Liszt – Rondeau Fantastique sur un Thème Espagnol 'El Contrabandista', S252 (Belyavsky)

When I first watched this performance on YouTube, I was dumbfounded. I was so enthralled that after it ended, I was breathing violently and my heart was pumping, as if I were in the audience. It sounds as if Liszt were at this piano, with such speed and virtuosity, accuracy, yet melodic and musical contour as well. And guess what? It was played live in the Busoni Piano Competition in 2019. Here is an alternative interpretation:    • Liszt – Rondeau Fantastique sur un Thème E...   Manuel García (1775–1832) was a very successful composer of zarzuelas and the fifth number of his one-act piece El poeta calculista of 1804 is entitled ‘Yo que soy contrabandista’. Liszt settled for ‘El contrabandista’ (‘The smuggler’) in his hair-raising paraphrase of it—the Rondeau fantastique—and so may we. Liszt’s piece was published in 1837, with a dedication to George Sand, as his Opus 5 No 3—the companion pieces being the Clochette-Fantaisie and the Fantaisie romantique sur deux mélodies suisses. It remains one of the most impressive works of his early maturity, and its current neglect—difficulties notwithstanding—is a testimony to the want of a spirit of enquiry in many of today’s pianists. (Leslie Howard) Pf: Sergey Belyavsky