This coming Tuesday is the birthday of Franz Liszt, born October 22, 1811, in Austria. Liszt was probably the first real "rock star" (if you'll pardon the mixed genre refernce) in the music realm; women would literally attack him, tearing bits of his clothing, and fighting over broken piano strings and locks of his shoulder-length hair.
But Liszt walked away from his performance stardom in his 30s to compose music, instead. One such work is his "La campanella" (Italian for "The little bell"), the nickname given to the third of Liszt's six Grandes études de Paganini. Scott Drayco isn't as much of a fan of Liszt as some pianists, such as Lang Lang, who also has enjoyed a bit of a "rock star" attraction of his own and is a well-known proponent of Liszt's works.
Here's Lang Lang from a 2012 performance in Beijing performing La Campanella:
Lovely to hear Lang Lang's rendition!
Posted by: P.I. Barrington | October 21, 2019 at 08:39 PM
And here's hoping Lang Lang will be fully back to performing now that he's recovered from his arm injury. It's ironic that he says he got the injury from "a stupid practice of Ravel’s left-hand concerto," seeing as how that's one of the pieces that Scott Drayco could probably play after his own right-arm injury.
Posted by: BV Lawson | October 21, 2019 at 09:25 PM