To me any version of Liszts Hungarian Rhapsody #2 where all the notes are played is impressive. However, I very much like this one by the nice clean cut Hungarian pianist Adam Gyorgy. So many classical performers today are either immodestly dressed or pretentiously stylish in dress, as if wild hair makes you a genius.
Ironic that you used Lizst as an example.
ReplyDelete"In the mid-19th century, Liszt was tearing up the polite salons and concert halls of Europe with his virtuoso performances. Women would literally attack him: tear bits of his clothing, fight over broken piano strings and locks of his shoulder-length hair. Europe had never seen anything like it. It was a phenomenon the great German poet Heinrich Heine dubbed "Lisztomania."
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/22/141617637/how-franz-liszt-became-the-worlds-first-rock-star
Must have been particularly shocking given the gentile audience.
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