Benno Moiseiwitsch

I knew he was one of Rachmaninoff's favorite pianists but this is the first time I have checked out his work. Here is a complete video of him playing one of the most difficult transcriptions in the repertoire, the Liszt Tannhauser Overture. The camera closes in on him gradually. I am also curious about any tips you might have on the right hand octave passage in the first variation of the theme at around 2:15. It seems to me a reverse of mephisto waltz leaps that were demonstrated on the DVD. In the Tannhauser you have to go counter clockwise but the type of motion is the same. Any thoughts?

I wish I liked the music more... really boring, lots of scales and arpeggios... But he certainly plays very well... AFF

Could you be more specific about what makes the music boring? The Beethoven Violin Concerto to name one obvious example, is also a lot of scales and arpeggios ... Maybe this a problem with orchestral transcriptions in general? Whatever you may think about the quality of the music there is a lot to discuss about pianism. Two things worthy of discussion: 1) How he handles the orchestration. There are so many different textures in this piece. 2) Conservation of energy. This is such an exhausting piece. He maintains a beautiful physical balance. His choreography is simple and elegant.

About his technique and musicianship, all true... about the Liszt vs. the Beethoven Violin Concerto... I'm afraid to say it, but to my mind Liszt's arpeggios and scales, compared to Beethoven's, are gratuitous - there's not as much reason for them to be there as in the Beethoven... AFF

That is well put. A lot of the scales and arpeggios are textural rather than structural. But I guess that in order to imitate Wagner's original conception on the piano he needed to add some trite pianistic effects. Interestingly, after he completed the Beethoven symphony transcriptions, Liszt tried to tackle String Quartets to the piano and couldn't make it work. I think it would help to determine whether it is a problem with Wagner's Overture or just the transcription. As with the Beethoven symphonies, I only became interested in the Liszt transcriptions because of the original overture. Here is Furtwangler's recording.