Can’t get enough of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes these days– favorites right now are the last two:
No. 11 Harmonies du Soir
The most beautiful and imaginative of the transcendental etudes, Harmonies du Soir perfectly encapsulates the evening sunset with its meditative murmurings and soaring flourishes. Like Chopin (really wishing that one 25/6 melody had its own piece), Liszt manages to inject his etudes, previously thought of as mere technical exercises, with melodies worthy of standalone, large-scale works. Harmonies du Soir is a prime example: the main melody is brilliant and uncompromisingly triumphant, much in the same vein as Here Comes the Sun, by the Beatles. Interlayer with explosive octave work, prolong the already-otherworldly chords with arpeggiation, and the result is arguably one of Liszt’s greatest works. Classical music doesn’t get much more transcendental than this.
Favorite moments:
- 0:25-1:06: The opening harmonies
- 3:39: The first appearance of the main theme
- 3:52: The repetition of the theme and it’s transition from minor to major
- 6:58-7:48: Firing on full cylinders, the climax feels like a fantastical magic carpet ride, bristling with fun passagework similar to that of the middle section in Chopin’s 48/1 nocturne
- 9:41-end: The chords somehow just keep getting better. The second whole note sweep, in particular, is heavenly.
- 10:35: Ashkenazy’s touch on the final chords, especially the very last one, is flawlessly delicate. Feels like the sun disappearing.
No. 12 Chasse-neige
Following Harmonies du Soir is a 180-degree shift in mood as Liszt whips up a devastating album closer: the brooding, mournful Chasse-neige. Literally meaning “snowplow”, the incessant tremolos which underpin the piece whisk the listener into a swirling, relentless blizzard. Its absurd technical requests are only surmounted by the incredible dynamic balancing and voice management which the piece begs of the pianist.
But here I must applaud not only Liszt’s amazing writing but, and perhaps more so, Yunchan Lim’s astonishingly good performance. Although I have not listened to an extensive amount of recordings of this piece, I think it is safe to say Yunchan Lim probably plays the best Chasse-neige on the Internet. Not only does Lim preserve silky-smooth clarity and unrivaled note precision after already having played the previous eleven etudes, his additional attention to detail and dynamic control is just inhuman. I have really have no idea how he does it. Go listen to his Mazeppa and Feux Follets as well: truly unbelievable.
Favorite moments:
- 0:00: One of the most immediately entrancing (and even catchy) opening melodies I’ve heard in a while.
- 2:31: Those left hand chromatic patterns
- 3:11-3:23: Incredible right hand clarity in these huge scales: even the way Lim taps the top octave is calculated and calibrated, especially the second time around.
- 3:31: Here most pianists must choose between speed and precision. Lim gets both.
- 3:57: Satisfying parallel to contrary chromatic scales