Customer Reviews

Reflections on Liszt

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This is the book to have especially if you already have read Dr. Alan Walker's magnificent 3 volume trilogy on Franz Liszt which was the cumulative effort of some 25 years of painstaking research. The consensus is, remains, and I well share the view that Dr. Alan Walker is "the" world authority and foremost Lisztian scholar.

This 2005 book essentially covers what was not included in the trilogy and hence "Reflections" but the material is all new and significantly adds to the Liszt literature. Three former Liszt pupils are presented with what Dr. Walker terms "Character Sketches" from Carl Tausig, Hans von Bülow and Walter Bache. Not to mention the era itself, additional Liszt involvements during that era with ample musical/score citations and the musical personalities of the era.

As I expressed to Dr. Walker in writing, there are those gifted pianists who have the experience and ability to interpret the music of Franz Liszt while Dr. Walker has the equal ability [and credentials therein] to interpret Franz Liszt the man. In my opinion, this latest work on Liszt is the capstone of a truly magnificent effort to bring Franz Liszt to readers albeit in a capacity that the reader gets the feeling of 'being there' as the action unfolds. I would also highly recommend Dr. Walker's book dealing with the Lina Schmalhausen diary concerning the death of Franz Liszt.

There are many tomes and recitations, indeed even dedicated websites, about Franz Liszt but Dr. Walker's writings offer an almost You-Are-There quality of his narrative and thus you at least figuratively yet perceptively 'see' and 'hear' Liszt more so than you simply read of the man whether Liszt remarks to one of his students about certain "uninvited guests" [sic -- Liszt's buzz-word for 'wrong notes' or "clinkers"] or Liszt becoming yancy when pressured or indeed even very politely cajoled to play [which happened virtually everywhere he went] versus his own initiative and hence 'desire' to play, as Dr. Walker puts it, "because it is then within his gift to do so." Liszt's own papers over a lifetime provide a veritable goldmine in which to draw not to mention his voluminous correspondence and media extracts of the time. Get the book! It's that good! That informative and that intellectually stimulating.

Doc Tony

I've read the three Liszt biographical volumes a few times each already, and yet I find things I haven't caught previously.This is another of that type of book, where one can read it many times and still find it enjoyable.Mr. Walker is a fascinating author.His knowledge of Liszt is unsurpassed and, I hope, never ending..I am a devout Liszt admirer and this author is, by far, the best on this subject of any.This book goes into a bit more detail in some parts than I can grasp(discussing intricate areas of the Sonata),but, all in all, a very "readable" book.