William Kapell plays Liszt- legendary Mephisto Waltz 1945

It seems no one has put this up yet,so i took the liberty.One of the greatest if not "the greatest" recording of Franz Liszt's epic-"Presaging 20th century Music document"-the Mephisto Waltz #1-laid down circa 1945 when William Kapell was but twenty two years old.And to those of you who find the slide show distracting,just minimize and listen.h88.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• william
• kapell
• williamkapell
• mephisto
• waltz
• liszt
• piano
• classical
• solo
• romantic
• horowitz

[rickideemus]

The devil made him do it! This is actually the best version/interpretation out there, IMHO. And the recording is good enough to get every detail across, despite the crackles.

Every other pianist struggles with this piece. Kapell just tosses it out with his diabolical sense of humor.

[PhilPhilUSA]

very great indeed

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

damn hell!

[ym42ym42]

Different notes in measures 115-116 and 123-124... A different edition?

[hormigabega]

@hormigabega (i dont mean i like those other pianist's Mephisto, im just illustrating that my taste in pianists is not driven by appearances). If I liked dresses I'd choose other pianists - I like Uehara's fingers and brain. Making comments like "you cannot possibly believe XYZ..." feels very intellectually impoverishing and stifling. Kappell's recording is (in my opinion) very, very competent, but less imaginative and evocative, but I happily accept that other people like the piece this way !

[hormigabega]

@lehrent i stick with my opinion. i also like annie fischer, michaelangeli, pogorelich (english suites), glenn gould among others. In this recording Kapell's shaping of phrase and tone and tempo are (to my ear) crude compared with uehara's (now removed) and she gets the drama right psychologically and musically. Banging the right notes in tempo is not necessarily more devilish than enticing the soul of the listener (via the sound elicited by the fingers, nothing to do with appearances).

[88alan8800]

what version is he playing here?

[oopalonga]

thx for posting. this is such a sick song. . i can't imagine how the man's hands must be able to contort to play it. If you see the sheet music there are some chords that are just INSANE

[paulostroff99]

Superb! Never before or since has there appeared a better recorded version.TY harriter88 for posting.

[paulostroff99]

@BroadwayG -Earl Wild was excellent but not a William Kapell.

[fredericfranc]

...from the images here you can tell that if they used Mr. Liszt's puss in that movie "Priest", the flick would not have bombed internationally...Mr.K. looks like Jimmie Dean playing the piano...he takes the "Liszt" out of the Mephisto in a desirable way...no longer an acrobatics act, it is "musicalized"...

[NOSEhow2LIV]

Marvellous, deserving all its "legendary"title.The Devilish Drive and fantastic imagination behind the extraordinary pianism....... I also much prefer the variants used here and there, resembling more the orchestral version.Kapell's coda is better than the "standard" Liszt,only rivalled there by the Wild-ness of the Earl at that point,(in his own coda)! Masterly. Unique.