Here are different interpretations of Franz Liszt's La Campanella, the third movement to his Grandes Etudes de Paganini. :)

Violin:

The original violin theme made by Paganini



Piano:

Cziffra rehearsing


Kissin


Lisitsa from her DVD "Black and Pink"


Li



I bombarded my first post with 5 (actually 4 since the violin performance is actually Paganini's and not Liszt's variation on his theme) different videos of the same composition being played by different virtuosos. Each video contains a different interpretation of the piece and that just amazes and confuses me at the same time.
It makes me wonder what it would have really sounded like if it were Liszt playing. It dawns on me (and whatever dawned on me is still unfounded, it's more of a musing) that the original sound, the perfectly accurate playing, is lost since all we have now are interpretations and variations of the original. It makes me wonder whether the essence of the piece is lost within the varying skills and understanding of these players. I'd like to think that it isn't. The music still comes alive under their fingers-- alive but a mutation of the original. That could just be me though because I would really like to have heard it played by the composer himself. The one who knows an object best is the one who made it. I don't really have qualms about how it's played today. Whatever I typed is just a thought.

On to the piece itself:

La campanella is under the Romantic Era of classical music. As the title states, it is about a bell. If ever you listened to at least one of the piano videos above you would observe that the playing or the notes themselves ring like a small bell. It is reminiscent of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, a piece made popular a few years back by Maksim Mrvica. You may wonder why it reminds me a song about a bee. It should be highly unlikely since the melody (theme) of both songs are very different. Let me explain. A characteristic of romantic pieces is that they focus on everyday objects or subjects (a bell and a bee). Whatever is composed based on these things are then elaborated and are sometimes, if I remember correctly, exaggerated.

Notice that La campanella excellently imitates and captures the pitch and the sound of a small bell. Composing something such as the piece is a feat and Liszt did so when he was 27. I can't really say anything about it since I like it but if looked under Richard Wagner's theory of a Gesamtkunstwerk then it may fall short in some characteristics. Wagner said that art must contain all elements. But then I would be wrong in doing that since Wagner composed operas. It's hard for me to critique the piece since it has no one form. However, if I had to choose which performance I liked most, I would have to say that I pick Li. His tone was clear and the tempo, for my taste, was just right. I have to mention and put attention Lisitsa's skill though. Watching her play made is sound effortless and the movement of her hands were fast but very graceful. She also played it faster than the others. It's just that fast doesn't always equal to the best. But really, the skill she showed was mind blowing.