franz liszt la campanella valentina lisitsa

It took a long time for the piece to become commonplace in concert repertoire, because of its technical difficulty and negative initial reception due to its status as “new” music. Otto Gumprecht of the German newspaper Nationalzeitung referred to it as “an invitation to hissing and stomping”. However, the Sonata in B minor drew enthusiasm from Richard Wagner following a private performance of the piece by Karl Klindworth on April 5, 1855. Johannes Brahms reputedly fell asleep when Liszt performed the work in 1853, and it was also criticized by the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. It was attacked by Eduard Hanslick who said “anyone who has heard it and finds it beautiful is beyond help”. The Sonata in B minor was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854 and first performed on 27 January 1857 in Berlin by Hans von Bülow. Alan Walker, FRSC (born 6 April 1930) is an English-Canadian musicologist and university professor best known as a biographer and scholar of Franz Liszt. Pianist and composer Clara Schumann did not perform the Sonata despite her marriage to Robert Schumann according to scholar Alan Walker she found it “merely a blind noise”. 17 (published 1839) to Liszt.Ī copy of the work arrived at Schumann’s house in May 1854, after he had entered Endenich sanatorium. Liszt completed Sonata in B minor in 1853 and published it in 1854 with a dedication to Robert Schumann (1810-1856), the German composer, and influential music critic, widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the romantic era, in return for Schumann’s dedication of his Fantasie in C major, Op. You can learn more about Valentina at her website: , and will find many more examples of her playing at her YouTube channel: /valentinalisitsa.Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Liszt Sonata B Minor Valentina Lisitsa () Ukrainian classical pianist Valentina Lisitsa plays Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, S.178 Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B minor What they got instead was a thoughtful, poignant rendering of this hackneyed Bagatelle, one that demonstrates just how beautiful it can be when played by a true artist. You will hear some surprised laughter as she begins to play, as the audience was undoubtedly expecting one of her trademark virtuoso encores, not a student recital piece.

Valentina’s fourth and final encore was Beethoven’s well-known “Fur Elise”. It is unmistakably Russian in character, and very majestic. The attentive reader may recall that this prelude was featured on this blog in September in a memorable performance by Emil Gilels. Prelude in G minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff Obligingly, the young virtuoso complied, and after four bars he was perspiring profusely! When he had finished this astonishing performance, someone wistfully asked that he play a simple piece by Schumann, such as “Traumerei”. He kept this up for quite some time without as much as a drop of perspiration on his brow. The most difficult music seemed to flow effortlessly from his fingers. A young virtuoso once came to the famous piano class of Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna, and upon being asked to play, stunned everyone with a phenomenal display of virtuosity. Vladimir Horowitz, for whom “Traumerei” was a signature piece, once related the following incident as a gentle reminder to anyone who might think that slow, lyrical music is easy to play. She plays it beautifully, and it was this performance more than any other that convinced me of her artistry. “Traumerei” means “Dreaming”, and this piece is as different as possible from the virtuoso showpieces that Valentina Lisitsa is known for. This kind of knuckle-busting difficulty is Valentina Lisitsa’s bread and butter, but as we will see in a moment, she can also play with exquisite sweetness. “La Campanella” (“The Little Bell”) is the third of six “Grandes Etudes de Paganini” by Liszt, all of which are based on compositions by the great 19th-century Italian violinist and composer Nicolo Paganini, and all of which are notoriously hard to play.

Her first encore was by Franz Liszt, who was himself an admirer of Grieg’s concerto. They called her back for no less than four encores, each of which reveals a different aspect of her artistry. After thrilling to her brilliant performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto, the audience in Seoul was in no mood to let Valentina Lisitsa leave the stage.

Franz liszt la campanella valentina lisitsa