Modern day Nyiregyhazi!! Vincent Xia plays Liszt Dante Sonata - Score

Aside from the maestro himself, Nyiregyhazi, this is the closest interpretation I found of him. In this piece, Liszt’s Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata, or Dante Sonata, Vincent Xia unleashes a sound so similar in a modern day setting, surprisingly.

Like Nyiregyhazi, his approach is very unorthodox and generally thought of to be completely inappropriate in competitions and formal performance settings. Upon listening, it is clear that his performance is very messy, unclear, and riddled with tons of wrong notes, many of which you dont expect to be wrong. But combined with his unique choices, and power, it sounds one of the most devilish I’ve ever seen, which is exactly what this piece was based on.

The piano he plays sounds like an old spinet, and its bass is very deep. Vincent is not shy to project full power into the bass register, often playing chords or octaves an octave lower.
At 2:00, the bass resonance is very satisfying. The beginning presto agitato assai section is played slower, which allows for a more impactful buildup and crescendos. At 3:51, he fills the octaves with thundering bass chords to amplify the effect. At 4:47 it is a good example to highlight how he brings out the bass so powerfully.
Immediately after he rushed tempo I andante. At 5:28 he plays the a sharp octave an octave lower, then during the extended bass resonance, he seamlessly blends in an e sharp in the bass, which plays well into the treble e sharp octave, which I think is a genius way to interpret the transition into the next section (Andante Quasi Improvisato).
In this secrion, even though he doesnt play the c sharp note in the bass for some reason, the right hand is played passionately with resonance from lots of pedal, and he changes the score to play rolled chords in the LH. The section is played loudly with barely any dynamics and ignoring the ppp sign, but his playing is granduer nevertheless.
I really love how he plays transitions, like at 6:44. At this moment there is a short pause after lingering extended resonance with combined RH and LH, which sounds haunting and is a nice touch that adds musical weight.
Andante ben marcato il canto is played with great voicing in the right hand and LH of perfect volume. However, in the later parts of the section he plays it super quickly which erodes the beauty of it. Thats my least favourite part of this interpretation
I really enjoyed the next parts of the midsection.

At 9:55, he plays the left hand repeating chords an octave lower which Ive never seen before, and at 11:56 onwards, he plays all the left hand a chords an octave lower as well. 12:49 as well sounds very dark. The section at 13:13 has intricate left hand top voicing which i think is very unique. After a monstrous climax, at 16:22, he plays the left hand chords an octave lower, even the ones which are below the threshold for an 88 key piano, but he still does it anyway for maximum power, and the ending is crazy because after he holds the final note for over 30 seconds, the longest for this piece Ive heard. In the background there is noise and it sounds like something laughing, either from the performer or audience member.
Nevertheless it is a completely original and unique refording, with tons of ferocity albeit messiness and lack of accuracy. I am posting this score video to gain more attention from this unknown pianist, Vincent Xia, for his Nyiregyhazi like ability. What do you think? Comment down below

Audio retrieved from

   • Vincent Xia plays Franz Liszt - Après une ...  
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