Miho's favorites

  Franz Liszt was quite tall in his generation, standing 6 feet 2 inches tall , long blonde hair , piercing sharp eyes, pianist' long narrow and delicate hands and fingers. His body build was very slender. People who knew him described his personality as full of charm, charisma, and very knowledgeable.  And he loved brainy women. He was the consummate artist. It seems that Liszt loved dangerous love , which thrilled him and gave him excitement rather than a stable, peaceful , safe love. Franz Liszt While reading about his biography, I was wondering why he fell in love with two princesses who were already married. Marie D’Agoult He seems to have had a lot of love affairs in his life, someone found out that he had at least 26 serious relationships in his life ( besides countless other affairs ) but the only ladies he thought about marriage was with these two princesses , Marie D’Agoult and Carolyne Sayn Wittgenstein ? Charlotte Von Hagn ...

Franz Liszt's bio book #1 by Alan Walker Franz Liszt ’s long bio books by Alan Walker arrived here several days ago ! and we are still in the process of reading them. Each volume has over 480 to 600 pages and the author Alan Walker’s research about Liszt’s life is fabulous ! Franz Liszt's bio books #1, #2, #3 by Alan Walker We found many new discoveries about Liszt as a person, as a pianist & composer and his life, and his views. He was a storm, a very expressive, passionate, unique, charming artist. Kindhearted, very generous, caring, temper, high pride, a social person , enjoyed being on stage or with a group of people. However, he did not sacrifice his originality and uniqueness in order to be with a group ( check out his long hair and unique sense of fashion, some kind of mixture of robin hood, zorro and pirate ) and he had a deep passion to promote great music. Ray is saying Franz Liszt is like the Bruce Lee of piano p...

200 - 300 years later from now, who do you think will be the timeless composers ? I was checking keywords popularities of famous classical music composers , and realized that, it’s so amazing the number of searches for all these classical composers ! and the present results show below, The keyword ( Global monthly searches from English sites) Johann Bach - 301,000 Franz Liszt - 201,000 Frederic Chopin - 165,000 Ludwig Beethoven - 165,000 Richard Wagner- 165,000 Wolfgang Mozart - 135,000 Robert Schumann - 135,000 Franz Schubert - 110,000 Giuseppe Verdi - 110,000 Antonio Vivaldi - 110,000 Igor Stravinsky - 110,000 Joseph Haydn - 90,500 Johann Strauss - 90,500 Gustav Mahler - 90,500 Richard Strauss - 74,000 Claude Debussy - 74,000 George Handel - 60,500 Johannes Brahms - 60,500 Edvard Grieg - 60,500 Camille Saint-Saens - 40,500 Antonin Dvorak - 40,500 Felix Mendelssohn - 40,500 William Walton - 33,100 Georges Bizet - 33,100 Hector Berl...

  Recently, we had an opportunity to watch the famous timeless classic movie “ The Sound of Music “ which I had been wishing to watch. I had watched the movie when I was around 14 to 15 years old, from my step father’s recommendation ( the sound of music was his top favorite movie ). I remember I was very impressed with the amazing beautiful scenery in Salzsburg in Austria which I’d never seen at that time. It was like a beautiful scenery painting. Also the music,  I love almost all the music in this movie.   Until now I didn’t know the famous music “ Edelweiss “ was made for this movie. Because the music was in our school ( elementary school or junior high school) in the music text book. Also the story, an innocent type of story, was based on a true story. This movie makes our mind clear up.    I think it’s an uplifting movie ! I guess I’m a very dreamer and I’m always attracted by beautiful nature scenery and historical buildin...

Continued from “ Franz Liszt and Frederic Chopin’s friendship Part 1”. On 26th of April, 1841 Chopin gave another concert in Salle Pleyel in Paris on which Liszt wrote a long review , published in the Revue et Gazette Muscale, that left itself open to varying interpretations. While Liszt expressed his admiration for his fellow artist, Chopin and his circle of friends, and his family members, were upset about some parts of his review. They were upset by the fact that Liszt did not praise Chopin as a composer, and failed entirely to mention the opus 38 Ballad in F major , opus 40 Polonaise in A major , and opus 39 Scherzo in C sharp minor , all of which Chopin had performed as part of the program. At the same time, Lisztomania was spreading like wildfire. Wherever he performed, audiences were awestruck by Liszt’s breathtaking virtuosity and style, and the audiences reveled and raved, quite beside themselves with wonder and enthusiasm. Very few artists are able to...

Frederyk Chopin   I’m a long time fan of Chopin’s music since when I was a teenager. Started loving his music from hearing his Polonaise , then Noctunes , Etudes … Frederyk Chopin I was using one of Chopin’s Nocturnes as my background music for my answering machine when I was in my 20s. In Japan, many of his music is famous and used in many TV dramas, commercials, movies, and mostly wealthy bourgeois family scenes. My image of many of Chopin ’s music that I’ve listened to is of a cozy, bourgeois world. From almost all his music I’ve ever heard, I often pictured an elegant, wealthy family’s world or a story about a family who are living in a luxury antique style house. Many of Mozart ’s music reminds me of a social life in an older generation, a story about bourgeois world in a gorgeous luxury palace. For Liszt ’s music, his music is very variety, ranging from an image of a sweet passionate love story for couples, all the way to nightmare horror story type o...

This year 2011 is Franz Liszt’s 200 years celebration year (Liszt was born in 1811 ) and many top pianists and also Liszt fans and also Chopin fans community will be celebrating for it. Last year was Frederic Chopin’s 200 years celebration. He was born in 1810. They were born only one year apart. We are glad we are getting into Liszt at such a celebration time. My impression of Franz Liszt, “ He was not only challenging to be a top pianist, he was challenging to be far above the top of the piano world, like paganini was in the violin world . He wasn’t depending on his talent, but was constantly challenging to improve his talent into a limitless level. That may be the most inspiring thing about him. “ Recently we’ve been enjoying listening to this CD called “ Greatest Hits Liszt “ every day. On this CD , My favorites are Hungarian Rhapsody#2 La Campanella Liebestraume ( Love dream ) Some long time Liszt fans said many newbie Liszt f...