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Liszt 🙂...

Technically superb.

Written by a great pianist for the piano; while some areas come across fine on an accordion (as good or better where the "swelling" of the sound possible on a bellows instrument can be used to advantage) most of it is just not "there". The only reasons for performing this on an accordion (for me) are:

-to marvel at the player's proficiency. This is, of course, an Accordionist's Forum.
-because you don't have access to a piano.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Still- a great demonstration of instrument mastery.
 
I cannot recall where, but I have heard it played better by another accordionist... that said, this is a great rendition of this piece, a fine job, definitely top 2 performance in my experience.

About the comment above from John Doe... when comparing accordion to another instrument the accordion will often come out on the short end of the stick like in this case, against a piano, just as the piano falls short when trying to play something like Beer Barrel... lol... yet in another comparison that same piano will sound weak and just "not there" compared to a 60 instrument orchestra playing the same piece too.

In apples to apples comparisons, this is an undeniably strong performance. :)
 
JerryPH said:
About the comment above from John Doe... when comparing accordion to another instrument the accordion will often come out on the short end of the stick like in this case, against a piano, just as the piano falls short when trying to play something like Beer Barrel... lol... yet in another comparison that same piano will sound weak and just "not there" compared to a 60 instrument orchestra playing the same piece too.
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Exactly so.

In this case it was a piece for piano by one of the giants of the piano making it a somewhat specialized case when performed on a piano accordion.
Liszt himself made many transcriptions- among them all nine Beethoven Symphonies (the Cyprien Katsaris renditions are quite something); no body really would think to take the piano perfomances of these as somehow outshining the full orchestral versions as written. The transcriptions were for performance in venues "when you didn't have access to" an orchestra and full chorus...

And of course, given the lack of both radio and audio recording, many/most would only really hear the piece in the transcribed performances.

On the other hand Pictures at an Exhibition was a Modest Mussorgsky piano piece- and enjoyed only modest sucess despite its beautiful textures and wide ranging vision of sound- until Maurice Ravel turned the tables and created the full orchestral transcription of the piano piece. You'd probably get a wide consensus that the transcription was a far fuller piece than the original and is probably what most think of when thinking of Pictures. This discounts the Emerson, Lake, and Palmers pop creation from the early seventies which,,, well it was very popular at the time amongst the head-set.

This is an accordion forum, and I play the accordion (not all that well, but there it is). The accordion surely has its own voice- and when that voice is aped by other instruments the original accordion generally holds its own easily- only an accordion really sounds like an accordion. But that success does not neccesarily work in reverse. It's portability and adaptable voicing lends it to being applied like sonic duct tape sometimes; it works but is not neccesarily the ideal solution.

The same applies to piano transcriptions of course, though IMHO they are by and large more successful.

(This is not at all intended to disparage the performance at the top of this thread- as well done as I have ever heard. Just a hard match up as I see it. And yes, even the LMMH tone-chamber 41/120 -seemingly boat anchorish as it may be to we geezers- is a featherweight compared to a full sized (or even spinet) piano so it really is more available in many settings.)
 
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Did you know that a grand piano has less parts than an accordion? :)

I sincerely enjoy classical on the accordion, Liszt being one of my favorites. His works, even the easy ones, can often be considered torturous. :)
 
I suspect one's enthusiasm for this transcription is rather inversely proportional to how fond one is of the piano version. It was arranged for full orchestra at least twice in Liszt's own lifetime (though he didn't do it himself) and I first met it in that form. OK, full disclosure, I first met it in a Marx Brothers film, and then met the full-orchestra version, long before I heard the piano solo, and I always felt the piano solo was missing something.

I thoroughly enjoyed this transcription - but then I do have a bit of pro-orchestra and anti-piano bias.
 
There is a colorized A Night in Casablanca? I didn't know that. Though Harpo's age is much more obvious in color...

(Chico plays something that starts as Liszt and then wanders quite far afield, with a backing orchestra, about 15 minutes prior to the Harpo scene Dingo40 posted.)
 
JerryPH said:
You'll have to explain that joke to this north americal... lol
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www.quora.com

Why is "Brahms" British slang for being drunk?

Answer (1 of 18): It comes from rhyming Lockney slang or dialect, developed so to avoid being understood by the visiting middle class Bohemian set who wanted to be accepted in the East End of London. I am feeling Brahms and Liszt means l am feeling pissed, i.e. drunk. As these rhyming expressio...
www.quora.com www.quora.com

English is a common language designed to keep us apart!😄
 
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I dunno, I think the Liszt "HR" sounds fabulous on accordion . . . when arranged like a wild folk dance for throwing down your glass as you pound the floorboards, that is. With Stradella bass as fiery rhythmic support.

 
Dingo40 said:
www.quora.com

Why is "Brahms" British slang for being drunk?

Answer (1 of 18): It comes from rhyming Lockney slang or dialect, developed so to avoid being understood by the visiting middle class Bohemian set who wanted to be accepted in the East End of London. I am feeling Brahms and Liszt means l am feeling pissed, i.e. drunk. As these rhyming expressio...
www.quora.com www.quora.com


English is a common language designed to keep us apart!😄
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Haha... thanks, you've broken the code for me! :D :D
 
Henry D said:
This is an accordion forum, and I play the accordion (not all that well, but there it is). The accordion surely has its own voice- and when that voice is aped by other instruments the original accordion generally holds its own easily- only an accordion really sounds like an accordion. But that success does not neccesarily work in reverse. It's portability and adaptable voicing lends it to being applied like sonic duct tape sometimes; it works but is not neccesarily the ideal solution.
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I couldn't agree with you more in the Classical sphere. There is a dominance of classical transcription for the accordion and the tragedy is that we seldom hear classical music written for the accordion itself. A great pity as there is some superb stuff that would stand it's own with the best.
 
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