Da Ho played da Liszt Dante as late as 1944

SDC Legendz Pianistz
1

November 22, 1944 - War Menorial Theater, Trenton, New Jersey

The program (listed on the inside pages):

  1. 32 Variations - Beethoven
  2. Arabesque - Schumann
  3. Variations on the Aria “La Ricordanza” - Charles Czerny
  4. Fantaisie quasi Sonata - Liszt (edited by Horowitz)

Intermission

  1. Excursions, Op. 20 - Samuel Barber *First Performance
  2. Dumka (Rustic Scene in Russia) - Tschaikowsky
  3. Two Etudes - Chopin
  4. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 - Liszt
2

I’d love to listen to that. I also wonder which two :chop: Ets

3

I bet one was 10/8.

4

The dante would have been fun.

I’d prefer to hear him play it in 1934, should a rec ever surface

5

He probably rewrote a lot of it like he did with almost every other large scale Liszt he played (and never for the better). Why couldn’t he just leave it along?

6

Truu. I think so too. On the other hand I fully condone what he did with Islamey and the Rach-2.

7

Only YW sort of made Islamey sound like music to me (and she rewrote it too). For the Rach sonata, I prefer the original to the Horowitz, but the Horowitz to the revised. It’s been a while since I listened to Horowitz’s version, I probably need to revisit it. I don’t particularly like Horowitz’s sound at the time he played the work, it would’ve been nice to hear him play it in the 40s or earlier.

8

I’m so overwhelmed by his 1968-11-24 (broken string) recital that I probably condone the edition simply because of that performance! I haven’t heard a recording I like yet of the original edition - which is probably also VH’s fault.

Islamey is a showpiece, but I like it and I think Horowitz solved a structural problem with it with his edit. The second half of the piece sounds a little tiresome in Balakirev’s original me thinks, as if the theme has been used up and presented too often.

9

I really like that performance too, even the sound of the string breaking!
Maybe I’ll dig it out and listen to it now.

10

The second movement is heavenly - in spite of the interruption - and the whole recital has this sense of ~occasion~ hovering over it. Each and every work on it are my gold standard reference performances, although some of them shared with other artists. It’s just such a shame the circulating copies are in such poor shape. Difficult to do something about at the moment as well.

11

I actually like the orchestration of Islamey (Lyapunovs - although I think there are others). It actually very colourful and makes it sound playable.

12

I can’t stand the 2 cuts he does in the Islamey.

Those meter changes and “trepak” rhythmic transformation is the best fuckin part.
With that gone - it truly becums a trash piece.

I adore the Islamey.

As for da Dante, pozz it sounded like da mini camel dick arrangement

At 40:00

youtu.be/TVAssBlV2nQ

13

ahahahahaha da fuckin DANTE ZON

da openah HELL FIRE mvmt wiz da clazzic zpazz chordz iz da only part worth playin tru. If da HO only played diz part n cut da entire rezt of da zong den he iz def a TRU GENSUI 8)

n ahahahahah da mini cameldick arrgmt

a bit tazteful 8)

14

A bit like that true, but if an exciting pianist plays it I really enjoy it.

15

Or pozz da Ho went FULL VOL rocky harmonies on dat one 8)

16

Da VOL dante:
youtu.be/qulOpRB0O_c

Daim diz arrangement

Add zum hizz n diz will pazz fo a long lozt ROCKY impro on da zong