

And how he did play, with grandeur, beauty, genius, and unique comprehension. “He was literally over the whole keyboard at once, without missing a note. Lizst then proceeded to sit at the piano and sight read the entire concerto with no mistakes.

Well, when Grieg met Liszt, he presented Liszt with his then manuscript for his piano concerto in A minor for Liszt’s appraisal. Remember Grieg? He’s the “In the Hall of the Mountain King” guy. An example of his prowress? Well, in 1870, Liszt met fellow composer and pianist Edvard Greig in Rome.

Lizst was not only the greatest pianist to ever play the instrument, but also undoubtedly the greatest sight reader that ever lived. Rather than bore you with a history lesson that you could easily garner from Wikipedia, I present to you a great example of just how masterful and virtuosic this man actually was.Īny musician will tell you that one of the most difficult skills to develop is the ability to read a piece of music directly at sight. The hungarian composer and virtuoso who lived from 1811 to 1886 was, without a doubt, the only true and complete master that the piano has ever known.
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And today, I start a short series of posts over the man pianists have idolized for the last hundred years or so–Franz Liszt.
