Sergio Fiorentino plays Liszt Grand Galop Chromatique

Sergio Fiorentino is the best.
This is better than Cziffra, i think.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Sergio
• Fiorentino
• Liszt
• galoppo
• cromatico
• galop
• grand
• chromatique
• cromatic

[Galantski]

Cziffra owned this piece and others borrow it. It's about excitement and wreckless abandon, of riding a wild horse (yes, I know "galop" is a dance, but...) and hanging on for dear life till you tame it! He breathed this music. Fiorentino didn't have the same virtuosity. His is a measured reading, sounding like he's thinking it through. Not Cziffra! He's off and running from the first and the energy never flags. (Play this version, then Cziffra's right after it and you'll hear the difference.)

[ilove2listenmusic]

Sergio Fiorentino does not play as well as George Czriffa! Czriffa's version is much better, and has a more lightening sound.

[Gargantupimp]

@Galantski imo cziffra didnt own this piece because he was a purely better musican though but because he had the best technique, also why he owns Orage, and spanish rhapsody.

[Galantski]

@Gargantupimp -- No argument here! Liszt takes this way beyond the concept of a mere dance piece into a whirlwind of pianist challenges that never let up. One of that master's most remarkable pieces from the standpoint of sheer virtuosity.

[Gargantupimp]

@Galantski its definately the best galop ever written, and I challenge anyone to come up with a better one!

[ayso78]

@Galantski I don't think anyone played circus music better than Cziffra, but Fiorentino's version isn't chopped liver, either (just compare it to Cherkassky and Bolet). With regard to virtuosity, I'd take Fiorentino's transcendental etudes over Cziffra's hands down.

[Galantski]

@Barbapippo - I totally agree that the Apollian has it's place and is a trait I tend to favor in pianists; it's just that that approach doesn't really fit this piece. In Hungarian music, even at its most reserved, there's an underlying wildness, which Liszt captures so well in his works. While this Galop may not be Hungarian per se, it has that flavor and, as I keep repeating, Liszt wrote this as a showpiece for his prodigious virtuosity. He wanted the "wow" factor, which Cziffra best achieves.

[Galantski]

@Barbapippo - Rubbish? Really? Then why did some of the greatest pianists include it in the repertoire? It's not rubbish if it stands the test of time. Is it one of Liszt's most important works? No, of course not, but it succeeds quite well for what it was intended -- a showpiece to display his virtuosic brilliance.

[uhartchristian]

Fiorentino has a sense of structure and rythm which is often missing with cziffra who changes tempi where possible to give impression of more virtuosity and speed.

Fiorentino is much more honest and respecting what is written as Horowitz did.

Yes Ciffra was a great virtuose but Fiorentino is a better musician. Listen to his Chopin etudes, they are better done than anybody else could do.

[Barbapippo]

@Galantski Being self-controlled and elegant is not necessarily a bad thing in playing Liszt: think of Benedetti Michelangeli.

There is not just Dyonisus, but also Apollon Musagete

[pianotonton]

@ilove2listenmusic Très, très, très bien Fioretino : mais Cziffra est génial.