The Official Lisztomaniac Complete Transcendental Etudes Challenge!
This is it, dear piano friends, the ultimate celebration of our love for the piano, and of the 140th anniversary of Franz Liszt ascending to the heavens!
You are all invited to submit a recorded performance of one or more Études d'Exécution Transcendante, in whichever iteration you like! (S.136, S.137, or S.139)
As of July 1st you have probably learned the notes of your Etude(s), so the following 4 weeks will be to bring it to the most Lisztomanic state possible!
The watch party is set for July 31st, 2026 (the exact date of His 140-year anniversary of death) at 2pm EST.
Let's get the dopamine and catecholamines surging like never before!
Looking forward to being dazzled beyond recognition!
192 replies
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Also, what about Hungarian Rhapsody no. 6, the Sonata in B Minor, and Grand Galop Chromatique?Played all of them during my conservatory years. They were all fiendishly difficult to learn, yet clearly written by a virtuoso pianist (of course😆). I find that with Liszt I progress in quantum leaps while learning the pieces. It's like finding a secret key. Satisfying, even if it may take countless hours. With less pianistic music (e.g., Beethoven, Schumann, parts of Schubert) I find that I just have to suffer through endless repetitions before my proficiency gradually and painfully progresses. Much less pleasant.
Btw thanks for mentioning the Grand Galop, I had completely forgotten about that piece, but now I remember it was especially fun to play (after solving its challenges!) so may relearn it for myself!
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I learned the second and sixth Hungarian Rhapsodies (and almost certainly forgotten, by now) and probably 75-80% of the Sonata.Then you should not have too much trouble learning Chasse-Neige, at least not for too long. I mean I can agree that Chasse-Neige is arguably more difficult than even the hardest parts of those pieces, but not THAT much. But I guess we'll see!
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, I am sure that everyone would love to hear your 2nd or 6th Hungarian Rhapsody as an additional encore. I know that I would! 🙂I would spontaneously combust from the excitement for sure.
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I believe I am perceived as more advanced than I am.But you have to be quite advanced if you were able to play those pieces, unless you played them ridiculously badly, which is impossible if you had a teacher who let you learn and play them. That's why we're so looking forward to hearing you!
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Friends, if you haven't started learning your pieces, I recommend you do. Not for the project, but the enjoyment! Case in point, I started learning Vision only for the project, but I'm suprised how much I love this piece! In fact I'm going back to the piano now.
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I have made some progress on the Chasse-Neige cadenza! It is very hard but also a lot of fun to play!
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Happy to report that the fingering for my assigned part of “Vision” (measure 1-31, basically the first half) is done - which, as my friends know, means for me that the battle is half won already. This section is quite realistic to learn and a lot of wicked fun to play. 😁