Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The Genius of Liszt

Getting around to Liszt has always been difficult for me. Not that I haven't taught most of his larger works to students the past 50 years. Now the opportunity has arisen to prepare a new Piano Portrait for next year. I did one on Liszt at the Villa d'Este some years ago, and a friend sent stunning slides of all the fountains, gardens and other water features of this fabulous villa in the hills outside Rome.
Now I am reworking the original Portrait, and returning to some of the scores he was inspired to write during his years there.

I think as a young pianist I made a detour around Liszt as I was not drawn to this type of overt virtuosity. I think the thing that held me back was my (then) inablility to wade through so many notes that seemed to be there only for
display. Later studies, and teaching experiences, awakened me to the need to look at his compositions organically, trying to place each note, whether in small print or large, into the whole. Well, at this stage of life that sounds elemental "Dr.Watson".
If I could penetrate the most complicated Bach and Beethoven, surely I could conquer Liszt. Still the spirit was willing, but the flesh.....!

The thing that turned the trick was my ear for sound. I began to see that a clear need for aural color, inflection and timbre was vital, as it unlocked the technical
side. In other words, the vision had to come first, and then the rest would follow. Suunds rather easy doesn't it. Often one sees a half-page cadenza, full of tiny notes. I have watched many students try to encompass these passages, only to fall apart halfway through. Only by breaking these passages into manageable cells of notes...not simply drawing imaginary measure strokes, but actually finding the small melodic gem that is used to hold the whole thing together, will you find the necessary guideposts for your ear. Hence, small cells lead to the whole cell. As always, the ear is the great detector.

Octaves abound in Liszt, and finding your way through them can be at your peril. I studied the Kullak octave studies while a teenager, and this helped tremendously. Also, listening for the melodic core will help, keeping one's ear open to inflection, so you don't play every octave with the same intensity. In an octave passage the hand has to recover the best it can from the strain, so keeping a flexible wrist behind a firm hand is mandantory. Also, weaving in and out between black and white notes means subtle adjustments of the angle of the hand itself. Forcing your hand into an octave mold and just blazing away can lead to injury. You have to think of octave passages as MELODY..two melodies in one hand. To find the inflection and curve of it, play the passage with both hands, so you just hear the line, and not tax your technical powers before you are ready to make music from it.

Not to digress...but I will, naturally!...I heard a most interesting discussion on PBS Nightly News last evening, probing why we have failed in our efforts to improve student achievement. The gist of the argument centered around the fact that we have resorted to holding the stick too high, and pushing everyone to jump over it. Of course, this is proving to be a failure. The correct psychology is to find where the student actually is in their development, and start from there. Well, I am sure that more than we would like to recognize fall into the bottom of the barrel. This is where teaching piano can solve the educational crisis. Good teachers make an ASSESSMENT, then prescribe the cure. This seems so logical, but apparently is unsaleable in Washington D.C. The parallel thought is the same for solving problems at the keyboard. Start with a great teacher, then proceed with caution, and a path will open before you.

Back to Lizst. I am convinced that Liszt made his points as a performer with great clarity of line, and an overall eveness in execution. The only person I studied with who was a descendent of his teaching was Ilonka Deckers Kuzler in Milan. When I knew her she was in her late seventies. She was Hungarian and had studied in Budapest with a teacher named Arnold Szekely. She traced his roots back to the Liszt/Czerny/Beethoven tradition that many claim, rightly or wrongly. Ilonka also taugh Edith Farnardi, who recorded an enormous amount of Liszt for Westminster Records in the late 1940's-early 1950's. Quite a few of these are in the University of South Carolina Music Library, and are real treasures. They exhibit the qaulities I remember from Ilonka's teaching. She also taught the great Annie Fischer as a young prodigy, Annie going on to become one of the greatest pianists of the last century.

When I listen to so many young pianists today play Liszt, I feel the energy and bravura of their playing, but usually notice a lack of pianistic color and expert pedaling. Of course, it is all too fast for words, and can end up sounding like a stunt. Sometimes the sound is just too black...without depth or timbre. Paul Ulanosky said it best .."Speed is a poor substitute for spirit and nicity of detail".

So, dear readers....to be continued.