous piece.I always thought that the premise of how they educate virtuosos was silly. It goes like this: Sign up for lessons at a school like Juilliard and if you practice hard enough, you will be able to play the piano as Liszt did. Never mind developing your brain the same way Liszt did. You will be playing the piano with your fingers, not your brain.I studied with the Horowitz student who won the Liszt Competition. Noone knew the faking methods that are described on this page better than him. He raved about his teachers arrangement with the easier ending and insisted that noone would ever know that virtually everyone on stage dilutes Liszt's .The Hungarian Rhapsody was effecting popular culture, even before it was the Hungarian Rhapsody. In addition to other pianists playing the published score, Liszt himself increased the pop culture value of the melodies when he improvised them at the end of his live shows. It was evident that it was still popular when he was old, because he complained about how it was all they wanted to learn at his master classes. At one point, he refused to teach it to the new generation. None the less, it still remained popular at the turn of the 20th century and continued to be performed in concert halls as they grew from hundreds to thousands of seats.The inception of created a new format for a resurgence of exploitation of this popular culture phenomenon. The Academy Award Winning was created for theatrical release in the days when cartoons were shown in theaters as an oveture to the featured movie. The inception of created another format for this cartoon and its pop culture appeal to take center stage, only this time it went directly into the children's homes where pianists like Lang Lang and myself took notice and arranged our development accordingly. Record labels continued to record new versions, even as the audience for piano virtuosos shrunk. Virgin told me that they couldn't market an album for the younger generation unless it featured the Hungarian Rhapsody. The created yet another format for exploitation of Liszt's pop culture phenomenon. This time, the cartoons and studio recordings are placed side by side with some new unrecorded professionals and aspiring students. The new format creates an environment for the piece to be over analyzed. On the good side, the audience wil be more well educated, but, on the bad side, there will be an inevitable increase in activity by the lunatic fringe. When Virgin released Streetwise, I learned that I have a higher level of lunatics on my fringe than other performers that are much more famous than I. It became evident as I toured as the opening act for Jay Leno. He said, after a stalker, who was followng me from one city to another, broke into my dressing room while I was performing. They left Jay alone, because he wore a suit. My rock star attire attracts the crazy element. In addition, being different from the other performers creates an increase in lunacy by supporters and detractors. My manager's cousin is a principal member of the Go Go's, a rock act that was different from the rest when they were first released. They were the first all girl rock band. Because of that, they had an army of lunatics following them around where ever they went.Most classical performers have little to no effect on popular culture and are ingored by the lunatic fringe, because their CD's have generic clip art on the cover. Record labels view them as faceless performers that fill in holes in the label's catalogue, so they tend to put a vase of flowers on the album covers. This is not the case with Lang. You can tell he has pop culture appeal, by the number of lunatics on his fringe. The "I hate Lang Lang" post on YouTube draws over a hundred thousand views. The new conductor of the LA Philharmonic will experience the same effects, as his haircut draws "crazies" out of the woodwork.
