As a musician, I can relate to this movie on many levels, though certainly not as a classically-trained musician or lover of classical music. I had a passing acquaintance with some of the pieces, but not enough to know any of them by name, other than Moonlight Sonata.
That said, I can relate to being married to music and the joy of performing, as well as the tangled web musicians get caught-up in, when they become objects of desire. Personally, I've found all of that far more addictive than drugs, and I'm glad to have survived long enough to appreciate performing for the right reasons.
As for the movie, it is too long by forty minutes or more, though trying to make it shorter would have been difficult, given the complexities of Liszt's love life. He may have been a musical genius , but he wasn't wise when he wasn't seated at a piano.
As for the actors, they were superb, in particular Genevieve Page as the countess married to Liszt. The script was well-written, and the sets were resplendent and reeked of the wretched excess of that opulent age. The royals and the rich were skewered, as they deserved to be - though perhaps too politely.
As for Liszt, he was doubtless a virtuoso, as was the pianist who performed the pieces for the movie. That said, this sort of playing doesn't do much for me, because the performer's ego gets in the way of the music itself. Strikes me as a case of "look at me", and the player gets in the way of the music itself.
Indeed, the sort of performance puts me in mind of a line from the movie Amadeus - "too many notes." I'm also reminded of a line from Shakespeare's Macbeth - "a poor player who struts and rests his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more." Of course, Liszt was no poor player, and he is still heard; but sometimes for the wrong reasons, as the movie suggests.
That said, I can relate to being married to music and the joy of performing, as well as the tangled web musicians get caught-up in, when they become objects of desire. Personally, I've found all of that far more addictive than drugs, and I'm glad to have survived long enough to appreciate performing for the right reasons.
As for the movie, it is too long by forty minutes or more, though trying to make it shorter would have been difficult, given the complexities of Liszt's love life. He may have been a musical genius , but he wasn't wise when he wasn't seated at a piano.
As for the actors, they were superb, in particular Genevieve Page as the countess married to Liszt. The script was well-written, and the sets were resplendent and reeked of the wretched excess of that opulent age. The royals and the rich were skewered, as they deserved to be - though perhaps too politely.
As for Liszt, he was doubtless a virtuoso, as was the pianist who performed the pieces for the movie. That said, this sort of playing doesn't do much for me, because the performer's ego gets in the way of the music itself. Strikes me as a case of "look at me", and the player gets in the way of the music itself.
Indeed, the sort of performance puts me in mind of a line from the movie Amadeus - "too many notes." I'm also reminded of a line from Shakespeare's Macbeth - "a poor player who struts and rests his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more." Of course, Liszt was no poor player, and he is still heard; but sometimes for the wrong reasons, as the movie suggests.