 He played many of them himself in celebrated performances.In the mid-19th century, orchestral performances were much less common than they are today and were not available at all outside major cities; thus, Liszt's transcriptions played a major role in popularising a wide array of music such as Beethoven's symphonies.The pianist Cyprien Katsaris has stated that he prefers Liszt's transcriptions of the symphonies to the originals, and Hans von Bülow admitted that Liszt's transcription of his "Dante Sonett" "Tanto gentile" was much more refined than the original he himself had composed.