What about A Corny Concerto—or its inspiration, Disney’s Fantasia?
Hehehe, don’t feel bad. My reaction to this kind of thread (or any top 100 articles, etc.) is to scream “ART IS NOT SPORTS, YOU CAN’T RANK IT LIKE THAT IN ANY MEANINGFUL WAY!” in my head.
But you guys should probably go about your business and ignore me. 
ETA: Oh, and that Horowitz performance is indeed the shit. It’s so good, it’s like drugs.
Of course!!
And how could I have forgotten Fantasia after the mouse was kind enough to pay the mortgage for us in the 90’s and early 00’s when the ex-wife worked for him?!? Thank you for the reminder!
(I have to suggest you take all of my posts with a grain or two of salt- I do not appear to be very well informed, I am blaming it on advanced age.)
This is a beautiful work of art and one of my favorite pieces of music in any genre.
That being said, even listening to it just now, I could hardly believe it was written by a serious genius and master of his instrument who (I have been told), would sight read quite complex works when seeing them for the first time without missing a single note and could reach more than an octave (and play an honest thirteenth- which seems impossible!).
Like Chico Marx, Liszt seems like the guy who would be told to quit goofing off and practice his scales and arpeggios during music class despite possessing rare talent. (He is certainly a better performer and composer than Czerny who was one of his teachers I believe.)
Fun fact: Czerny called Liszt “Putzi.” (As Victor Borge once wrote, “I’d hate to know what Liszt called Czerny.”)
Tier 1
Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky
Tier 2
Chopin, Kalman, Verdi, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns
Tier 3
Beethoven, Rimsky-Korsakov, Schubert, Brahms, Bach, Lehar, Puccini, Dvorak
Tier 4
Mozart, Liszt, Schumann, J Strauss Jr., Wagner, Delibes, Gounod, Gershwin, Bizet, Franck
Tier 5
Berlioz, Kabalevsky, Khachaturian, Offenbach, Grieg, Sibelius, Borodin, Bruch, Haydn, R. Strauss, Fauré, Rossini, Donizetti, Joplin
Tier 1
Beethoven
Bach
Rossini
Gershwin
Tchaikovsky
Tier 2
Von Suppe
Johann Strauss
Dvorak
Tier 3
Britten (most because he was in love with my father)
Milhaud
Liszt, despite being a bombastic showman, was also very philanthropic, giving much of his concert proceeds to charity. He also taught a great many students who went on to great things. His influence penetrated deeply and broadly. He lived a relatively long life (74) and produced a great body of exquisite music in those years.
One wonders what additional masterpieces Mozart may have created had he lived to 74 instead of selfishly [ 
] dying at 35. And what additional wondrous symphonies was mankind deprived of by Beethoven dying young at 56?
A close second to Liszt in my book with regard to piano composers is Chopin. He taught me that instrument alone can convey the deepest of emotions. No lyrics necessary. Is it possible to listen to a Chopin nocturne without a very absorbent handkerchief? Not unless you’re a psychopath, or an android.
Thank you for this, most of it is brand new information for me.
Most of what I know about Chopin I learned from Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday (which is mostly that he is no Stephen stinking Foster and he didn’t write Old Dog Trey)
The clip is beautiful and moving and sounds so much more serious and … well, almost profound when compared to the Liszt.
And then there’s Schubert, who lived to only 31. He was already on a trajectory to surpass Beethoven.
Schubert was certainly a busy bee creating his immense oeuvre in 31 short years. Love his shorter pieces (Serenade, and of course Ave Maria, among others), but his symphonies just don’t grab me like Beethoven’s. That’s why I relegated him to Tier 4 of my personal favorites.
Same with Rachmaninoff. Love his concertos, sonatas and other piano works, but for me his symphonies are meh.
“When I think of how comprehensive the piano repertoire is, how abundant it is with masterpieces, then I find Rachmaninoff has no place in it.”
–Alfred Brendel.
That’s about as catty as Glenn Gould saying, “Mozart died too late rather than early.”
Re: Brendel—a stone-cold, cerebral Austrian Germanic piano specialist dumps on a Russian romantic composer. Probably jealous he doesn’t have Rach’s compositional chops.
But, enough about him. Y’all look like you could use a sublime, yet playful interpretation of Gershwin’s RiB. So here you go:
You’re welcome.
Wow, bold version. You’re right, I could use that.
I absolutely LOVE Yuja Wang!
(Not so much, Alfred Brendel.)
I think about 4 of my top ten shorter pieces are by Faure. The Pavane, Siciliene from Pelleas et Melisande, Berceuse from the Dolly Suite, and the other Berceuse opus 16.
I’m not a Mozart fan but even I am shaking my head and saying “that’s just wrong”. His best stuff was his late stuff.
I agree. Knocking Mozart (particularly his later work) is pretty ballsy and IMO ridiculous. But, Gould was eccentric and didn’t mind babbling his unorthodox views.