Liszt - Six Consolations

Franz Liszt was not only a musician of astounding technical abilities, but of pure musicianship as well. He could sight read the most complex piano music, and could play from a full orchestra score while transcribing the many staves into an intelligible interpretation for piano.  There was hardly an aspect of musical performance that he was not a master of.  So it is not too surprising that when he began to compose, very little of his music would be easy or simple.

Some of his piano compositions have tremendous technical difficulties, not to mention musical and interpretive problems, and it is doubtful if any other pianist at the time could play some of them. But later in his career as a composer he began to simplify some of his work. The Six Consolations for piano are a case in point. He sketched some of the pieces as early as 1844, with the six pieces being completed in 1849. This first version was not printed during Liszt's lifetime, and Liszt rewrote the set in 1849-1850 and replaced some of them with new compositions and simplified the rest. There's no known record of why Liszt titled them Consolations, but all six pieces are in the general vein of nocturnes.

I. Andante con moto - There is a harmonic pattern to the set as the first two pieces are in E major, the middle two in D-flat major, and the last two in E major. The first consolation is also the shortest and acts as a prelude to the set.

II. Un poco più mosso - The second consolation is full of graceful runs and a gentle melody that is treated in different ways in different registers of the piano. Although this piano piece can sound simple, there are still plenty of technical problems in keeping a proper focus on the melody that shifts from one hand to the other, as well as keeping the delicate accompaniment far enough in the background so as not to overcome the melody but yet keeping it audible enough to help with the feeling of the piece.

III. Lento placido - Written in in D-flat major, this is the most popular piece in the set. This nocturne shows the influence Chopin's music had on Liszt. The runs towards the end are not of the glittering kind, but are gentle and of a slightly burnished sheen that caps off one of Liszt's most subtle and satisfying pieces.

IV. Quasi Adagio - Another piece in D-flat major with a theme that is repeated in different ways, all the while remaining true to its introspective and calm nature.

V. Andantino -  The key returns to E major with a simple melody. Liszt maintains interest in this short piece by subtle means and keeps the melody singing throughout.

VI. Allegretto sempre cantabile -  Another singing melody that upon each repetition grows more complex. Balance between melody and rolled chords in both hands is one of the difficulties of this piece, along with the short quicksilver cadenza at the end of the middle section. After the singing melody is heard fortissimo accompanied by large rolled chords, music that harks back to the first consolation acts as a coda to the last piece and along with the harmonic structure of the set, gives us a clue that Liszt may have preferred these pieces be played one right after the other.

Liszt - A Faust Symphony

When Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) gave up the life of a traveling piano virtuoso to devote himself to composition in 1847 it was with the encouragement of the woman in his life, Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.  He spent one winter with the Princess before he accepted a long-standing offer to go to Wiemar as Kapellmeister at the court there.  It was during his tenure there that he wrote many of his most well known compositions for orchestra.

While Liszt had a total command of the piano, he knew little about orchestration and instrumentation. He learned quickly, and became a master of the orchestra as well as the piano. He hired musicians that knew how to orchestrate and would have them orchestrate his piano versions of works. He would then use them as examples and then re-orchestrate the piece himself, using what he had learned.   A Faust Symphony was the first work the Liszt orchestrated without any help, and even felt well versed enough to write out the 'Gretchen' movement of the work straight out into full score without a piano sketch.  He completed the score in 1854.

The legend of Faust dealing with Mephistopheles for knowledge at the price of his soul, and of the love he had for Gretchen, attracted many Romantic era composers. Berlioz wrote a cantata/opera on the theme, Wagner an Overture, and the popular opera by Gounod .  Liszt had sketched some ideas for a piece of his own based on Goethe's story as early as 1840 while he was still a traveling virtuoso.

Liszt used a technique in this, as well as most of his other large works, called thematic transformation or metamorphosis.  Simply put, it is basing an entire work on a theme or themes that appear at various times in the composition and are changed for dramatic effect. It is essentially a type of theme variation as used by many composers earlier, but it is done with more freedom and the altered theme no longer has a connection with the original, but has a life of its own.

The complete title for this work is A Faust Symphony In Three Character Portraits (after Goethe) .  The three 'characters' Liszt portrays are Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles.  In the opening movement  Liszt uses 4 primary themes to portray Faust. The very opening notes of the movement is the first Faust theme, stated in cellos and violas.  The theme itself is tonally ambiguous as it uses all 12 notes of the chromatic scale. This ambiguity lends a great amount of flexibility to this theme within the movement, within the Gretchen movement where the love and purity of Gretchen transforms the themes into warm and tender music, and also in the Mephistopheles movement where Liszt turns the themes into the sarcastic, sardonic themes of Mephistopheles himself.

In Liszt's musical telling of the tale, Faust is a combination of the other two characters. He has a warm loving side and a dark, satanic side that is willing to do anything for knowledge, including selling his soul to the devil.  In some ways, the piece can be looked at as autobiographical. Liszt himself was a very complex personality. A great artist not above showboating for the crowd to please them, a pious and deeply religious man that lived the bohemian life, a man who late in life took minor orders in the Catholic church that also enjoyed the luxuries of good food, drink and cigars, an exceedingly generous man with so many others that could also be selfish and self-serving.  The complexity of Liszt's personality mixed with his rare talent and genius make him one of the most interesting and original of the Romantic era composers.

Liszt's A Faust Symphony:  

Liszt - Fantasy On Motifs From Beethoven's Ruins Of Athens

Liszt was a tireless champion of Beethoven and his music. He was the first pianist to play the late piano sonatas, he gave a series of concerts where all the proceeds went to the cost to erect the Beethoven commemorative statue in Beethoven's birthplace of Bonn. Liszt did this with many other composers besides Beethoven.  His arrangements of other composers works runs the spectrum of literal transcriptions such as the Beethoven symphonies and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, to the 'paraphrases'  other composers operas where he would use a tune or a theme from the work as the basis of his original thoughts.  The ruins Of Athens Fantasy on the incidental music that Beethoven wrote for the play of the same name by playwright August von Kotzebue.  Beethoven's work was written in 1811 in Pest, Hungary for the dedication of a new theater there.

Beethoven's original music was comprised of eleven musical numbers interspersed throughout the play.  Liszt uses three of these numbers for his fantasy. Liszt wrote three versions of this fantasy, for piano solo, for two pianos, and for piano and orchestra. It is the version for piano and orchestra that is heard on the video.

Liszt begins the fantasy with an introduction that uses material from a March and Chorus section from the original music. The introduction is for orchestra only, and is brief. The second part begins with the solo piano loudly making an entrance and the theme of the first part is replaced by the whirling dervish music of the original. After the initial statement of this theme, the orchestra joins the piano. The third part is the Turkish March taken from the original. It is slowly introduced by piano and various instruments before it is given full voice. There is a short return of the preceding themes, and the work ends.

Liszt was one of the best sight-readers ever known. He could take a piece of music he had never seen and play it perfectly, in tempo, at sight. He could reduce orchestral scores to the essence of the music and play the most complicated music from sight. It was also said that the only time Liszt could play a piece of music and be faithful to what was printed on the page was the first time. After that, he began to change things in the score to suit him, at least with the new composers of the time. He was forever tinkering with other composer's music as well as his own. This musical tinkering no doubt lead to his many transcriptions, and lead to things like the Ruins Of Athens Fantasy.  But it also must be remembered that piano versions of great works were sometimes what made the work well known. The expense of an orchestra has always been great, no less so in Liszt's time,  and to be able to hear a new orchestral work was a luxury many listeners did not have. Liszt himself made Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique more well known when he would play his piano solo version of it in recital.  As it had been many years since Beethoven's original music had been heard, Liszt no doubt wanted to expose the listener to what he considered some of the best parts of it.  Liszt was a man inspired by other composers music in many ways. The use of another composer's tunes can be a sign of respect, and with Liszt's known regard for Beethoven's music, he no doubt meant it as such.

Liszt - Malédiction For Piano and Strings

Franz Liszt was a musical genius, as a performer on the piano, conductor of an orchestra, and as a composer. He also had a tremendous drive to succeed and be all that he could be. He knew he was blessed with talent, and he felt obligated to develop that talent as much as he could. He first became a virtuoso pianist who also was one of the best sight readers of the time. He would put a manuscript copy of an orchestral work he had never seen or heard before on the music bench and play through it, arranging it as he went so it sounded well on the piano.  What seemed to come easy to him was a combination of natural talent and hard work. He spent countless hours at the piano developing one of the finest techniques of any pianist.

This is not to say he never composed. He began composing pieces as soon as he had learned the rudiments of music. He composed an opera when he was thirteen,  Don Sanche that was premiered in Paris when Liszt was fourteen.  And he composed his first version of the Transcendental Etudes for solo piano in 1826 when he was fifteen and composed many fantasies and paraphrases on opera tunes.  After the death of his father he lived in an apartment in Paris with his mother and made money for them both to live on by giving piano lessons dawn until dusk and did no composing. 

He was a touring virtuoso for about eight years and only composed during holidays after the concert season. He began experimenting writing for piano and orchestra and one of his earliest compositions for this combination was what is now called Malédiction, written for piano and string orchestra or string sextet. Malédiction means 'curse' , this word was written over the first part of the work in the manuscript by Liszt. There is no other title on it.  It was given this title by musicologists who found the piece in 1915. 

That this is an experimental piece is evident, as some of the seams show. Liszt was learning how to orchestrate and write a concerto for piano and orchestra, not an easy thing to do especially with the pianos of the day. To keep the soloist and orchestra in balance was something Liszt had to learn. That isn't to say this piece is only a curiosity. Far from it. It shows an expanded idea of harmony, especially in the first part, the part marked Malédiction.  Some of the chords in this section are quite striking in their dissonance, especially when we know the piece was written in 1833-1834.  Liszt was in his early 20's, fresh from meeting Berlioz and attending the premiere of Symphonie Fantastique in 1830.  As a composer, Liszt was in the avant-garde of the era almost immediately.

 Malédiction is in one movement, and originally may have had a program to go with it. A tone poem for piano and orchestra essentially, that changes moods and shifts tempos throughout. It begins in a minor key and ends in a major key and has a lot going on in between.  It is a glimpse into the creative mind of the young Franz Liszt.

Liszt - Grosses Konzertsolo For Piano

Franz Liszt wrote his Grosses Konzertsolo (Grand Concerto Solo) in 1849-1850, three years before his Sonata In B Minor.   Liszt wrote it for a piano competition that was to be held at the Paris Conservatoire in 1850. Liszt dedicated the work to Adolf von Henselt, one of the premier virtuoso pianists of the time. The work proved so difficult that Henselt couldn't master it which caused him to comment:

"It is not in the realm of possibility for me to play this piece..."

Liszt made two other versions of the work; one for piano and orchestra under the title Grand Solo de Concert which was not published,  and another arranged for two pianos published under the title Concerto Pathétique.  

The work is an experiment in form and substance that Liszt continued and refined in his Sonata In B Minor.  It is in one continuous movement. The opening begins with a dramatic main theme followed by a quiet section that leads to a transitional passage that brings the music back to the main theme. Next there is a grand theme played in large chords that is marked grandioso. This theme continues in the middle register of the keyboard as the accompaniment flows around it. This is basically the exposition of a sonata form movement. Liszt then inserts what amounts to a slow movement marked Andante sostenuto. This theme slowly unfolds and gains in complexity until a cadenza appears, after which the music grows to a double forte as the theme is hammered out. Themes from the exposition reappear and the drama of the opening section returns. Themes are developed, the music continues in dramatic fashion until a section is reached that is written in 4 staves and marked Andante, quasi marcia funebre:

  Themes continue to be developed,  the music again grows in intensity and ends in the major mode.

Henselt wasn't the only virtuoso of the day that refused to play this work. Liszt sent a copy of it to Clara Schumann but she publicly begged off the work claiming excessive technical difficulties while in private she criticized the work for what she considered empty virtuosity. There is no record of the piece being played at the piano competition in Paris, and outside of Liszt's pupil Carl Tausig who Liszt said was the first pianist to perform the piece, it may have been only Liszt himself that could have surmounted the technical and musical difficulties of the work. 

Liszt - Totentanz (Dance Of Death)

 Franz Liszt began planning the work as early as 1838 after he saw The Triumph Of Death fresco by Francesco Traini in the Campo Santo in Pisa, Italy. But until he dedicated himself to composing over traveling Europe as the most famous virtuoso of his day, the first version was not completed until 1853.  Liszt revisited the work in 1859 and completed the 2^nd version, the version most often heard, in 1864.

The Romantic era in general had a certain amount of interest in the subject of death, but Liszt took it even farther. He composed a number of pieces that dwelled on the subject to the point of morbidity.

Totendanz is a set of variations (or as Liszt put it, a paraphrase) on the Gregorian chant Dies Irae, or day of wrath, words that were taken from the Bible that depicted the day of final judgement. The original Latin text and music for Dies Irae date back to the 13^th century. The chant is most frequently heard in the Catholic Requiem Mass, and Liszt is just one of many composers that used the melody in their compositions.

The Triumph Of Death fresco by Francesco Traini

Opening theme ‘Dies irae - The music begins with the soloist playing deep in the bass of the piano in marked tone clusters while the orchestra plays the theme.  The piano then plays the first of three cadenzas that span the compass of the keyboard with the orchestra contributes short chords after each. The orchestra then takes up the theme while the piano hammers out chords in the treble range of the piano in rapid tempo that makes it sound like a huge 8-note tremolo. A climax is reached and the music grows quiet. The piano has a solo that leads to -

Variation I (Allegro moderato) - The bassoon and violas play a variant of the melody, and the piano repeats it. Clarinets and bassoon play the second part of the melody and the piano repeats it, and leads to -

Variation II - The left hand of the piano plays a variant of the theme low in the bass as the right hand plays runs higher in the bass. A horn and pizzicato strings add to the texture.  The next part of the variation has piano glissandos in the right hand, the bass plays a dotted rhythm while trumpets and low strings are added. The drama increases as the piano plays glissandos in both hands as the woodwinds and strings lend accompaniment. This leads to -

Variation III (Molto vivace) - The soloist goes back to the deep bass for an agitated section that eventually climbs into the high treble. A full stop comes upon a D minor chord that leads to -

Variation IV (Lento) - For piano solo, this gentle canon gives some rest after the preceding drama. After it has played out, a cadenza in B major (the only section of any length in a major key in the piece) gives repose. The music then goes back to the minor with a solo clarinet playing a simple variant of the melody with a light piano accompaniment.  Another section of transformation begins abruptly with the piano increasing the tempo to presto, with octaves in each hand leading to -

Variation V (Vivace) - The first part of the theme is rendered contrapuntally by solo piano in a fugue with repeated notes. The orchestra joins the soloist and the music goes somewhat a field to different keys. There is a section of the piano part that has the directive strepitoso, meaning clamorous, impetuous. The section ends in a long cadenza for the soloist and leads to -

Variation VI (Semper allegro (ma non troppo)) - This is a mini-set of variations itself.

1.            The horns play a figure in triplets while the orchestra, minus the other brass, accompany.

2.            The piano enters and plays a variant with pizzicato low strings, flute and triangle.  

3.            Oboes, piano, strings, and the triangle play a variant.

4.            The piano imitates hands as the woodwinds and strings fill out the harmonies.

5.            The figure is played in the bass of the piano with chords in the right hand. Woodwinds fill in harmonies while the strings play col legno.

6.            The piano plays a variant that is marked piacevole that is punctuated by chromatic runs played by both hands a third apart that venture high into the treble.

7.            The piano accompanies with chords and octave runs while the orchestra plays another variant.

This mini-set of variants ends when there is another cadenza that has the Dies Irate played low in the bass while a tremendous minor scale is played that covers the rest of the keyboard.  The glissandos appear again, as the music leads up to a raucous closing. There is no written part for the piano in the score, but it is not out of place for a soloist to play along with the orchestra. There is a tradition for the soloist to play in contrary motion to the orchestra with the final chromatic run and final chords.

The modern way in which Liszt treated the piano in the middle of the 19^th century was ahead of its time. His percussive treatment of the instrument was a big influence on a 20^th century fellow Hungarian composer, Bela Bartok.

Liszt - Fantasy And Fugue On The Theme B-A-C-H For Organ S.260

The piano was central to the musical life of Franz Liszt. He was a virtuoso performer on the instrument from an early age, and his tours of Europe were legendary, and his compositions for piano and orchestra challenged the conservative nature that had crept into music in the middle 19th century. But despite his leadership with Wagner in what was called at the time "New Music", he had an interest in past composers and forms.  He championed works by composers that were unknown to the public at the time, such as the late music of Schubert and the opus 106 piano sonata "Hammerklavier" by Beethoven. He helped create pathways to new modes of expression by having one eye on the future and one on the past.

Although as a composer he is most well known for his music for solo piano and the symphonic poems for orchestra, he also composed in most other genres of music, including works for solo organ. The articleThe Organ Music Of Liszt by musicologist Zoltán Gárdonyi   states that Liszt traveled to Geneva Switzerland in 1836 and improvised on a church organ there.

As a trained pianist, Liszt was not adept at the pedals of the organ to begin with, and perhaps never got really proficient on them. But the manuals of course were a different story. He probably could adjust quite rapidly to the differences in the keyboards of pianos and organs. And there are many differences in the two instruments besides the pedals.

Liszt composed around 40 works for organ with the majority of them being transcriptions of other composer's music as well as his own. But he did compose two masterpieces of the literature for organ. The first was composed in 1850, the Fantasy and Fugue On The Chorale 'Ad nos, ad salutarem undam' from Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera The Prophet. This is a massive work that takes around thirty minutes to perform. The second of Liszt's masterpieces for solo organ was composed ion 1855, the  Fantasy And Fugue On The Theme B-A-C-H.

In the 1840's the Bach revival was in full swing with Felix Mendelssohn continuing to lead the way in exposing the music to audiences. Mendelssohn played some of Bach's organ works at a concert in 1840, and Liszt wrote transcriptions of selected organ works for piano. Liszt's homage to Bach's music is based on the spelling in German musical nomenclature:

Bach himself used this 'Bach motif'' in one of his fugues in his The Art Of Fugue, and there is a long list of composers past and present who have used it.

Liszt begins the work with the motif in a solo for pedals:

The first part of the work is a fantasy with wide ranging tonalities that leads into the fugue which begins in the pedals. The fugue works through a few entrances of  the subject and then becomes a more free working out of ideas and motives until the subject returns in a more agitated form.  A section of trills for the pedals leads back to a fragment of the subject. After a short section marked maestoso, the Bach motif is heard again  in octaves in the pedal with shifting harmonies in the keyboards. This seems to be leading up to a grand finish, but instead they lead into a few bars in a more hushed tone that add a sense of mystery. This spell is broken by the final bars in fortissimo that modulate to the end chord in B-flat major. 

Liszt - Grandes Études de Paganini

The influence that the virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini exerted on composers and performers of the early 19th century cannot be overestimated. Never had any performer demonstrate the total mastery of an instrument as Paganini did on the violin. He also had a level of showmanship that helped make him world famous.

Franz Liszt was already an accomplished concert pianist when he first heard Paganini in Paris in 1832, and was determined to do for the piano what Paganini did for the violin. He began to practice the piano even more strenuously until he had become the most acclaimed pianist of his time.

It was natural that Liszt would use the music written by the man who inspired him in some way, and the result was the first version of the six Grandes Études de Paganini of 1838, which  contained technical difficulties that were impossible for anyone else to play but Liszt, Eventually in 1851 he revised them and made them less technically demanding, but to this day the revised version contains some of the most technically demanding pieces in the piano repertoire.

I. Étude No. 1 In G Minor (Tremolo) - Among the first published works of Paganini's opus 1 were the famous 24 Caprices For Solo Violin. These works revolutionized violin technique. Paganini opened up possibilities for the violin that were unheard of before his time, and Liszt used some of these works as inspiration for his etudes. The first one in G minor begins with a introduction taken from the 5th Caprice of Paganini and begins with arpeggios. The main body of the etude is taken from the 6th Caprice and consists of a theme placed against tremolos. The piece ends with another arpeggiated reference to the 5th Caprice.

II.  Étude No. 2 In E-flat Major - Taken from the 17th Caprice of Paganini, The theme of this etude is a rather simple one, but the accompaniment and manner of its presentation bristles with scales, arpeggios and all manner of keyboard acrobatics as does the original version for violin.



III.  Étude No. 3 In G-sharp Minor (La Campanella) - This etude is taken from the finale of Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 In B Minor. The nickname translates to 'Little Bell', and Liszt gives the impression of a little bell by playing in the piano's high register. It is the most popular of the set.

IV.  Étude No. 4 In E Major (Arpeggio) - Taken from the 1st Caprice of Paganini, this etude is written all in the treble clef on one line in imitation of solo violin music. The lowest note in the piece is the first G below middle C, which is the lowest note on the violin.  


V.  Étude No. 5 In E Major (La Chasse) - From the 9th Caprice of Paganini, this etude has the horn calls and excitement of the translation of its subtitle, The Hunt,



VI.  Étude No. 6 In A Minor -  From what could possibly be the most well known piece of music written by Paganini, the 24th Caprice, a set of variations on an original theme. Liszt was the first among many composers that used this theme for a set of variations. Liszt's version is a kind of translation of the original to pianistic terms, but isn't as inspired as Paganini's original. But Liszt wrote this set of etudes on the music of Paganini to push the boundaries of piano technique and to dazzle audiences, and they have accomplished both.

Chopin/Liszt - Six Polish Songs

Franz Liszt and Chopin met each other in Paris about 1831, and they performed in concert together a few times. The two composers developed a somewhat uneasy friendship for many reasons, perhaps mostly because of their differing personalities. Liszt was the most dynamic piano virtuoso of the time, and had a huge stage presence and charisma. Chopin was never the towering virtuoso that Liszt was, and his piano playing was more suited to the salon than the concert hall. But Liszt showed no hesitation in showing his admiration for Chopin's compositions, and Chopin admired Liszt's playing abilities.

Chopin was a composer that attended opera on a regular basis and helped create a singing style of

Frederic Chopin

piano playing, but his output for voice is very small. He wrote only 19 completed songs in his lifetime, and a few others that remain incomplete. And though many tried to persuade him to try his hand at opera, he refused. None of his songs were published in his lifetime. It wasn't until 1853 that one of his songs was published. The Opus 74 set of 17 songs was first published in 1859, and it is not a song cycle as there are no connecting themes to the poems. Each song is independent of the other.

After Chopin's death in 1849, Liszt wrote a biography of his friend and transcribed six of Chopin's songs for solo piano. The six transcriptions helped make Chopin's songs better known, and became popular encore pieces. 

I. The Wish, The Maiden's Wish - In the original song, the title is simply The Wish. Liszt gives the song a German title that translates to The Maiden's Wish.  Liszt deftly combines the piano part with the vocal part, and gives three variants of the melody. Liszt's transcriptions can be described as paraphrases. He used the term himself on occasion, and it meant that the work in question was not being literally transcribed, but passed through the filter of Liszt's tremendous genius, sometimes to the benefit of the work, sometimes not.  With Chopin's songs, Liszt makes new pieces of them that are complimentary related to the original. 

II. Spring - For a song titled Spring, the mood is decidedly forlorn as the lyrics to the original song tell of a person lamenting the death of a lover. Liszt reinforces that mood by adding the tempo designation of Andantino maliconico. Liszt doubles the vocal line with octaves.

III. The Ring - Liszt's highly decorated version adds spice and movement to a song about a man seeing the engagement ring he got his former lover still on her hand after she married someone else.  Hardly a sad song, but some of the anger that the man has does come through.

IV. Drinking Song - The previous song segues directly to this jaunty drinking song. Liszt boldly colors the bright and festive melody with glissandos, including a double glissando near the end.

V. My Darling - A passionate song about a beautiful woman and the love a man has for her. As he shows his affection by kissing her, Liszt adds to the original with decorations and short, expressive runs in this longest song of the set.

VI. The Bridegroom - The original song tells of a bridegroom furiously riding his horse to his lover, not knowing she has died. Liszt retains the rushing scale figures to represent the galloping horse, while the rest of the song is a dramatic piece, one inspired by Chopin's original, and transformed into a Listzian composition.

Liszt - Two Lieder: Die Lorelei, S. 273 - O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst, S. 298

Franz Liszt as composer is most often thought of a writer of music for the piano and for his thirteen Symphonic Poems, but he also wrote 87 songs.  Although he was Hungarian by birth, he was closely aligned with the German music aesthetic and about 53 of his songs were set to German lyrics.  Liszt's music faded in importance after his death and outside of a handful of works, it was performed little. There is a renewed interest in his music, but his songs are still rarely performed.

The Lorelei

The first song is a setting of the poem Die Lorelei by Heinrich Heine. Heine based his poem on the ancient legend associated with The Lorelei, a large rock formation on the Rhine River. The name comes from old German words that meanmurmuring rock, given to the rock because of the noises given off by a small waterfall and current of the river that can be heard as murmuring echos off the rock face. The name Lorelei is also given to a female water spirit that legend says sits on the top of the rock and murmurs as it combs its hair, and while doing so distracts sailors from guiding their boats around the narrow channel of the river and causes their vessels to destruct on the rocks.

Liszt wrote two versions of the song, the first in 1841. He revised the song in 1854 and it is this second version that is heard at the link below.

Die Lorelei
I can't explain what it means
This haunting pain:
A tale of bygone ages
Keeps running through my brain.

The air cools in the twilight,

Heinrich Heine

And peaceful flows the Rhine,
The rocky summits reflect
The sunset's waning light.

The loveliest maiden is sitting
High-throned on the rock.
Her golden jewels are shining,
She combs her golden hair;

She combs with a comb that is golden,
And sings a strange refrain
That causes a deadly enchantment
In the listener's ear.

The sailor in his drifting sailboat,
Is entranced by sad sweet tones,
He doesn't see the breakers,
He sees the maid alone.

The wind and water engulf him!
So perish sailor and ship;
And this, with her baleful singing,
Is the Lorelei's gruesome work.



The next song is a work that is more often heard in a transcription for solo piano that Liszt had published under the title of Liebesträume No. 3.  The song was set to a poem by German poet Ferdinand Freiligrath in 1845.

O love, love as long as you can!
O love, love as long as you will!

Ferdinand Freiligrath

The time will come, the time will come,
When you will stand mourning at the grave.

And let it be that your heart glows
And nurtures and carries love,
As long as another heart is still
Warmly struck by love for you!

And to one who gives his heart to you,
O to him, do what you can, in Love!
And make him happy every hour
And never let him be gloomy for an hour.

And guard your tongue tightly,
So no angry word spills out,
O God, even if no harm was meant,
The other may recoil, hurt and sighing.

Liszt - Piano Concerto No. 2 In A Major

Franz Liszt's 2nd Piano Concerto was published in 1863, but sketches for the work went back as far as 1839 when he was still touring Europe as a piano virtuoso.  During the intervening years between the initial ideas for the concerto and the final version, Liszt had retired from the concert platform and accepted the  directorship of music at the Wiemar court where he gained experience not only as a composer, but as an orchestral conductor.

A comparison between the 1st Piano Concerto In E-flat Major  and the 2nd Concerto Piano Concerto In A Major show how Liszt had changed as a composer and an artist. While the solo part for the 1st Piano Concerto is overtly virtuosic, the difficulties in the solo part of the 2nd Concerto are not as obvious. While both concertos are played without a break, the first nonetheless falls into four distinct sections, while the seams are not quite so obvious in the 2nd concerto. Liszt attempted to integrate piano and orchestra even more in the 2nd than the 1st concerto, and used the Concerto Symphonique compositions of Henry Litolff as models.  Liszt was well acquainted with Litolff's works for piano and orchestra, and also knew Litolff personally. Liszt dedicated the 1st Piano Concerto to Litolff, and wrote Concerto Symphonique on the manuscript of the 2nd Piano Concerto.

The late music critic Michael Steinberg summed up the difference between the 1st and 2nd piano concertos when he wrote :

The Concerto No. 1 is an octaves-and-glitter piece with small poetic ambition. The Concerto No. 2 is another matter. Liszt is sparing with devices guaranteed to bring down the house...even more important is the pervasiveness of a manner, a tone, that asks listeners for concentrated attention and delicacy of response. An expert keyboard athlete can make a go of the First Concerto. The Second Concerto is for poets...

The 2nd Piano Concerto is in one continuous movement that contains six sections:

I. Adagio sostenuto assai - The primary theme of the entire work is heard directly from the woodwinds in a quiet progression of chords. After the clarinet plays the theme, the piano accompanies the strings in presenting the theme. Liszt immediately begins to embellish and transform the theme in the solo part, as other secondary themes appear, sometimes in the piano, sometimes in the orchestra. The piano makes a run to the depths of the piano's range in a short solo that leads to another variant of the main theme. The give and take between piano and orchestra continues and leads directly to the next section.

II. Allegro agitato assai - A scherzo that has Liszt going far away from the home key of A major. A variant of the main theme leads to the next section.

III. Allegro moderato -  The main theme is taken up by the cello with piano accompaniment in this lyrical section. The piano trades off with the cello woodwinds in music that sings in a mellow mood.

IV. Allegro deciso - The transformation of the main theme continues, and other secondary themes reappear, also in different guises. A short transition leads the way to the next section

V. Marziale un poco meno allegro -  The main theme is transformed into a march. The strongly rhythmic variant serves to bring the music back to the home key of A major. After the march the transformations continue and lead to the final section.

VI. Allegro animato - A coda to the concerto, the piano and orchestra continue their partnership as the music changes in mood and character. Glissandos in the solo part punctuate the unbuttoned joy of the final comments on the main theme and a few secondary ones. The orchestra and soloist play passages that lead to the final chords.

Liszt - Mephisto Waltz No. 2

Franz Liszt was quite taken with the Faust legend, as were many artists of the Romantic era. He composed a Faust Symphony based on Goethe's version of the legend, but the 4 Mephisto Waltzes were inspired by Nikolaus Lenau, an Austrian poet that also wrote a version of the Faust legend.

Liszt wrote two works for orchestra that were inspired by Lenau, collectively called Episodes From Lenau’s “Faust.” One of these pieces is the famous The Dance in the Village Inn, also known as Mephisto Waltz No. 1.  Liszt also wrote a version of the first waltz for piano four hands and a version for solo piano which has enough changes in it from the other versions that it is considered an independent work.

It took Liszt twenty years to revisit Lenau's version of the legend and he wrote the Mephisto Waltz No. 2 between 1880 and 1881. The original version was for orchestra, and like the first waltz Liszt made versions for piano four hands and solo piano, with the solo version being substantially different from the other ones.

The work was dedicated to the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns, a composer that Liszt knew very well. Liszt had transcribed Saint-Saëns' tone poem Danse Macabre for piano a few years earlier which perhaps had inspired Liszt to write another Mephisto Waltz. Liszt was 70 years old and was in his last productive period as a composer.

Nickolaus Lenau

The beginning of Liszt's waltz uses the interval of the tritone, which since medieval times has been considered a dissonance and was avoided by composers. It grated on the ears of earlier composers so much that it was called diabolus in musica, or the devil in music. Late in the Romantic era, the tritone was used by composers to represent evil and, in Liszt's case, Mephistopheles. Saint-Saëns had used the interval of the tritone in his tone poem also by instructing the concertmaster to tune his violin so that the open strings would play a tritone. Modern music has pretty much removed the stigma from the interval and it no longer has the same strong effect it had on earlier audiences. But it is still a restless interval that if used too much can grow tiresome on the ear.

Liszt loosely follows the program he used in his first waltz as the opening can be thought of as Mephisto tuning his violin. After the introduction, the music turns into an intense dance that is sprinkled with dissonance. The character of this waltz is more aggressive and more violent than the first waltz.  There is new material introduced roughly half way through the piece that is more quiet and reflective, but still there remains an underlying tension. Passion builds until the dance of the beginning returns. The dance grows more hectic until the entire piece collapses into the interval of the tritone as in the beginning. The ending of the piece is written in E-flat major, but builds to an unresolved ending on the interval of the tritone B-F. The piece actually doesn't end so much as stops on bare B natural octaves.

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Liszt - Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses

Franz Liszt's reputation during his virtuoso touring years was one of a gifted musician, perhaps the world's greatest pianist, and ladies' man. There was also another side to Liszt, for he was a devout Catholic all of his life and even took minor orders in the church late in life. This paradox of deeply religious, but never marrying any of the women he had intimate relations with, is but a part of this very complex individual.

In his last years of touring he became acquainted with the Russian Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein. She finally left her husband in Russia in 1848 and joined Liszt in Wiemar where he was acting Kappelmeister to the court. They lived together for twelve years, and had marriage plans that were constantly thwarted by her husband and his powerfully connected family to obtain a divorce.

Alphonse de Lamartine

Liszt worked on the collection of piano pieces he called Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses (Poetic And Religious Harmonies) for many years. He completed the set after he began living with the Princess first at her country house in Ukraine, and later at Wiemar.

Liszt took the title from a book of poems by the French poet Alphonse de Lamartine, and prefaces the collection with a fragment from the preface of the book:

"There are some meditative souls that solitude and contemplation raise inevitably towards ideas that are infinite, that is towards religion; all their thoughts are converted into enthusiasm and prayer, all their existence is a mute hymn to the Divine and to hope. They seek in themselves and in the creation that surrounds them steps to climb to God, expressions and images to reveal him to them, and to reveal themselves to him: I would that I could lend them some of these! There are hearts broken by sorrow, held back by the world, who take refuge in the world of their thoughts, in solitude of soul, to weep, to wait or to worship; I would that they might be visited by a muse solitary like them, to find sympathy in her harmonies and to say sometimes, as they listen: We pray with your words, we weep with your tears, we call on God with your songs!"

The Romanticism of the times can appear rather much to modern readers, but the early 19th century was a time of instilling drama, passion and downright excess in the arts.  Liszt took his cue from the French poet, and wrote ten pieces that run the range of drama, religiosity, and even dips into the abyss of gruesomeness. He was a musician that was inspired by literature and the visual arts to such a strong extent that he used his musical genius to express the feelings and emotions he received from the other arts. That is why Liszt's music is not so much a literal representation of the thing which inspired him, but an attempt to convey the emotions and feelings it gave him.

1.  Invocation - Liszt prefaces the first piece in the set with some lines from a poem by Lamartine of the same name:

Rise up, voice of my soul,
With the dawn, with the night!
Leap up like the flame,
Spread abroad like the noise!
Float on the wing of the clouds,
Mingle with the winds, with storms,
With thunder, and the tumult of the waves.
 Rise up in the silence
At the hour when, in the shade of evening,
The lamp of night sways,
When the priest puts out the censer;
Rise up by the waves
In these deep solitary places
Where God reveals himself to faith!

A call for assistance, a summoning to worship, the interpretations of the title and the music that follows are many. The piece is in E major.

2.  Ave Maria - This piece is a transcription for piano of a choral work composed by Liszt in 1846 for 4 voices and organ. Liszt writes the Latin text over the music thus showing that this is pretty much a literal transcription.

3.  Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude (The Blessing of God in Solitude) - This piece is also prefaced by part of the poem Lamartine wrote by the same title:

Whence comes to me, O my God, this peace that overwhelms me?
Whence comes this faith in which my heart abounds?
To me who just now, uncertain, agitated,
And on the waves of doubt buffeted by every wind,
Sought goodness, truth, in the dreams of the wise,
And peace in hearts resounding with fury,
When barely on my brow a few days have slipped by,
It seems that a century and a world have passed;
And that, separated from them by a great abyss,
A new man is born again within me and starts anew.

The piece is in the key of F-sharp major and begins with a melody in the bass accompanied by the right hand playing in two parts in contrary motion:

The melody continues and gets more complex in texture as the melody is echoed in the bass and the treble in an impressive buildup of sonority. The melody continues and finally winds down to a close in a triple pianissimo. An episode with the tempo indication andante begins with a contemplative melody in the key of D major. This continues until another episode begins, this time in the key of B-flat major that is marked Più sostenuto, quasi preludio that is intended to be played somewhat freely as a prelude. After this episode the F-sharp major melody from the beginning of the piece returns in rolled chords in the treble accompanied by an arpeggios in the bass. The melody continues to build in intensity and passion until the right hand erupts in running sixteenth notes to the melody in the bass. Both hands erupt in breathtaking arpeggios in a cadenza that leads to the coda. Both of the preceding episodes are referred to and the piece comes to a peaceful close. This is one of the pieces of the set that has a life of its own as a recital piece.

4.  Pensée des morts (Thoughts of the Dead) - This piece was originally written under the title of Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses but Liszt revised the work considerably, renaming it  Pensée des morts and making it part of the set, instead of a stand alone piece. The first section is written in the remarkable (for the period) time signature of 5/4, with a few bars of 7/4 time thrown in the mix. This gives the music an instability that is culminated in intensity with the ensuing chords and runs. The explosion of insanity finally ends on B-flats hammered out in both hands. This leads directly to the De Profundis section that has the first three lines of the Latin text of the 130th psalm written over the pounding chords. The English translation of these lines:

From the depths I have cried out to you, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplication.

The music then returns to the underlying tension of the 5/4 time signature until the music morphs into music that imitates the form of the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, a melody played over a triple accompaniment with long notes in the bass. The melody of this section continues as the mood intensifies, ebbs and flows until it returns to a chordal texture as in the De Profundis section, only this time more subdued. The piece ends quietly.

5.  Pater Noster - Another piece originally written for voices and organ, Liszt makes a literal transcription for piano, and includes the Latin text of the Lord's Prayer in the music.

6.  Hymne de l’enfant à son réveil (The Awaking Child’s Hymn) - Another transcription of a piece written originally for female voices with harp and piano accompaniment.

7.  Funérailles (October 1849) (‘Funeral’) -  A work inspired by the aftermath of the Hungarian uprising in October of 1849. Thirteen Hungarian Generals as well as the prime Minister were hung by the Austrians in retaliation for the uprising. Liszt knew some of those that were executed and wrote this in memory of them. The piece begins with the tolling of bells deep within the piano's bass register. The momentum and anguish build until the bottom falls out. The next section is a funeral march, which is followed by a section marked lagrimoso (tearful, crying).  This section grows in intensity and complexity until it gives way to a section that has led some to believe that Liszt also paid tribute to Chopin in this piece as it resembles the thundering left hand octaves of Chopin's A-flat Major Polonaise Opus 53 (Chopin by coincidence had also died in October of 1849). This battle section steadily increases in volume and intensity until the funeral march reappears in three octaves with full chord accompaniment. The lagrimoso section also briefly reappears. The battle section reappearance serves as a coda and a final crescendo, after which the music quietly expires. this is the other piece of the set that is most often played on its own.

8.  Miserere, d’après Palestrina (after Palestrina) - The melody is based on a motet Liszt heard at the Sistine Chapel. It does have a feeling of Paestrina's style in the melody, but no style of Palestrina in the keyboard gyrations of the accompaniment. Included in the simple initial statement of the melody Liszt has included the Latin text of the Miserere. The English translation:

God have mercy on me following thy great mercy,
and following thy compassion, wipe out my iniquity.

9.  Andante lagrimoso - A Lamartine poem also prefaces this piece:

Fall, silent tears,
Upon an earth without pity;
No more between pious hands,
Nor on the bosom of friendship!
Fall like an arid rain,
Which splashes on the rock,
That no ray from the sky can wipe away,
That no breath can come to dry.

This piece is unique to the set as it has no title save the tempo indication. Despite a middle section that tries to brighten the mood, the ending of the piece remains in despair.

10.Cantique d’amour (Hymn of Love) -  Liszt marks the accompaniment quasi Arpa (like a harp), and indeed Liszt made a transcription of this piece for harp. This final piece of the set is in contrast to the preceding sorrow of the Andante lagrimoso. As the Invocation set the stage by way of its hymn like atmosphere, so this Hymn Of Love rounds out the set with a hymn. The melody lies in the middle of the keyboard (something that Liszt did in other pieces too) that is surrounded by the accompaniment. The melody as well as the structure of the piece is rather straightforward; it is the accompaniment and the decorations of it that are ornate.

Liszt - Piano Concerto No. 1 In E-flat Major

The early part of the 19th century was a time of great change in music.The shift from a composer depending on the patronage of the church or royalty, to being an independent artist began with Mozart, as he was one of the first major composers that was free-lance. Beethoven also was a free-lance composer in the sense that he was not a paid member of a royal court.  Composers more and more were dependent on publishers looking to make a profit by printing their works, and the more popular the work the more money it made.

As there was no sound recordings, the piano was a popular instrument and most well to do households had family members that took lessons and played the instrument in varying degrees of ability. This was the age of the pianist composer,  and many times the way these composers made a name for themselves (thus drawing the attention of publishers and patrons) was by writing and performing their own piano concertos. In this they were following the lead of Mozart who did the same thing early on. Beethoven also made his first big splash as a composer/performer of his first two piano concertos. Chopin wrote two concertos and performed them in his debut in Vienna, and the list goes on all the way to the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.

Franz Liszt was in his prime as a touring virtuoso in the 1830's and 1840's when the composer/pianists were in full swing. Although he wrote a few pieces for piano and orchestra (one of them being Malédiction for piano and strings) it is interesting that he wrote no piano concertos during this time, at least ones that he finished, performed and published. The Piano Concerto No. 1 wasn't written until 1849. He continued to refine the piece and it was premiered in Weimar in 1855 with Liszt at the piano and Berlioz conducting. After the premiere he continued to work on the score and it was published in its final version in 1856.

Some of the themes for the first concerto were written in a notebook by Liszt as early as 1830, so the concerto had a long gestation. Liszt wrote a lot of music when its all added together, over 700 pieces of all kinds. Sometimes he wrote fast, and it can be said that he wrote too much. But he took especial care with this concerto, and it is one of his best pieces.

The concerto has 4 movements played without pause:
I. Allegro maestoso - The first movement begins with the strings playing part of the main theme of the entire work. This fragment is played twice with the rest of the orchestra answering each time.
The piano then enters in thundering octaves. After a short solo, the orchestra resumes playing the main theme while the piano comments upon it with another solo. Orchestra and piano alternate until the piano and clarinet enter into a short dialogue. The piano introduces a second theme with the solo clarinet and then a solo violin commenting on it. The entire string section enters and the music segues back to the main theme. A chromatic run from the piano signals the end of the first movement and the second movement begins without pause.

II. Quasi adagio - Muted strings play a mellow version of the main theme and the piano enters and transforms the main theme into a lyrical, gentle nocturne. The orchestra enters playing part of the theme while the piano comments upon it in a feeling of slight agitation. The piano calms once again and returns to a dreamy mood. Trills in the piano are accompanied by solo winds playing a new theme. This continues until the trills cease and the third movement begins without pause.

III. Allegro vivace - Allegro animato - A triangle begins the movement and is answered by pizzicato strings. The piano plays a theme, and themes from the other two movements enter in a scherzo for piano and orchestra. After some prancing from piano and orchestra, the main theme that began the work reappears as in the beginning. The next section begins without pause.

IV. Allegro marziale animato - The orchestra begins a new rhythmic theme complete with the triangle. previous themes now begin to reappear and the piano sparkles as it comments. The pianist has to play some of the most difficult music ever written for the piano as the main theme reappears and the tempo increases to break-neck speed. The music modulates to the home key of E-flat major and roars to a thundering conclusion.  Liszt had this to say about the last movement:

"The fourth movement of the concerto from the Allegro marziale corresponds with the second movement, Adagio. It is only an urgent recapitulation of the earlier subject-matter with quickened, livelier rhythm, and contains no new motive, as will be clear to you by a glance through the score. This kind of binding together and rounding off a whole piece at its close is somewhat my own, but it is quite maintained and justified from the stand-point of musical form."

Eduard Hanslick

The first piano concerto was roundly criticized when it became known. It is, after all, a piece that looks forward in form and material, and is a fine example of Liszt's cyclical technique of basing an entire work on a few short themes. It deviated from the form of the 'conventional' concerto in that it is played without pause. It also is in 4 movements, more like a symphony than a concerto.  The Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick, a proponent of anything Brahms and opponent of anything Liszt, dubbed it the Triangle Concerto when it was played in Vienna in 1857. Hanslick's influence in Vienna caused the concerto to not have another performance in that city until 1869. Liszt addressed his use of the triangle:

"The Scherzo in E-flat minor, from the point where the triangle begins, I employed for the effect of contrast. As regards the triangle I do not deny that it may give offence, especially if struck too strong and not precisely. A preconceived disinclination and objection to instruments of percussion prevails, somewhat justified by the frequent misuse of them. And few conductors are circumspect enough to bring out the rhythmic element in them, without the raw addition of a coarse noisiness, in works in which they are deliberately employed according to the intention of the composer. The dynamic and rhythmic spicing and enhancement, which are effected by the instruments of percussion, would in more cases be much more effectually produced by the careful trying and proportioning of insertions and additions of that kind. But musicians who wish to appear serious and solid prefer to treat the instruments of percussion en canaille (lowly people, riff-raff), which must not make their appearance in the seemly company of the symphony. They also bitterly deplore inwardly that Beethoven allowed himself to be seduced into using the big drum and triangle in the Finale of the Ninth Symphony. Of Berlioz, Wagner, and my humble self, it is no wonder that 'like draws to like,' and, as we are treated as impotent canaille amongst musicians, it is quite natural that we should be on good terms with the canaille among the instruments. Certainly here, as in all else, it is the right thing to seize upon and hold fast [the] mass of harmony. In face of the most wise proscription of the learned critics I shall, however, continue to employ instruments of percussion, and think I shall yet win for them some effects little known."

Hanslick is but a footnote in musical history. The first piano concerto of Liszt is firmly in the repertoire. Score one for the triangle.