Tag Archives: Franz Liszt

Music minus one

Posted on July 28, 2018 by

I write a lot about transcriptions possibly because they’re so much fun. Sometimes I can manage to play them, sometimes they’re too difficult but still fascinating to explore.  One plays a piano piece while imagining an original from another context, … Continue reading →

Posted in Essays, Music and musicology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Glenn Gould: extra hands

Posted on December 11, 2014 by

Thank you Edward Johnson Building library, once again I found treasure in the collection that never disappoints. I’d grabbed a great mass of scores in anticipation of a couple of gigs, never knowing fully what to play, but wanting to … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Music and musicology, Opera | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Franz Liszt and Marie d’Agoult letters

Posted on May 25, 2014 by

I first encountered the romance between Franz Liszt and Comtesse Marie d’Agoult in Impromptu, a film full of famous artists in the script (Chopin, Liszt, Sand) and on the screen (Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, Mandy Patinkin & Bernadette Peters).  Impromptu … Continue reading →

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Feral piano: Beatriz Boizán

Posted on October 19, 2013 by

It’s a truism that some artists are different in live situations than on record.  The presence of an audience can inspire & illuminate a performance in a way that doesn’t happen in a studio. That’s what I experienced tonight.  When … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Personal ruminations, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Chopin: Iconosphere of Romanticism

Posted on June 13, 2013 by

You gotta love the title of the book. It’s actually CHOPIN: Iconosphere of Romanticism, emblazoned simultaneously on the cover in Polish as CHOPIN: iconosfera romantyzmu.  This is an art-book, recording an exhibit from 2010 in Warsaw, edited by Iwona Danielewicz … Continue reading →

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For the Lisztomaniac

Posted on February 21, 2013 by

McLuhan’s dictum “the medium is the message” has some curious ramifications in the fourth dimension (the dimension of time). An archive gathered across any significant period will function not just as a record for the subject(s) portrayed in the images, … Continue reading →

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Wagner and Adaptation: Linda’s Legacy

Posted on February 2, 2013 by

I use surnames in this blog.  Everyone calls him “Topher”, but when I wrote about him it was “Mokrzewski”.  Some aspects of the naming convention are absurdly obvious.  We call RW and RS “Wagner” and “Strauss not “Richard” and “Richard”, … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal ruminations, university life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment