La Campanella On Steroids ? :-) Liszt Rondo Fantastique "El Contrabandista" Valentina Lisitsa

This is perhaps the MOST unplayable piece of music I ever encountered! La Campanella , or Feux Follets ( both are clearly hinted here) are walk in a park in comparison....Early Liszt, from the period when he honestly thought that piano being a percussive instrument there is no point of making any attempt at legato,and one might as well enjoy frolicking in most head-spinning skips and repeated notes :-) The piece (which is based on Manuel Garcia's popular song) was titled in the first edition as "Op.5 #2". Funny , I think that was the last piece Liszt gave an opus number, anticipating how many works he is going to write :) Liszt intended this piece as a bravura finale for his recitals - but according to many reports , he failed utterly . Too difficult???? LOL
A friend of mine who used to present great Soviet artists on their tours in Italy told me that the only person who played it LIVE was Pletnev. But even then Pletnev told him that he quit on this piece , calling it "unplayable". You can check for yourself - the music is available freely here:

http://tinyurl.com/6rdv2h8

Let me know how far you progress, OK ? It makes for an easy sight-reading. But do pay attention to indicated tempo marks. They are truly insane :-)
For some fun go to middle of page 22 or page 28 and tell me how you like it :-) A hint... it would make for a hilarious video. Hitting those notes is a gamble no matter how many days spent practicing. La Campanella infamous skips are two octaves shorter ....


Liszt recording project in Hannover , Germany. Dec 5, 2011.
Sound track used in this video is for camera only. The original 8 track mix will be used for the LP and CD available at a later time.

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[korporalkarrot]

For those who can't spot the cuts look carefully to the right of her piano stool later on in the video. One minute the floor is clear, seconds later its strewn with sheet music. Oh wait it's gone again. Oh wait it's back again. She must be a wizard to make this happen aside from here obvious piano skills.

[ValentinaLisitsa]

Music was there in all the angles, always on the floor. Unfortunately I did not check mask on all the cuts and few frames were left without the effect. By the time i noticed it myself it was too late - video already had dozens of thousand views.

Alexei

[Jamie Andrews]

If Liszt were a superhero, you know who'd be his sidekick, right? ;)

[Carlos Rico]

I cought my self with my mouth wide open, trying not to miss a note and waiting to see the piano on fire at any second. Valentina: love you

[Janne Seppänen]

When this video appeared, there was no article about this piece on Wikipedia. But very shortly afterwards it was written by someone. Valentina didin't copy-paste this description from Wikipedia, someone took her writings and made an article out of them (my main suspect: on over-enthusiastic fan). I do agree that it sounds dubious that Liszt would've "failed utterly", but I just wanted to make it clear that there's no Wikipedia info here. :-)

[Jamie Andrews]

True, actually! He used to earn so much money from performing that he ended up giving most to charity!

[Dwight Brisbin]

Liszt is a superhero...

[Hobott]

London St. Pancreas!- LMFAO!!!

[rga grs]

What I like is the description ,,when he honestly thought that piano being a percussive instrument'' :D indeed, perfect piece of music, for practicing while havin a broken leg.

[James Martin]

She is incredible, I wish I was that stool.

[Jamie Andrews]

Not that I could ever play any of this stuff! >_<

[Jamie Andrews]

Well, maybe it's not one of THE most difficult pieces after all; some people are saying it's not as difficult as Gaspard de la nuit or Rachmaninoff's third concerto or second sonata, both technically and musically.