EMIL VON SAUER - Liszt "MAZEPPA" (1925) Transcendental Etude no.4 (piano roll)

[BaardTheLegoDude]

Best recording of the Mazeppa!

[mousigama]

Mazeppa was a revolutionary galoping in the steppe.....

[mirkojorgovic]

Berman is great, but he recorded in tone-better and more flexibility studios

[JamesMGarren]

Sauer was good, but I get the feeling that he plays the song for the virtuosic aspect of it. I mean, that's obviously there, but I feel that the song is about more than that.  I think he was a little superficial with it. It can be more explosive and meaningful

[PrincessDesert]

exactly, the virtuoso shouldn't be abused

but I wouldn't call him superficial for that - he could have well been on to something

he tried to master a different approach with explosions of overwhelming virtuosic meaning, though his expectations of what Liszt had in mind for his horses running around with a piano on the piano (virtuoso style) were of course not the same

each of Liszt's students had different souls each one different from Liszt

.one of his students was a maniac I think

[JamesMGarren]

Sauer was good, but I get the feeling that he plays the song for the virtuosic aspect of it. I mean, that's obviously there, but I feel that the song is about more than that. I think he was a little superficial with it. It can be more explosive and meaningful



[1993eph]

This and Arrau's versions are the best!

[boohellokitty]

@1993eph Come on....Both Berezovsky and Berman blow Arrau out of the water! His rendition is good, but he is nothing compared to these two Jews!

[1993eph]

@boohellokitty they are just virtuosos, but arrau its both virtuoso and musical

[ReturnOfTheStienway]

this is a really nice sounding roll....

[aardvaark069]

I like the plodding from 2:43 to 3:00

[martinadler73]

Wow! What a fascinating and virtuosic interpretation!

[uhartchristian]

a travers de ce recording nous avons une conception solide de cette composition ainsi la demonstration de la technique Liszt. Tres interessant.

[dragonforce81]

I am convinced that if Liszt back to life and began to play Mazeppa, some YouTube user could say that he prefers another interpretation

[OverFjell]

@dragonforce81 I'd say sometimes maybe a performer can perform it better than the composer? Such as the whole Rachmaninoff/Horowitz thing...

[ReturnOfTheStienway]

@dragonforce81 lol

[kasyapa]

there are some very helpful alterations to the text here - the way von s. plays it is the most coherent i've ever heard. thank you!

[eduardofdez]

Wonderful *****

[alexilmagnifico]

oh it is a piano roll :(

[henseltetude]

Von Sauer was a Liszt´s pupil. He should know how to play this music. Besides, this is not bad... it just "different"

[geertdehoux]

Not bad at all, but could be (much) better, especially musically.

I don't believe this music should be played like a machine.

[TheVieuxchat]

I believe that is the piano roll which gives this mechanical impression

[morvensky]

The former comment was directed mainly towards the beginning. But I do acknowledge his scales, they were very fast, as was his playing of the entirety.

[gainweighttoday]

This is how Mr. Sauer wants it..., and I enjoy how he plays it... This piece can be played a million different ways, and it depends on how you depict a person tied undressed to a galloping-raging-bucking horse, being between life and death... -my most prefered version for M is Nyiregyhazy`s.

[d60944]

How very curious - this sounds absolutely nothing at all like Sauer's playing. The Welte roll of this work from Sauer was made in 1905. I presume that this roll is the Aeolian/Duo-Art one then....? This might explain it: those rolls did not record the dynamics of the performance, but the dynamics were added in later, onto a edited copy, once the initial live-time roll had already been created. (cont.)

[d60944]

They were frequently heavily edited to "tidy" arpeggiations as well. Anyway - it's sort of exciting, but shows nothing of Sauer's art really.

[kajohada]

amazing! :))

[maxi937]

I think you (including me) should all get away from youtube and Ipods, and get practicing, and bring back this level of playing.

[alexongcs]

This is magnifique.

[ClassicalMusicReview]

Just like Nyiregyhazi I listened to before...he's playing piano;not the piece. The biggest dilemma with a piece like this is on evidence here. Here we have a great lyrical liszt player who after 1,000,000 hours of practicing this,stopped hearing it(somewhere along the way) as expression and lyric: & only as tempestuous expression.

This will thrill pianists who will fight to the death to defend it...particularly the ones,who haven't the technique to do it,but for non-pianists;it's just notes.

[ffurgy]

Thank you for sharing this.

[Pianisteny2k]

I really didn't like this.. Too bad, it's a great piece, and it was a boring interpretation. There was no single time to breath.

[ffurgy]

It IS an interpretation...and interpretations should always be of interest to the student, as long as the performer is competent and well intentioned.

[Pianisteny2k]

Ofc it's an interpretation, everything is. I said I didn't like it, because he plays if fast all the time, and the music doesn't relax anywhere. I know it's one of Liszt's students. But it doesn't have to be good onlt because of that?

[JakWho92]

do you know the history of mazeppa?This sound is like liszt wanted it to.

[Pianisteny2k]

Oh yeah, you're probably right.. He just wrote "This is how I want my mazeppa! Don't you dare have your own opinion" on my Facebook. And I met him a week ago and had a little chat with him, over a cup of tea, about how he would like his music.

You met him aswell? Oh, what a stupid question! Of course you met him, since you knkow how he wanted it. Ah, stupid me!

[namarcil]

well i wouldnt wholly agre this is how liszt wanted it, but id be confident enough to say that this is one of the closest if not closest interpretation to that of liszt'. von sauer was on eof his most well established students, as a far as piano is concerned. even if plante had recorded mazeppa that wouldbe pretty close too.

[Pianisteny2k]

Oh, comeon! This was "recorded" 1925. Years after Liszt death, I Think Mr. Von Sauer changes his opinion couple of times since...

Anyhow, I don't see the point of being this sort of slave that you describe: Playing as the Composer wants it, and not how you want it.

I will get a billions of thumbs down for this, but I really don't see the point.

[namarcil]

Nein on the contrary, playing as the music would describe not as either man or composer wants. perhaps he had changed his opinions however i think that sauer has been true to the music throughout this recording, regardless of authenticity and the like.

[StrmUndDrng]

sauer was a pupil of liszt, so i'd say its safer to trust his interpretation than the rantings of some wanna-be music critic on youtube 100 years later.

[Pianisteny2k]

Yes, you're right. Let's all play exactly as Von Sauer! Let us all play like someone else, and we will become great pianists!!

Let all with own opinions die and burn in all eternity! Why do we even play the piano?! Since obviously someone else already has played exactly as Liszt wanted it to sound (And that is the most important, as we all know!) Let's call ourself pianorecorders, and on every concert we play this, and tell the world that none else can have their own opinion!

[StrmUndDrng]

But sometimes you have to ask yourself: What does Liszt really want? After all, he composed the piece - his soul is fermented in his creation. If you play blindly according to your own opinion you shun this aspect of the music and ultimately fail. Therefore Emil von Sauer's effort should be respected. But you condemn his playing because your tiny brain fails to grasp Liszt's genius.

And when it comes to who best portrays the intentions of liszt, emil von sauer is irrefuteably

[Pianisteny2k]

Gah, seriously!

...

Since you cleary don't see my point, I don't even bother to write anything else.

Good Day.

[babyeinstein12]

It's all about the balance between composer's intention and performer's interpretation. A pianist should add his little "extra" to something but it shouldn't be to the point that the pianist just plays for his own indulgence

But it is ok for someone to say that they don't like an interpretation, so pianisteny, I think you definitely deserve an opinion and I'm sorry that people jumped all over you. still, the composer is IMPORTANT to hte piece!

[geertdehoux]

With all respect, but it's not because Von Sauer was Liszt's pupil, that his interpretation is the best, or better than recently born pianists' versions.

[liszt100]

i get your point, but you have to admit this is excellent

[geertdehoux]

@liszt100

In a certain way it is.

[geertdehoux]

This is very relative.

[NFIn843v3r]

@StrmUndDrng You're so right, though I personally don't like the way he played 0:06 - 0:11 of the piece. It's a little fast for me but other than that the rest is perfect. Too bad it's just a piano roll. It might have sounded better.

[alejandrothefader]

@Pianisteny2k well you got my thumbs up man....

[russtunes]

I know it's amazing! Every Lisztian should listen to this.

[pianopera]

You should add that this is a recording of a piano roll. The roll may be from 1925, but the recording is not.

[chad410]

very exciting thanx