Franz Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes in the aspect of the evolution of the 20th century performing arts

The article examines the main trends in the evolution of the performance of Franz Liszt’s piano music on the example of his Transcendental Etudes, which have occupied one of the key places on the concert stage for more than a century and a half. The article also touches upon the aspect of the pianists’ embodiment of the concept of “transcendence” in musical images. The work is based on a retrospective historical overview of the development of Listianism and a comprehensive comparative analysis of the interpretations of Transcendental Etudes No. 1 and 2 by the performers of the 20th century: Svyatoslav Richter, Gyordy Tsifra and Leslie Howard. The author concludes that the tendencies in the evolution of performing performance from repertoire “omnivorousness” to narrow specialization and from fixing concert performances of individual pieces to studio recordings of “complete collected works” that appeared in the 20th century led to the evolution of imagery of interpretation from “fresco romantic painting” ( Richter) to a highly detailed (Digit) and intellectual and “rational” artistic image rather than its expressive and emotional content (Howard).

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