POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY IVAN HEWETT IN THE TELEGRAPH
Good piece.
Liszt wrote some remarkable music, but a great deal of his work is overly theatrical and, yes, genuinely melodramatic.
That is why certain passages of his were favorites for the scores of things like 1930-40s serial movie thrillers.
The anecdote about his deliberately flash efforts for audiences is not unlike some other artists we have known, and not just in music. It is a way to build an audience, and a fat pocketbook.
But we can't damn him for being what he was. I'm sure he himself knew that he could never reach the composing heights of Mozart or Beethoven or Bach, despite all his bravura performing talents.
Parts of his music strike me - a non-musical person - as unique, despite my dislike of passages which seem bombastic, and anyone who creates something unique surely has a place in artistic history.
Liszt wrote some remarkable music, but a great deal of his work is overly theatrical and, yes, genuinely melodramatic.
That is why certain passages of his were favorites for the scores of things like 1930-40s serial movie thrillers.
The anecdote about his deliberately flash efforts for audiences is not unlike some other artists we have known, and not just in music. It is a way to build an audience, and a fat pocketbook.
But we can't damn him for being what he was. I'm sure he himself knew that he could never reach the composing heights of Mozart or Beethoven or Bach, despite all his bravura performing talents.
Parts of his music strike me - a non-musical person - as unique, despite my dislike of passages which seem bombastic, and anyone who creates something unique surely has a place in artistic history.
