The most INSANE piano piece you've never heard... 

It's only 9 minutes into this video being dropped and all of you have heard of this?! 😭💀 I guess I'm late to the party... LOL

I think I’ve listened to this recording about 100 times and I just still can’t believe my eyes. Everything is so smooth and each musical intention is precisely calculated, all this in a mind blowing tempo and a technique which could only be qualified as “surreal”. Thank you Mr. LDF for sharing such an achievement. And thank you Piergiorgio for posting this video, Mr. LDF deserves more recognition.

For those complaining that you've heard it before, here's an even rarer piece by Liszt: his "Scherzo und Marsch." A work of both sheer virtuosity AND compositional brilliance! Should be much more famous than it is today. Edit: Apparently Scherzo und Marsch has been (widely, but not very accurately) recorded, my apologies... If you want an exceedingly rare piece, Liszt's Spanish Songbook (Romancero espagnole S.695c) is even harder than the Fantasy, so much so that Leslie Howard is the only pianist ever to make a studio recording of it. I just think Scherzo und Marsch is a much better composition and deserves to be listened to.

I actually discovered the artist's real identity a while ago, but I sadly forgot his name since then. The pianist seems to be very reclusive and extremely humble. He is avoiding his well deserved recognition and is way too self-critical. This I do not really understand, since he is a grandmaster; he is among the best of the best. (I guess being extremely proficient at a skill makes you far more aware of your own "flaws".) Hamelin himself tweeted (responding to LDF's performance of Liszt S. 140 No. 4b) something along the lines of: "How can one publish such an astonishing performance without revealing their name?". I think LDF even disabled the comment sections of his Spanish Fantasy, Weiss Carmen Fantasy and Le Preux recordings after a bunch of people "leaked" his name. Anyways, on the channel under his actual name there are a lot of high quality recordings and footage from competitions and concerts. I remember I watched his performances of the Norma, Don Juan and Puritains Fantasies. They were godlike. I believe he uploaded his renditions of more pieces by Mozart, Alkan, Liszt and Scriabin, but I am not sure which ones exactly. There is plenty more I didn't get to see/hear. LDF also claims to have learned Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 (which I do not doubt), but he hasn't had an opportunity to perform it with an orchestra. Such a mysterious figure.

There’s a video by “The Independent Pianist” which is called the “greatest liszt player of all time” which makes a good case for Arrau. It touches upon similar points about how Liszt himself was known to play. Recommend the video and that channel in general!

Ive listened to it before, but its always awesome when u first discover a piece that u really like

LDF is a great pianist who needs an orchestra. He learned Brahms 2 in a few days. He also knows rach3, tchaik1, and many other concerti. If he got an orchestra more people would know of his talent.

Before I clicked on the video I had an extremely strong feeling it was about this piece, can't believe I was right! This piece is definitely amazing, the march is the best part for me. As a spaniard I absolutely love the march! Glad you made a video on this piece, a hidden gem! PS. Your reaction to the performance of the piece was hilarious

05:30 You're talking about Erwin Nyiregyhazi, right?

This video has been known of for a while, but it is nevertheless an absolutely stunning performance.

I've never heard of this piece before and I'm honestly surprised by how incredibly interesting it is (both musically and technically.) Thanks Piergiorgio for another banger! P.S. It's pronounced Pletnyov, the original spelling is misleading🙄

5:28 It's Yunchan Lim isn't it?

Sign me up to the "I have heard it before!" Club^^ hm I just listened to both renditions and I like... both!

I came across LaDivina half a year ago. I have his reddit. bro just just casually dropped LE Preux like WTF!!!!!🔥🔥🔥

Listen to Busoni and Josef Lhevinne in the Campanella to hear real old school. Also Arthur Freidheim playing Feux Follets is some great recordings.

actually, Ladavinafanatic has actually popped up in several competitions and whenever he was the one playing, he always had quite a wild tempi that he chose. when I mean wild I mean it. He played 2 rare pieces in a competition (VII Premio Alkan per il virtuosismo pianistico romantico), he played Liszt's Reminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia and Alkan's Etude De Concert Op.17 "Le Preux". Both pieces have a lot of technical difficulties and he took them at such ease with the tempi. Liszt's Fantasy literally takes 22 mins and Alkan's Le Preux Literally has staggering Octave and Hand Cross Passages, not to mention tremolandi chords that take several pages (seperated by both hands, almost like a big trill). Theres also another competition (VI Concurso Internacional de Piano) where he also played 2 pieces by Liszt. He Played The Rare and Extremely Difficult Fantasy on Robert Le Diable (Reminiscences de Robert Le DIable S.413 which it is quite known for Tenths and extreme tempi markings on the score aswell as other difficulties like huge leaps, rapid octaves, etc) to its full tempi and he also played Liszt's First version of the Paganini Etude No.4 with a tempo marking preceding the tempo marking of Andante Quasi Allegretto (even probably almost preceding the original caprice no.1 speed of which the transcription was based upon) , Specifically version S.140 No.4b which is basically almost tiring to perform due to all the repeated chords. basically his playing style was probably like thalberg or pixis or other forgotten virtuosi that played with immense tempi.

But I have heard it, sir!

Although I agree that more often than not the extreme tempo "arms race" kills a lot of musicality in many virtuosic piano pieces, I'd say that there is this category of virtuoso music that is actually the opposite. In my view Liszt has especially many of these in his catalogue - pieces that need to be played sufficiently fast to expose the intricate structure and beauty hidden between the notes. I haven't tackled any of the significant Liszt pieces myself, but I've experienced this while learning and practicing Rachmaninoff: passages that - when played in "practice tempo" - seem nothing more than a frantic collection of 16th notes, but with the tempo dialed up to the point where you can no longer consciously focus on each single note, you suddenly discover the theme and 3 counterpoints hidden among those 16th notes. I think this is possibly why Liszt still tends to be deprecated as a "showman" and his music as "shallow virtuosity" - because you need god-level virtuosity to even notice the melodies and the genius of structure and form. On another note: true, Liszt would probably be surprised hearing the tempi at which his stuff is played today - but the pianos themselves changed considerably from his time to ours (maybe not as much as from, say, Beethoven's times, but still). So while it's probably better to play somewhat slower on Liszt's piano, I think he would've still be thrilled with what we can do with his works on our modern Steinways - as long as we don't drown it all with the pedal, undoing all those 150 years of progress in selective and responsive key action ^^

"La Campanella" is marked "allegretto," which is widely ignored, especially by young male pianists. Pasquale Iannone introduced me to the "Spanish Fantasy" several months ago, up until that time I was unaware of it as well. It is an amazing piece.

I love this piece, thanks for introducing me this piece!

Just have to note, adding on top of the LDF recording, where you mention that "this is the real test" is where he plays tenths in the left hand of that passage instead of what I believe are only marked octaves... Which is just devilishly indulgent, especially for someone with this level of technique!

I've known of this piece since my teens but had never audited before until now. It's immensely difficult. Thanks for sharing.

I legit haven't heard of this before, goddamn, this is insane

My favourite piece!

1:56 that’s meeee Anyways when I discovered this vid I knew I was listening to this for the rest of my life as a pianist

If you're looking for an truly insane piano piece, look at Mereaux "bravura" etude ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-k57Tl7qAGFs.html Even the guy in the first video you played has a "simplified" version...

I already heard of this for years now. Spanish Fantasy (I believe, the simplified and trimmed version of Grosse Konzertfantasie) I played this and I died. (I had a video with trims and a midi edited video)

I've listened to spanish fantasie before, but I just love how you bring that piece up in a video, cuz the piece itself does need some more acknowledgment, as well as your epic channel.

I own the 99 CD Liszt box by Leslie Howard, where I heard this for the first time. However, this recording is weaker than those of most of the other pieces in this box. What an effort to record the complete Liszt piano music!

I’m surprised you haven’t heard of this till now, but atleast you found it. Also surprisingly, this isn’t even Liszts hardest Spanish-themed piece?! It’s actually another piece called the Spanish Songbook. Consider checking that out too.

Lizst, having written such technically demanding music, has in effect thrown down the gauntlet to see see who dares pick it up. Fortune favors the brave. But beware, so do cemeteries.

Are these people deliberately concealing their faces for a reason? I find it most unnatural and disconcerting. They are human beings I presume and humans are not just hands.

it's strange how I knew it would be the Spanish Fantasy before even clicking on the video. nonetheless, it's a brilliant and painfully underrated masterpiece

You need to check out Adam Gyorgy playing Liszt

Bro, that figure at 1:09 is the toughest thing I've ever learned on piano....open voiced diminished 7 chords in both hands, rh ascenting chromatically, lh descending by whole step. He did this exact figure in transcendental study no 10 where I learned it. He must have thought it was way too fun to only use in one piece 😂

i actually listen to this piece every day. LDF's version. it's insane. i do wish there were more recordings of it. like pletnevs full recording. there is no way this guy is human. too fast? maybe. some of the spanish "swing" of those 3 dances liszt put in the piece is lost. but god damn if that isn't one of the best recordings i've ever seen. like i said i watch it every day.

hey aren’t you that admin guy on tonic?

Reading the comment section apparently I am in the minority group of people who have never heard this piece before

i saw a recording of it on youtube and i had the first theme stuck in my head for days. especially those flashy glisses at the beggining

I came to hear about Liszt, and found a mystery as deep as the author of My Immortal.

4:32 LDF even did the LH in tenths omg 😱

I cant find any recording of this piece on spotify

I’ve heard of this piece many times before, I just haven’t gotten around to listening to it

What is the name if the piece❓And the pianist❓

5:27 Spi Springers

hehe I am learning it right now.

Already heard...

Thanks for finding!!

I was honestly expecting it to be La Campanella or Hungarian Rhapsody 2, but I'm pretty surprised someone chose spanish fantasy as the most insane piece

I love this work :)

always nice when you upload! great video as always

the Spanish Songbook S.695c is even twice as harder than that