While Liszt does divide the Concerto into an opening fast section, a slow section, a scherzo, and a finale, roughly mirroring a symphony, there is nothing traditional about the work as a whole. It is basically in one movement, with various themes recalled and transformed over the course of the work. The Concerto’s form is exceedingly novel. (The two had met in Paris during the heady days following the July Revolution of 1830, and they remained life-long friends.) The composer premiered the work in Weimar on February 17, 1855, with Berlioz conducting. Liszt completed the First Piano Concerto in Weimar in 1849, orchestrated it in collaboration with his assistant, and revised it in 1853. Among these was the first of his two Piano Concertos and the Totentanz for Piano and Orchestra.īoth works were conceived during the virtuoso years. With a more settled existence that allowed him to focus on composing and on making the German city of Weimar, where he was music director, into the center of progressive musical Europe, Liszt produced a steady stream of masterworks, beginning in the late 1840s. It was by transcribing, arranging, and writing sets of variations on other composers’ works (including arrangements of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, French composer Hector Berlioz’s Fantastic Symphony, as well as opera arias and folk songs) that the pianist became acquainted with virtually every musical style in existence.Īfter his retirement, Liszt reaped the rewards of this musical education of sorts. During his years as a touring virtuoso, Liszt steadily churned out a number of works meant to delight the public and display his own towering skills. ![]() He had been playing for 27 years all over Europe, from Dublin to Constantinople and in just about every city in between. Over time, however, Liszt’s masterwork found its audience, and today it is an absolute favourite of many pianists, music theorists, and classical music lovers across the globe.In 1847, Franz Liszt (1811-1886) retired from his career as a professional pianist. Its technical difficulty also meant that it struggled to become a core part of the repertoire for some time, as even the most talented pianists of the time were wary of taking it on. Brahms, who had a long and tumultuous history with Liszt, is even said to have fallen asleep at its premiere, and one critic said that “anyone who has heard it and finds it beautiful is beyond help.” ![]() Unusually for a sonata, its movements are played back to back without pause, and at the time received a highly divisive response. Dedicated to Robert Schumann, many have attempted to ascribe to it a meaning beyond the music, from yet another Faustian depiction to the story of the Garden of Eden, and even the suggestion that it could musical autobiography. Liszt achieved true perfection in 1853, when he completed his Piano Sonata in B minor. Liszt - La Campanella Played on an LED Piano This duo of pieces reveal an affection and sensitivity in Liszt for the Bible and its stories, as he uses the piano as a storytelling device to mimic the chirping of birds in the first piece and the aquatic rippling of the Mediterranean Sea in the second. Yet he wrote a large number of sacred choral works, and for eight years in the 1860s he took up residence in the Vatican, later being known as Abbé Liszt. His relationship with the church ebbed and flowed over the course of his life, as he generated mistrust within sacred society with his flamboyant womanising lifestyle and obsessions with the macabre in his compositions. Based on miniature stories of two Catholic saints, St Francis of Assisi and St Francis of Paola, these Deux légendes provide a delicate insight into Liszt’s otherwise private religious and spiritual beliefs. In 1863, Liszt wrote a pair of pieces for solo piano which are beyond compare in the remainder of his output. Faust, in turn, whisks away one of the village maidens, turning and twirling into the forest beyond. The joyous festivities take a turn when the demon commandeers a violin and ekes out an ‘indescribably seductive’ melody. Subtitled ‘The Dance in the Village Inn’, it follows a part of Nikolaus Lenau’s Faust story, in which Mephistopheles and Faust join a village wedding party. Written in the years between 18, the first waltz is the most famous. Liszt wrote four Mephisto Waltzes, named for one of the most renowned demons in German folk literature (also known as Mephistopheles). Here are the 15 greatest pieces he ever wrote. Over a six-decade career, he left behind a colossal amount of music – mostly piano, but also orchestral and vocal. ![]() Not least because of his swarming fanbase and 6’1” height, Liszt loomed large over the German music scene as an innovative and experimental performer and composer. Read more: Franz Liszt: discover the great Romantic composer’s life
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