Liszt The Piano Magician

Listen While You Read

The piece you are hearing is being performed by the well-known pianist Lang-Lang is known as “La Campanella”.

One Of Liszt’s Most Challenging Pieces

"La Campanella" is a famous virtuosic piano piece composed by Franz Liszt, based on the third movement of Niccolò Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor.

The title "La Campanella" means "The Little Bell" in Italian, referring to the bell-like sounds that are prominent throughout the piece.

Liszt's version of "La Campanella" is known for its technical difficulty, featuring rapid arpeggios, fast scales, and intricate finger work that challenges even the most skilled pianists.

The piece requires not only technical precision, but also great musicality to convey the intricate phrasing and dynamics.

Despite its challenges, "La Campanella" is a beloved piece among pianists and audiences alike, and is often included in piano competitions and recitals.

 Making The Piano Sing Like A Violin

Franz Liszt is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time and was a major figure in the development of modern piano technique.

Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist known for his exceptional virtuosity on the violin, and his performances were renowned for their technical brilliance and emotional intensity. Paganini also composed a number of works for the violin, including a set of 24 Caprices, which are still considered to be among the most challenging works in the violin repertoire.

After attending a charity concert on April 20th, 1832, for the victims of the Parisian cholera epidemic organized by Paganini, Liszt became determined to become as great a virtuoso on the piano as Paganini was on the violin.

He started by transcribing Paganini’s works for piano, helping to popularize his music among pianists and audiences alike. "La Campanella" was one of these pieces.

 A New School of Piano Technique

Liszt was living in Paris in the 1830s when the city had become the nexus for pianistic activities, with dozens of pianists dedicated to perfection at the keyboard.

Some focused on specific aspects of technique, such as the “three hand effect” and octaves.

While it has since been referred to as the "flying trapeze" school of piano playing, this generation also solved some of the most intractable problems of piano technique, raising the general level of performance to previously unimagined heights.

Below Lang-Lang plays “Un Sospiro”, Liszt’s famous composition using the “three hand effect” in which the listener has the impression that it is being played by three hands and not just two.