Cartoons! Specifically Tom and Jerry and the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. That's what did it for me. How did you discover Liszt? Feel free to share your story.
A cartoon for me, too, but it was the Bugs Bunny one, "Rhapsody Rabbit," made the same year as the T&J. Liszt's name even comes up in a gag: Bugs answers the phone in the piano. "Franz Liszt? Never hoid of him. Wrong number." It was years before I finally caught the Tom & Jerry and didn't think it was nearly as funny. We had an LP of Les Preludes around the house that got played, so my Liszt/Flash Gordon experience is the reverse of most others.
My aunt used to play Liebestraum on the piano when I was young, but I also was a big fan of the Flash Gordon serials that would be shown on Saturday, and I became mesmerised by the symphonic music they would often play during intense action scenes. I later found out it was Les Preludes.
When I started to listen classical music, 25 years ago, Liszt was one of my first encounters with this world. I started with Les Preludes, Mazeppa, Hungaria and E-flat major piano concerto and I loved these. (With recordings by Hungarian performers like Ferencsik and Hungarian State Orchestra.) It was in my LP-era when I wanted to collect old classical LPs in the early 2000s. After a while and after spent a lot of money I realized that LP is not my world but that was later. I still like Liszt's music and I think his late piano works are very special. I've never thought that his music is garbage. My last big experience with his music was Trifonov's album "Transcendental". That album is phenomenal.
Well said, Dave. Likewise, I started with cartoons, not only Tom & Jerry but also Bugs Bunny who also played the Hungarian Rhapsody #2. But my real involvement came years later in my teens when 'Hook On Classics' with Louis Clark was a hit. Out of the myriad of great classics given a disco beat, LOL I was immediately drawn to Liszt's Piano Concerto No.1, the H Rhapsody #2, and Liebesträume, and that launched my decades long immersion into his vast catalog and reading every book about him that I could find. He also became part of my 'Pantheon of Composers' series of collector plates and mugs, which retailed at Performing Arts Centers here in the USA and in Europe. Liszt is endlessly fascinating, yet it’s very true that I also came across much negativity to Liszt and his work by nothing other than traditionalist snobs. As I often say: "Being 'normal' negates innovation." And Liszt did not conform to the norm. He was the ultimate pioneer and experimenter of his age. So moments of less inspired music is to be expected, as the road to creating something monumental comes with making mistakes.
Thank you, Dave. Because my primary musical love growing up was opera, I came to Liszt through his piano paraphrases of other operas. It happened during an intermission of a MET broadcast (I think, of I Puritani in '76), and the guest was a pianist was played Liszt and Thalberg paraphrases of bel canto operas. So, I went right out and bought a couple of LPs of Liszt paraphrases. Honestly, I enjoyed the Thalberg as much as the Liszt, but Thalberg doesn't seem to have done (or been recognized) for much else.
I remember Liebestraum 2, HR 2, and the opening theme of the PC 1 as being the limited introduction of mine to Liszt’s music. When I was a teenager, I was snooty towards his music because of the early 20th century musicology that dismissed him as a charlatan. My first realization that Liszt was not just some note-spraying hack was a cheap album of Louis Kentner playing the Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses. Later I was to read Humphrey Searles classic rehabilitation of Liszt’s legacy and some of Charles Rosen’s commentaries on how in some of Liszt’s music the excesses and vulgarities were the points of his more outrageous works. It still took me a long time to get into Liszt’s music, but today I appreciate the visionary aspects of his works and I have nothing but respect for his role in pushing towards a more modern and radical approach to music.
Same exact way! But then I went to see if the Hungarian Rhapsody was amongst the 100 or so records my grandfather gave me - and it was! It was on a 10" record I eventually wore out completely.
Another cartoon introduced me to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. It was a Woody Woodpecker cartoon called "Convict Concerto" in which ol' Woody has to deal with a bank robber hiding out in his grand piano. It ended with a car chase and the eventual capture of the crook by the time Woody got to the closing chords. I wonder how many of us got our interest in the classics from Bug Bunny, Tom & Jerry, Popeye (he had a cartoon which featured Suppé's "Poet and Peasant" Overture, of all things) and their like!
Like others here, I too first heard Liszt in Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry cartoons. I think the Marx Brothers did some Liszt in their movies as well. I grew up on rock, jazz, and folk but in my early twenties I started listening to classical music too (influenced in part by Zappa). I bought a recording of Vladimir Horowitz playing Liszt and was blown away. I too read and heard many disparaging commentaries about how his music was in such bad taste. If anything, it only made me double down on how much I liked Liszt. I bought a box set of the rhapsodies and a Masur box of orchestral works among others. Loved Liszt then, love him now!
Liszt...it wasn't love at first sound, but something tantalising. And yes, it was probably first Tom&Jerry and possibly Victor Borge,Errol Flynn and Flash Gordon. But then I clearly remember that I saw and heard Earl Wild playing Liebestraum No 3 during my early teens. A one-note melody ih the tenor register with strange chords?! Then I got my own cassette radio and started to record from radio. I manage to record Nielsen 5, Les Preludes and From the Cradle to the Grave.and I was stuck. Bought an LP with the piano concerti, and thought it was strange music. Bought the Dante symphony and I was stuck again. Borrowed some LPs from the local library, liked most of it except Horowitz's late Sonata recording. I was lucky to discover Liszt (and Peterson-Berger), because I was fed up with classical music when I was 13-14 years old, but these two composer renewed my interest.
Being a decade older than you, Dave, I missed the cartoon you mentioned. Too bad; though I can say that I was interoduced to grand opera by Bugs Bunny in "The Rabbit of Seville." In any case, I don't believe I heard a note of Liszt, save perhaps for Liberace playing "Liebestraum" on TV, until I was a teenager. I had been told, by music critics and more than one piano teacher , that Liszt's piano music was splashy and worthless. The first inkling that Liszt had more to offer came during a recital given by Arrau at the university I attended as an undergraduate. The second half of his recital was devoted to the B-minor Sonata, which at the time I found musically audacious surprisingly well constructed. Fast forward to my grad school days. The Harvard Coop (of blessed memory) was having a pre-recorded cassette sale, and there were Phillips boxes available at affordable prices. Just for the fun of it, I purchased a box of Brendel's Liszt recordings for that label. I was astonished by the eloquence and intelligence of both the music and the playing. I had always heard that "late Liszt"ventured into uncharted tonal, and post-tonal, territory; and so I was duly rewarded by Brendel's exploration of those fascinating works. A few years later, remembering that Arrau recital, I got a hold of another Phillips box; this time on CD, featuring all of Arrau's Liszt recordings for that label. By that time I was "hooked" on Liszt, whose music, I have to say, has what can only be called a narcotic effect once you get to know it. Not least those wondrous Campanella renditions of the Hungarian Rhapsodies. I am now an avid Liszt enthusiast, particularly hooked on Cziffra's wild abandon and sensational virtuosity. Splashy? Trashy? You bet, and I love every minute of it.
I got to know Liszt through the very same piece - The Hungarian Rapsody No.2. My Father always went on about the Stokowski arrangement he had on 78's as a lad (which he claimed had so much bass response, it moved the Victrola across the floor!) so I was intrigued. However, I got to know it through the original piano version, when I used my hard earned pocket money to buy a Decca LP of miscellaneous pieces played by the French pianist France Clidat (she proved to be fantastic Listz interpreter...her Mephisto Waltz No 1 on the same disc was amazing, and I'm sure probably primed me for my later explorations of some of Bartok's piano music, in it's rhythmic verve). Never really fell into the Tovey trap of dismissing his music - I knew what I liked and developed my own opinion. Oh, I still have the Clidat record and wonder if it's ever been released on CD? Must check!
Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody was also something I remember from an early age. Also Liszt's symphonic poems were used in the old Flash Gordon serials as well as part of Korngold's uncompleted film score for "Captain Blood" which I loved as a boy. But it was Les Preludes that I was most impressed with at an early age when my Dad bought a classical music collection in a large LP album format with extensive notes and pictures about various composers. Every week at the local supermarket a new LP was available to add to this collection.
The cartoons were great, but I remember watching Liberace's TV show as a kid in the 50's. Seeing someone actually playing stuff like Liszt was among the stimuli that steered me into classical music. I'd guess that others in my age bracket also might have found Liberace enlightening in that regard.
I know I saw those cartoons, but the first time I really connected with Liszt was when I first heard the Piano Concerto #1. We took a set of 78s from my grandfather's attic, and I really enjoyed them. Then came Richter and Kondrashin...
Well, I must confess I am now discovering Liszt thanks to a certain critic called... David Hurwitz!!! I am one of those who have been influenced by the general consensus that Liszt's music is garbage, and although I liked some works (piano concertos and sonata, Totentanz) I am afraid I was not very interested in keeping on listening. But then your Channel came and I began to listen. So I'm starting to discover his universe. For that I am so grateful to you!!
The very first time I heard Liszt's music was when I went to use the piano room at school and found another pupil practicing the famous Liebestraum no 3. My first recording of his music included Rhapsodies 2 and 10 performed by Paderewski. I have been an unconditional admirer ever since. If I had to choose one work it would be the Transcendental Studies. They are bold, ambitious, horrendously difficult, and IMO are the best representation of what Liszt was about.
I must also confess that my first contact with Lizst music, it was via Tom & Jerry cartoons. However my current way of learning about music and discovering exciting music, is with the content you create, Dave. I am your fan. I love your opinions and comments, even when your opinion goes straight against my opinion … you are always enjoyable and intelligent. Greetings from Mexico-Tenochtitlan, capital city of the Aztecs.
Bugs Bunny played the second Hungarian rhapsody as well. I also saw UA-cam videos of Liberace playing tons of Liszt as well. It’s really amazing Liszt was a composer in 3 centuries. The 18th as he was taught by Salieri and former Beethoven student Carl Czerny and his father knew Haydn, Hummel, Beethoven and Schubert because he was in the Esterhazy Orchestra. The 19th century becuase he obviously lived in the 19th century and the 20th century as he had a profound influence on impressionist composers like Debussy, Ravel and Satie.
It was on one of those “Classics you love albums” - La Campanella”. My aunt’s brother (a connoisseurrrr) complained that the piano was not “clear as bells”. I was 12. My first Liszt CD was the Philips concerto’s with Richter. But if I think of Liszt, I think of his arrangement of “Auf dem Wasse zu singen” - because he could make the piano sing!
My introduction was twofold: first, a patriotic Warner Bros. cartoon from the early days of World War II, using a Hungarian Rhapsody. And then the Flash Gordon serials, which used Les Préludes, the piano Sonata arranged for orchestra, and I believe a bit of Mazeppa. Quick anecdote: at my college auditorium, they were showing an evening presentation of Flash Gordon serials stitched together. Each chair in the auditorium had a tiny table attached to it (presumably to place a notebook there). When the big fanfare from Les Preludes came on, all 700-odd (mostly) guys in the audience slammed their fists down on the tables in front of them in time with the big timpani strokes, raising an infernal din! Vic Firth would have been proud. .
My top candidate for the worst movie ever made not directed by Ed Wood. Certainly, the most dishonest considering Liszt was probably Wagner's strongest artistic supporter during his lifetime.
That boxset conducted by Masur is such a valuable asset in the Liszt catalog. He keeps the music energetically moving forward, which Liszt orchestral stuff often needs. The only real flop in the set is Orpheus; just too fast.
I seem to recall Les Preludes on the Lone Ranger TV series as well, especially when fisticuffs were afoot. I didn't know what the music was until years later when I heard the actual piece. The Lone Ranger famously introduced many of us to Rossini and William Tell without us knowing it.
A cartoon for me, too, but it was the Bugs Bunny one, "Rhapsody Rabbit," made the same year as the T&J. Liszt's name even comes up in a gag: Bugs answers the phone in the piano. "Franz Liszt? Never hoid of him. Wrong number." It was years before I finally caught the Tom & Jerry and didn't think it was nearly as funny. We had an LP of Les Preludes around the house that got played, so my Liszt/Flash Gordon experience is the reverse of most others.
My aunt used to play Liebestraum on the piano when I was young, but I also was a big fan of the Flash Gordon serials that would be shown on Saturday, and I became mesmerised by the symphonic music they would often play during intense action scenes.
I later found out it was Les Preludes.
When I started to listen classical music, 25 years ago, Liszt was one of my first encounters with this world. I started with Les Preludes, Mazeppa, Hungaria and E-flat major piano concerto and I loved these. (With recordings by Hungarian performers like Ferencsik and Hungarian State Orchestra.) It was in my LP-era when I wanted to collect old classical LPs in the early 2000s. After a while and after spent a lot of money I realized that LP is not my world but that was later.
I still like Liszt's music and I think his late piano works are very special. I've never thought that his music is garbage. My last big experience with his music was Trifonov's album "Transcendental". That album is phenomenal.
Well said, Dave. Likewise, I started with cartoons, not only Tom & Jerry but also Bugs Bunny who also played the Hungarian Rhapsody #2. But my real involvement came years later in my teens when 'Hook On Classics' with Louis Clark was a hit. Out of the myriad of great classics given a disco beat, LOL I was immediately drawn to Liszt's Piano Concerto No.1, the H Rhapsody #2, and Liebesträume, and that launched my decades long immersion into his vast catalog and reading every book about him that I could find. He also became part of my 'Pantheon of Composers' series of collector plates and mugs, which retailed at Performing Arts Centers here in the USA and in Europe.
Liszt is endlessly fascinating, yet it’s very true that I also came across much negativity to Liszt and his work by nothing other than traditionalist snobs. As I often say: "Being 'normal' negates innovation." And Liszt did not conform to the norm. He was the ultimate pioneer and experimenter of his age. So moments of less inspired music is to be expected, as the road to creating something monumental comes with making mistakes.
Thank you, Dave. Because my primary musical love growing up was opera, I came to Liszt through his piano paraphrases of other operas. It happened during an intermission of a MET broadcast (I think, of I Puritani in '76), and the guest was a pianist was played Liszt and Thalberg paraphrases of bel canto operas. So, I went right out and bought a couple of LPs of Liszt paraphrases. Honestly, I enjoyed the Thalberg as much as the Liszt, but Thalberg doesn't seem to have done (or been recognized) for much else.
I remember Liebestraum 2, HR 2, and the opening theme of the PC 1 as being the limited introduction of mine to Liszt’s music. When I was a teenager, I was snooty towards his music because of the early 20th century musicology that dismissed him as a charlatan. My first realization that Liszt was not just some note-spraying hack was a cheap album of Louis Kentner playing the Harmonies Poetiques et Religieuses. Later I was to read Humphrey Searles classic rehabilitation of Liszt’s legacy and some of Charles Rosen’s commentaries on how in some of Liszt’s music the excesses and vulgarities were the points of his more outrageous works. It still took me a long time to get into Liszt’s music, but today I appreciate the visionary aspects of his works and I have nothing but respect for his role in pushing towards a more modern and radical approach to music.
Same exact way! But then I went to see if the Hungarian Rhapsody was amongst the 100 or so records my grandfather gave me - and it was! It was on a 10" record I eventually wore out completely.
Another cartoon introduced me to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. It was a Woody Woodpecker cartoon called "Convict Concerto" in which ol' Woody has to deal with a bank robber hiding out in his grand piano. It ended with a car chase and the eventual capture of the crook by the time Woody got to the closing chords. I wonder how many of us got our interest in the classics from Bug Bunny, Tom & Jerry, Popeye (he had a cartoon which featured Suppé's "Poet and Peasant" Overture, of all things) and their like!
Like others here, I too first heard Liszt in Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry cartoons. I think the Marx Brothers did some Liszt in their movies as well. I grew up on rock, jazz, and folk but in my early twenties I started listening to classical music too (influenced in part by Zappa). I bought a recording of Vladimir Horowitz playing Liszt and was blown away. I too read and heard many disparaging commentaries about how his music was in such bad taste. If anything, it only made me double down on how much I liked Liszt. I bought a box set of the rhapsodies and a Masur box of orchestral works among others. Loved Liszt then, love him now!
Liszt...it wasn't love at first sound, but something tantalising. And yes, it was probably first Tom&Jerry and possibly Victor Borge,Errol Flynn and Flash Gordon. But then I clearly remember that I saw and heard Earl Wild playing Liebestraum No 3 during my early teens. A one-note melody ih the tenor register with strange chords?! Then I got my own cassette radio and started to record from radio. I manage to record Nielsen 5, Les Preludes and From the Cradle to the Grave.and I was stuck. Bought an LP with the piano concerti, and thought it was strange music. Bought the Dante symphony and I was stuck again. Borrowed some LPs from the local library, liked most of it except Horowitz's late Sonata recording. I was lucky to discover Liszt (and Peterson-Berger), because I was fed up with classical music when I was 13-14 years old, but these two composer renewed my interest.
Being a decade older than you, Dave, I missed the cartoon you mentioned. Too bad; though I can say that I was interoduced to grand opera by Bugs Bunny in "The Rabbit of Seville." In any case, I don't believe I heard a note of Liszt, save perhaps for Liberace playing "Liebestraum" on TV, until I was a teenager. I had been told, by music critics and more than one piano teacher , that Liszt's piano music was splashy and worthless. The first inkling that Liszt had more to offer came during a recital given by Arrau at the university I attended as an undergraduate. The second half of his recital was devoted to the B-minor Sonata, which at the time I found musically audacious surprisingly well constructed. Fast forward to my grad school days. The Harvard Coop (of blessed memory) was having a pre-recorded cassette sale, and there were Phillips boxes available at affordable prices. Just for the fun of it, I purchased a box of Brendel's Liszt recordings for that label. I was astonished by the eloquence and intelligence of both the music and the playing. I had always heard that "late Liszt"ventured into uncharted tonal, and post-tonal, territory; and so I was duly rewarded by Brendel's exploration of those fascinating works. A few years later, remembering that Arrau recital, I got a hold of another Phillips box; this time on CD, featuring all of Arrau's Liszt recordings for that label. By that time I was "hooked" on Liszt, whose music, I have to say, has what can only be called a narcotic effect once you get to know it. Not least those wondrous Campanella renditions of the Hungarian Rhapsodies. I am now an avid Liszt enthusiast, particularly hooked on Cziffra's wild abandon and sensational virtuosity. Splashy? Trashy? You bet, and I love every minute of it.
I got to know Liszt through the very same piece - The Hungarian Rapsody No.2. My Father always went on about the Stokowski arrangement he had on 78's as a lad (which he claimed had so much bass response, it moved the Victrola across the floor!) so I was intrigued. However, I got to know it through the original piano version, when I used my hard earned pocket money to buy a Decca LP of miscellaneous pieces played by the French pianist France Clidat (she proved to be fantastic Listz interpreter...her Mephisto Waltz No 1 on the same disc was amazing, and I'm sure probably primed me for my later explorations of some of Bartok's piano music, in it's rhythmic verve).
Never really fell into the Tovey trap of dismissing his music - I knew what I liked and developed my own opinion. Oh, I still have the Clidat record and wonder if it's ever been released on CD? Must check!
Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody was also something I remember from an early age. Also Liszt's symphonic poems were used in the old Flash Gordon serials as well as part of Korngold's uncompleted film score for "Captain Blood" which I loved as a boy. But it was Les Preludes that I was most impressed with at an early age when my Dad bought a classical music collection in a large LP album format with extensive notes and pictures about various composers. Every week at the local supermarket a new LP was available to add to this collection.
The cartoons were great, but I remember watching Liberace's TV show as a kid in the 50's. Seeing someone actually playing stuff like Liszt was among the stimuli that steered me into classical music. I'd guess that others in my age bracket also might have found Liberace enlightening in that regard.
I know I saw those cartoons, but the first time I really connected with Liszt was when I first heard the Piano Concerto #1. We took a set of 78s from my grandfather's attic, and I really enjoyed them. Then came Richter and Kondrashin...
Well, I must confess I am now discovering Liszt thanks to a certain critic called... David Hurwitz!!!
I am one of those who have been influenced by the general consensus that Liszt's music is garbage, and although I liked some works (piano concertos and sonata, Totentanz) I am afraid I was not very interested in keeping on listening.
But then your Channel came and I began to listen. So I'm starting to discover his universe.
For that I am so grateful to you!!
The very first time I heard Liszt's music was when I went to use the piano room at school and found another pupil practicing the famous Liebestraum no 3. My first recording of his music included Rhapsodies 2 and 10 performed by Paderewski. I have been an unconditional admirer ever since.
If I had to choose one work it would be the Transcendental Studies. They are bold, ambitious, horrendously difficult, and IMO are the best representation of what Liszt was about.
I must also confess that my first contact with Lizst music, it was via Tom & Jerry cartoons. However my current way of learning about music and discovering exciting music, is with the content you create, Dave. I am your fan. I love your opinions and comments, even when your opinion goes straight against my opinion … you are always enjoyable and intelligent.
Greetings from Mexico-Tenochtitlan, capital city of the Aztecs.
Bugs Bunny played the second Hungarian rhapsody as well. I also saw UA-cam videos of Liberace playing tons of Liszt as well. It’s really amazing Liszt was a composer in 3 centuries. The 18th as he was taught by Salieri and former Beethoven student Carl Czerny and his father knew Haydn, Hummel, Beethoven and Schubert because he was in the Esterhazy Orchestra. The 19th century becuase he obviously lived in the 19th century and the 20th century as he had a profound influence on impressionist composers like Debussy, Ravel and Satie.
It was on one of those “Classics you love albums” - La Campanella”. My aunt’s brother (a connoisseurrrr) complained that the piano was not “clear as bells”. I was 12. My first Liszt CD was the Philips concerto’s with Richter. But if I think of Liszt, I think of his arrangement of “Auf dem Wasse zu singen” - because he could make the piano sing!
My introduction was twofold: first, a patriotic Warner Bros. cartoon from the early days of World War II, using a Hungarian Rhapsody. And then the Flash Gordon serials, which used Les Préludes, the piano Sonata arranged for orchestra, and I believe a bit of Mazeppa.
Quick anecdote: at my college auditorium, they were showing an evening presentation of Flash Gordon serials stitched together. Each chair in the auditorium had a tiny table attached to it (presumably to place a notebook there). When the big fanfare from Les Preludes came on, all 700-odd (mostly) guys in the audience slammed their fists down on the tables in front of them in time with the big timpani strokes, raising an infernal din! Vic Firth would have been proud.
.
Tom and Jerry episode of
Liszt also put Lang Lang on his trail...
The 1975 Ken Russell movie "Lisztomania". At the end of the movie, Liszt saves the world from Wagner. So, I figured, that guy's alright.😏😁
My top candidate for the worst movie ever made not directed by Ed Wood. Certainly, the most dishonest considering Liszt was probably Wagner's strongest artistic supporter during his lifetime.
Liszt’s music is also used in the Smurfs cartoon. I believe one of the piano concerto themes represents one of the characters.
Dave- what about a review by you of Georges Cziffra's Liszt recordings- arguably the greatest Lisztian of all time?
That boxset conducted by Masur is such a valuable asset in the Liszt catalog. He keeps the music energetically moving forward, which Liszt orchestral stuff often needs. The only real flop in the set is Orpheus; just too fast.
Do we know who the performers were who played the music in the cartoon?
I rememger, as a kid, hearing Les Prelude used as music for B Westerns.
I seem to recall Les Preludes on the Lone Ranger TV series as well, especially when fisticuffs were afoot. I didn't know what the music was until years later when I heard the actual piece. The Lone Ranger famously introduced many of us to Rossini and William Tell without us knowing it.
I discovered Liszt through Les Preludes while exploring my father's 78 rpm record collection way back around 1960.
Hans Richter Haaser playing liebestraum😊
Tovey was a Victorian man, belonging to the "School of Mendelssohn".
Liszt was perhaps more visionary regarding harmony than was Wagner
How is spelled the pianist's name quoted in that Hungarian Rhapsodies record? I'm now really curious to find and listen to it.
Michele Campanella
@@DavesClassicalGuide thanks a lot!!!