Tempo in Liszt’s “La Campanella”
(Abstract) Franz Liszt’s (1811-1886) arrangement of Nicolo Paganini’s (1782-1840) La Campanella is arguably the most popular classical piano piece on YouTube. It has become the ultimate “litmus test” for pianists to show off their technique and bravura playing, which is strange piece to select for this category since it is only marked Allegretto. One would expect such an ultimate litmus test type piece to be Presto or at least Allegro at the slowest; however, for some strange reason the general consensus among pianists is that La Campanella should be played as fast as possible. Indeed, the general consensus among pianists is to ignore Liszt’s Allegretto indication, and instead, to play it Presto or Prestissimo. This is a big problem. This article gets to the nitty-gritty of an inconvenient truth concerning tempo in La Campanella.
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Introduction
Most pianists inadvertantly fall into the “mob mentality” category of musicianship. The “mob mentality” system of logic runs like this:
All famous and influential pianists play La Campanella as fast as possible.
All famous and influential pianists are great and smarter than the “average” non-famous pianist.
All famous and influential pianists are authorities who cannot be questioned.
Therefore, this proves that La Campanella should be played as fast as possible.
The above system of logic is flawed on so many levels. Pianists should be embarrassed that they actually believe this sytem of logic. The problem is that most pianists are in denial that they think this way (even if they are not aware that they think this way) and their first mode of defense is to create “straw man” arguments if anyone should bring up the issue of La Campanella being marked only Allegretto. Some pianists will put forth erroneous arguments advocating that La Campanella should be as fast as possible. This is like trying to argue that 1 + 1 = 3. The last time I checked the dictionary, Allegretto was significantly slower than Presto. Pianists love to ignore this fact and the greatest pianists in the world are no exception. Just because you are a great pianist who can play better, cleaner, and faster than everyone else, this does not make you immune from making glaring errors in logic, such as the popular belief that Allegretto means as fast as possible.
Allegretto is a Relative Speed
But just how fast or slow is Allegretto, anyway? Like all musical tempo and character words, Allegretto is a “relative” speed compared to the faster indications Allegro and Presto or slower indications Andante and Moderato. To understand this law of relativity, let us examine the general tempo word hierarchy from slow to fast, according to common logic and most sources:
General Tempo Word Hierarchy from Slow to Fast
Grave
Lento
Largo
Adagio
Andante
Moderato
Allegretto
Allegro
Vivace
Presto
The tempo word hierarchy shown above does not include several “hybrid” tempi that fall somewhere in between two adjacent tempi (such as Adagio sostenuto or Allegro moderato), which simplifies the list and makes it possible to estimate how fast a reasonable Allegretto really is in La Campanella. The easiest and most realistic way to do this is to select the passage or section in La Campanella with the most number of notes per beat, see how fast one can play this passage, then calculate what a reasonable Allegretto is in comparison. Let us select bars 61-65, which is where the first 32nd notes begin.
La Campanella, bars 61-65.
What is the absolute fastest one can play this section, bars 61-77, without slowing down and keeping the same beat throughout? In other words, what is one’s Presto tempo for this section? Of course, there is no one correct answer, but rather, the fastest possible tempo for “Pianist A” will be different than the fastest possible tempo for “Pianist B” and so forth. Once this fastest possible tempo is established, the next step is to realize what one assumed as being as fast as possible should, in fact, be considerably slower than this since Allegretto is considerably slower than Presto. For example, suppose the absolute fastest one can play this section before becoming sloppy and inaccurate is 120 bpm. In this case, 120 bpm is this pianist’s Presto. Most elite, world-class concert pianists can probably play this section around 144-168 bpm. Suppose an elite pianist can play this section at 168 bpm before breaking down or becoming sloppy. Thus, 168 bpm is “this” particular pianist’s Presto, which is faster than the pianist whose fastest tempo is 120 bpm. Therefore, it should stand to reason that Allegretto for the 120 bpm max pianist should be slower than Allegretto for the 168 bpm max pianist. That is, Allegretto is not the same absolute speed for all pianists, since this all depends on how fast one’s Presto is.
Allegretto does not mean “as fast as possible”
Many pianists and critics unfortunately do not understand this law of relativity and instead of keeping an open mind and admitting Allegretto does not mean as fast as possible, they become argumentative and stiff-brained. For example, in my most recent recording of La Campanella, I chose the speed 96 bpm because this is “my” particular Allegretto speed (or at least was during the time of the recording). My critics and haters on YouTube assumed that I was advocating this speed for all pianists, as if I had proven that Liszt wanted it at 96 bpm. This assumption is ridiculous. I am not a speed demon and am not blessed with blazing speed as many superstar pianists are. My strengths are in areas other than speed. This I admit freely. Thus, my Allegretto tempo in this recording is “my” Allegretto and I do not claim for a second that Liszt intended this tempo. But at the very least, it is goes without question that Liszt wanted La Campanella to be played Allegretto and not Presto. All my cyber critics and haters who have made this performance the butt of jokes on various forums and blogs apparently do not know what Allegretto means.
But just how much slower than Presto should Allegretto be? Examining the tempo word hierarchy above shows that Allegretto is a few tempo levels below Presto. Just to keep things simple, let us group Allegro and Vivace together as one absolute speed. Thus, Allegretto is two tempo levels slower than Presto. A good rule of thumb for a “tempo level” is about 10 bpm. For example, if the fastest one can play bars 61-77 is 168 bpm, then two tempo levels slower than this is 148 bpm. Likewise, if the fastest one can play bars 61-77 is 120 bpm, then two tempo levels slower than this is 100 bpm. Personally, the fastest I can play this section without becoming sloppy and breaking down is about 126 bpm. Thus “my” particular Allegretto is around 106 bpm. Indeed, I feel like the music speaks best played at 108 bpm, which is one of the tempi in my “mathematically correct tempo matrix.” (See the blog article “A Unified Theory of Tempo Relativity”). 108 bpm has become my ideal tempo for La Campanella over the past few years.
The Bias and Brainwashing of Pianists
Most pianists have become so biased and brainwashed with extremely fast tempi for La Campanella that many of them have failed to realize Liszt’s Allegretto indication. Many pianists and lay listeners assume La Campanella is marked Presto. Instead of being a graceful piece of music that is somewhat fast and playful sounding, La Campanella has become nothing more than a springboard to show off speed. This is not music, but simply gymnastics. Pianists do not care about music any more, but merely technique and speed for speed’s sake. This is a sad situation. Even the most prominent pianists today, like Yuja Wang and Evgeny Kissin, are uneducated and totally off the mark with tempo in La Campanella. Just because they are great pianists does not necessarily mean they know anything about music history and the general tempo hierarchy, which any pianist should know who has passed the bachelor’s degree level. All the superstar pianists in the world who play La Campanella as fast as possible need to go back to school.
One of the biggest problems with playing La Campanella as fast as possible is that towards the end appear two important tempo changes, Più mosso and Animato. If one determines one’s Presto and subtracts 20 bpm for an Allegretto, then the Più mosso works well about 10 bpm faster and the Animato works well another 10 bpm faster. This way, one achieves one’s Presto in the coda section instead of playing Presto for the entire piece. Thus, the tempo progression from section to section in La Campanella goes something like this: (1) “Moderately fast” for the main section up to the Più mosso — (2) “a little faster” starting at the Più mosso — (3) “a little faster” starting at the Animato.
Jorge Bolet and his refined yet “slow” performances
The great pianist Jorge Bolet (1914-1990) used to say that nothing destroys music more than pure speed for speed’s sake. Bolet was well-known for his extremely refined performances, which were often significantly slower than most of his peers. It is this refinement and attention to detail that has made Bolet one of my favorite pianists. Nothing demonstrates Bolet’s refinement and effective “slow” tempi better than his performance of Liszt’s Grand Galop Chromatique, which happens to be marked Presto. Compared to Gyorgy Cziffra’s (1921-1994) much faster and electrifying performance, these two performances of the same piece by two legendary pianists from the same generation could hardly be any more different. They are both great performances in their own right, which proves that tempo alone does not determine whether a performance is good or bad. The speed demons of today would have much to learn by studying Bolet’s masterful performance of Liszt’s Grand Galop Chromatique.
Conclusion
I hereby challenge pianists to think “outside the box” and interpret Liszt’s Allegretto in La Campanella in a realistic and non-biased fashion. No longer can a historically conscious pianist simply sweep Liszt’s Allegretto under the table and pretend Liszt never indicated it. To the contrary, the historically conscious pianist has no other choice than to let his ego down a few notches and play La Campanella at a true Allegretto. The musical results may be surprising!
Sincerely, Cory Hall - May, 2022
