Beethoven Symphonies (Liszt)

For this work, Liszt recycled his previous transcriptions by simplifying passages, stating that "the more intimately acquainted one becomes with Beethoven, the more one clings to certain singularities and finds that even insignificant details are not without their value".

He would note down the names of the orchestral instruments for the pianist to imitate, and also add pedal marks and fingerings for amateurs and sight readers.

[citation needed] When Liszt began work transcribing the ninth symphony, he expressed that "after a great deal of experimentation in various directions, I was unable to deny the utter impossibility of even a partially satisfactory and effective arrangement of the 4th movement.

I hope you will not take it amiss if I dispense with this and regard my arrangements of the Beethoven symphonies as complete at the end of the 3rd movement of the Ninth."

Subsequently, Cyprien Katsaris, Leslie Howard, Konstantin Scherbakov, Yury Martynov and Hinrich Alpers [de] have also recorded all nine.

In February 1971 at Trinity College, Dublin, Irish pianist Charles Lynch played the entire set of Liszt's transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies over four successive Saturday evenings.

The Irish Times critic, Charles Acton, paid tribute to Lynch's achievement: It is doubtful if Liszt himself ever played them as a series.