Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Classical Compositions of… the 1850s

These polls are really helping to remind me how heavily my knowledge of the repertoire is slanted towards the 20th century.

i was a bit obsessed with alkan as a teenager though heard very little of his music (there was none in the school library) -- a specialist virtuoso whose name i forget gave a local performance of some of his works and my grandparents took me, i'm guessing this is where my interest started (the music was difficult and grandly gloomy iirc)

the main thing i recall abt the performance was that the virtuoso played on a large bosendorfer with an extra length keyboard (two additional bass notes, i guess G and F), and it had a little lid or panel you could open or close depending on whether you needed to play the notes or not be distracted and disoriented by the keyboard being the wrong size. anyway someone left the panel in the wrong position and the virtuoso didn't spot it till he started playing, and was clearly bothered and kept glancing at it -- then after the interval he explained the issue to everyone, which is why i know

the other thing i recall is that alkan was a bit of a weirdo recluse and died when he reached for his talmud and pulled the whole bookcase down on top of himself (which seems a pity and may be a made-up tale)

Mark S otm - give your Tristan vote to Faust and cut out the middleman, people.

OK, those are strong words. I actually don't recall if I know that piece but I'll definitely listen before voting.

I favor the Ivan Fischer recording and the first Bernstein one (with the NYPO)

I second the Iván Fischer (can't stand Bernstein).

I might just go with Liszt's Piano Sonata in the end.

Where are all the Verdi stans btw? I'm no fan but Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata are as canonical as it gets.

the other thing i recall is that alkan was a bit of a weirdo recluse and died when he reached for his talmud and pulled the whole bookcase down on top of himself (which seems a pity and may be a made-up tale)

So I've heard as well and it does have all the trappings of Romantic legend. According to Wikipedia:

For many years it was believed that Alkan met his death when a bookcase toppled over and fell on him as he reached for a volume of the Talmud from a high shelf. This tale, which was circulated by the pianist Isidor Philipp, is dismissed by Hugh Macdonald, who reports the discovery of a contemporary letter by one of his pupils explaining that Alkan had been found prostrate in his kitchen, under a porte-parapluie (a heavy coat/umbrella rack), after his concierge heard his moaning. He had possibly fainted, bringing it down on himself while grabbing out for support. He was reportedly carried to his bedroom and died later that evening. The story of the bookcase may have its roots in a legend told of Aryeh Leib ben Asher, rabbi of Metz, the town from which Alkan's family originated.

OK, that symphony (Fischer recording) was great on first casual listen and is a serious contender (although the Années... from this decade also v good). If we're comparing to Wagner, I actually like getting lost in 3-4h of gelatinous vocal melodrama in a language I don't understand is the thing, but, as a symphony, that was a fantastic work.

Liszt can be very uneven but the Faust Symphony is top drawer material. His orchestration of From the Cradle to the Grave is excellent as well (but I'm getting ahead of myself).

yes i think it's actually the only thing i like by him

You dislike his austere & mournful late works?

(Unless you were specifically referring to From the Cradle to the Grave).

wasn't very clear there -- there's a lot by him i've never heard, i like faust much more than whatever else i have heard

(and mostly heard a long time ago, so my mind is probably very changeable these days on stuff i disliked in my 20s)

Then I hope you'll give him a second chance once we reach the 1880s.

i'll make a liszt list encompassing all his eras once we get to the 1880s and try to keep it short

So Liszt's very first published work was *his* variation on that theme of Diabelli's. Interesting.

I'm enjoying spending quality time with his solo piano works, not least Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. I think the only Liszt I'd have previously said I know 'well' amounted to a few discs of tone poems, etc. (Shocking confession #647959)

Harmonies Poetiques is an awesome cycle. The benediction gets all the air time but pensees des morts is probably the highlight. I love the opening invocation as well. Brendel did not record the whole cycle but he did most of it and that’s probably my favorite recording of these pieces. Along with a late (1980s) Richter performance of pensees des morts which I assume is in print somewhere.

Don't forget Funérailles! I love them all, though, including his rewriting of Allegri's Miserere.

(adding: my youthful stance on liszt may well have been coloured by roger daltrey's portrayal of same, and the fact that i encountered said portrayal in a seaside cinema WITH MY PARENTS AND SISTER)

It is understandable, roger daltrey is gross

I haven't seen said film but was made aware of its inflammatory reputation at a young age, and it rubbed off on the conception I developed of its subject, whose music I subsequently discovered through the 1st Piano Concerto and its more flagrant bravura passages (I knew nothing of cyclical form at the time). Then I came across Nuages gris, La lugubre gondola, Unstern! Sinistre, disastro and RW – Venezia, all of which sounded like sealed-off mausoleums, to be reverberated into nothingness, completely overturning my vitalist understanding of his music in the process.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I suppose the turnout was to be expected. I wonder who voted for Brahms's 1st Piano Trio? Good piece, that.

That Brahms trio and the Brahms first concerto are both totally plausible choices

His third piano sonata kicks ass too, a young man’s Hammerklavier sonata of sorts