Analysis And Comparison Of Lizst’s Vallee D’obermann’s Video Performances By Three Russian School Pianists

Franz Liszt,"the Hungarian piano king",not only improved the piano skills to an unprecedented level,but also wrote piano music that gave the piano orchestral sound effect.In 1835,Liszt and Mrs.Dagu went to Switzerland to find inspiration from nature.The Annees de pèlerinage combined literature and poetry,at the same time set technical difficulty and depth of thought for one.This work is different from Liszt’s previous technical style.At the same time,it also developed the program music for piano and laid the foundation for the subsequent mature style.The Vallee d’Obermann studied in this paper is a piano work composed by Liszt in Switzerland from 1835 and 1836 and included in the collection of Années de Pèlerinage,Premiere Annees Suisse published in 1855.There are nine pieces in Premiere Années Suisse,which were inspired by Schiller’s the Fugitive and Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.This paper analyzes the video performances of Vallee d ’Obermann by three "Russian"pianists.The Russian piano school summarizes the different traits of the German,Austrian and French school and forms its own characteristics.Russian pianists are famous for their solid skills and national singing tone.Through the analysis of these pianists,the readers would gain a deeper understanding of this work and the styles of these Russian pianists.The first chapter briefly discusses the compositional background of Vallee d’Obermann and the influence of Chopin,Paganini and Berlioz;The second chapter makes a comprehensive analysis of the three performance versions of the "Russian school" pianists;The third chapter compares three pianists’ speed,strength,emotion,tone color,and musical expressiveness,as well as the performance styles.The fourth chapter gives some insights on the current piano education and pedagogy,which provides a useful reference for the performance practice and teaching of the work.