Original vs Covers #8 - Franz Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

This is not exactly the same as the previous editions of #OriginalvsCovers. The main difference is that this post will feature an original classical musical piece and arrangements written upon that. The #hive guest will be featured, of course, this part is a must in these posts. And not just one... you will see if you continue to read this post.

First of all, I would like to stress out the difference between what is a song and what is musical work. I often hear people call "song" a piece that actually is not. In classical music, a song is considered a piece written for voice to be sung (with the accompaniment of an instrument, or without, so acapella) That is a song. Just an instrumental piece is not considered a song. Today, we clearly don't have a song and covers, we have one musical work written for piano by a great master of the piano, Franz Liszt and arrangements for other instruments. That work is the very famous Hungarian Rhapsody, no 2, in c sharp minor. A very difficult piece to play, an extremely developed technique is needed for playing it well.

Liszt composed nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies, and this is the second one that we will hear here. It is more than obvious that this piece is perfect for a pianist to show its virtuosity. Also, if the pianist is not prepared for it, well, then better skip it from the repertory. This work has always attracted the public with its dramatic first part, which is called Lassan (in Hungarian it means slowly) and virtuous second part Friska (meaning: fast)

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Franz Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 - Alberto Lodoletti

Alberto Lodoletti is an Italian pianist, playing mostly Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt in his concerts. Last year he had several cancelled concerts, we all know the reason. Here we listen to a clear, very well executed performance of the Rhapsody. He is playing in this video on a Fazioli piano. The company which makes these pianos was founded in 1981 on the initiative of Paolo Fazioli, engineer and pianist. An interesting fact is that they reject any industrial-type production and focus on quality crafted pianos, so just around 140 pianos are made during one year.

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Arrangement 1 - Orchestra version performed by RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, conductor - Leopold Stokowski

This orchestral version can lead us to other places and times in our mind. More fun can be heard listening to the motifs from different instruments...it sounds more comical than just the piano version. It is not strange so many times it has been used in movies and even cartoons. The orchestra in this case is led by Leopold Stokowski, who was especially known for conducting with a particular freehand style, eliminating the traditional baton.

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Arrangement 2 by Jeff Luke and performed by Seraph Brass

Five girls rocking on brass instruments. That is what we can listen to here. I admire this funny sound and way of their playing. The arrangement is done by Jeff Luke and it seems very demanding for the musicians. However, they are playing it with absolute perfection.

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Arrangement 3 by BAKU NAKATA

I don't know if Liszt would imagine that his Hungarian Rhapsody would be played on the marimba, accompanied by piano. However, it is an interesting, different sound and deserves to be here. Also, as this is a percussion instrument, which piano partly is, it is not so different in some passages from the piano sound. The quality of this video is great, one more reason to include it in this edition.

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Arrangement 4 "The Cat Concerto" played by Florent Hu

This pianist, Florent Hu, uses the cartoon The Cat Concerto for his performance. We can simultaneously watch the cartoon, and he matches with his playing the sound from it. It has been always funny to watch this Tom and Jerry episode, and having a pianist playing this version is even better. The audience enjoys it as well, we can hear their reaction and laughter at humorous scenes. Well done mister Florent Hu.

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HIVE guests of this edition:

Arrangement 5 by @contrabourdon and @tomsummerfield

This is an absolutely fantastic arrangement and performance coming from those two piano and organ players. Tom is a newcomer and we hope he will be an active user as definitely he has really good piano skills to present. He made at the moment just his introduction post, but let us hope his friend @contrabourdon can convince him to post more often and be a stable part of this chain of musicians here in hive platform. I have to admit that for me, @primalamusica has been the association for organ music played at hive for a long time. Just recently I discovered contrabourdon with his performance of Bach's Taccata and Fugue in D minor and another post with a recording from a concert he participated. And of course, the recording we see here, the arrangement for 4 hands, played by him and Tom. Great and sparkling performance of this extraordinary piece, arranged for two players. Hours and hours (days, weeks...months... :D ) of practice are needed for this level of performance. Listen to those double octaves and the scales! And the cadence, awesome.
The quality of video and audio is extraordinary too and I would like to have such a nice piano studio :)))

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Hope you liked this edition and the selection.
If you missed the previous Original vs Covers posts, you can take a look here:

Original vs Covers #1 with edprivat

Original vs Covers #2 with manujune

Original vs Covers #3 with ithil94

Original vs Covers #4 with dianakyv

Original vs Covers #5 with ylich, salvadorhr18, mariajruizb, gulia.peito and enriqumarval

Original vs Covers #6 with nessycanta

Original vs Covers #7 with marijocnt

Also, any suggestion is very welcome, if you recently saw a post of someone with a good cover, drop me a name in the comment so I can check it out and maybe include it in one of the next posts. Thanks for reading and hope you will have nice moments listening to the selection and the featured guest of this post.