Learning the Paganini-Liszt Etude #4 -- Part I

In 1838, Franz Liszt composed a series of 6 etudes, known as the Études d'exécution transcendante d'après Paganini, S.140, based off themes and materials from the incomparable violinist Niccolo Paganini's compositions .  This version was composed during the era where pianists competed against each other for their sheer technical capabilities, and Liszt the showman naturally fell into the trap of making pieces as difficult as humanly possible.


More after the jump.








Coming to his musical senses as he matured, Liszt revised these Paganini Etudes for the better in 1851.  Known as Grande etudes de Paganini, this is the version that is commonly played today, including the popular encore, Etude #3, La Campanella.


The first time I learned about Etude #4, I think, was when I was in high school.  My piano in Vancouver, Eugene Skovorodonikov, played a couple measures of this piece to make a point about something I don't remember.  I knew of Paganini's 24 Caprices, and was excited to find out that there was actually a piano version for Caprice #1.  In those pre-IMSLP days, I didn't obtain a score, but I kept it in my mind.


In college, I obtained the score from the school library.  I played maybe the first 8 measures--the easiest 8 measures--before giving up.  Not so much that it felt impossible, but I was lazy.  At the same time, obviously, it was hard enough for me to realize that some serious work was needed.


Last year I flirted around with La Campanella on an upright.  But it was pretty much impossible to practice the very quick repeating notes in that piece on an upright.  It was after yet another year when we got the grand in our new apartment that it was possible, but by then I've lost interest in that piece.


But my interest in Etude #4 was revived around the same time.  And I have been practicing this piece, on and off, for a few months now.  It's got some ways to go, but I am quite determined to play this piece well.  As in: at a world-class level.


Without further ado, here is my version.  Recorded using my newly arrived Zoom Q3 :)
Paganini-Liszt Etude #4, Oct 2, 2010 take


Here's the score on IMSLP:  link.  Just go to page 25.


Maybe it's just me--I thought it is easy because it's single staff'ed.  But it's actually much more difficult than it looks.  I'll have some notes on the difficulties I am encountering in this piece in a separate post.  I haven't found solutions for most of them at this point, which means that I need inputs from a teacher.