Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Liszt wrote three virtuoso sets of descriptive character pieces based partly on the lyrical and pictorial impressions of his travels in Switzerland and in Italy. He worked on these pieces almost all of his adult life. The opening piece of this album, Les Cloches de Genève, is from Années de Plèrinage, Première année: Suisse. This set of nine pieces is based on Liszt's impressions of the sights and sounds of his stay in Switzerland during 1835-36. Liszt dedicated the piece to his eldest daughter, Blandine, in commemoration of her birth in Geneva on December 18,1835. The epigraph for the work

"I live not in myself but I become
Portion of that around me."

is a text from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Distant sound of the bells of Cathedral of Saint-Pierre quietly announces this impressionistic and poetic piece. The sound of the bells then extends in range, increase in dynamics and rhythm with the addition of descending harp-like figurations.

The ten pieces comprising Liszt's Harmonies poétiques et religieuses were written between 1845 and 1852 and largely represent the composer's lasting religious feelings. Funérrailles (1849) was published as the number seven of this set. It mourns the brutal suppression of the Hungarian revolution and the subsequent execution of Hungarian patriots by the Austrian army in October 1849. Here Liszt imitates specific orchestral sounds on the piano, giving the piece its tone-poem structure and its symphonic character. The piece is at once dark and gloomy, but also contains dramatic left-hand octave passages of an explosive nature. Fun6rrailles is undoubtedly one of the most exciting and powerful pieces of pianistic program music ever written.

It took Liszt over 25 years to reshape the works that were to become his Transcendental études. The technical challenges embodied in this collection of twelve pieces are an excellent indication of the extraordinary virtuosity of Liszt. The etude Eroica in E flat major is the seventh etude in this work. It has unmistakably heroic opening bars that utilize almost the complete range of the piano. Liszt keeps the tonality of the piece hidden for quite some time, and after frequent modulations and energetic double-octave passages, the piece has an appropriately forceful finish.

In harmony as well as in form, some of Liszt's later compositions remarkably foreshadow twentieth-century music. Dissonance and unconventional harmonic effects are apparent in Trübe Wolken/Nuages gris (Gloomy clouds), written in 1881, a few years before the composer's death. It is a somber tonal piece in G minor, but the tonal focus is largely kept in the background, while atonal elements are prominently brought to the fore.

Liszt's compositions for the organ are relatively few compared to the extent of his overall oeuvre. Fantasie and Fuge über das Thema B-A-C-H was composed in 1855 originally for organ, intended for the inauguration of a new instrument in Merseburg Cathedral. It is a dark and powerful virtuoso piece, befitting the exceptional expressive possibilities offered by this new organ. The piano arrangement presented here was completed in 1870. Liszt was a great admirer of J.S. Bach, and this work is an obvious tribute to him. It is based on the four notes B, A, C, and H of his name, which in the German scale correspond to the symbols for the sequence of notes B flat, A, C, and B. The piece opens with this Bach motif in left hand octaves, which is subsequently transposed and harmonized in different ways rather freely, but always with technical demands that are typical of Liszt. The fugue starts with a mysterioso bass figure for the left hand and is dominated by the ever present superpositions of the Bach motif. For the majestic ending, the motif is transposed into a pattern of ascending double-octaves.

In addition to his famous operatic paraphrases and transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies, Liszt also transcribed over fifty Schubert lieder for solo piano. This he did with such apparent ease and artistry that the pieces seem entirely natural and unforced in their new format. In these brilliant transcriptions, he was able to incorporate the melodic line and the already demanding accompaniment in an unmistakably Lisztian fashion: at once Inartistic, masterful, and engaging. Among them are twelve songs from the cycle Winterreise, which includes Erstarrang. Erstarrung (Congealing/Turning to Ice) is characterized by accompanying triplets, out of which the beautiful Schubert melody makes its appearance. The second transcription Aufenthalt is from the twelve lieder from Schubert's posthumous collection Schwanengesang. Here Liszt is not intent on literal Fidelity to the original: the transcription has running bass line ornamentations for instance, which enhance the dramatic effect of the piece greatly, but without altering its original spirit. The last transcription Ave Maria on this album is undoubtedly one of the best known Schubert melodies, Liszt's transcription differs from the original in the number of verses used and in the improvisational character of the developing accompaniment. The accompaniment has an increasingly thicker texture, as Liszt's melodic ornamentations increase in complexity with each verse.

The last piece on this album, Rhapsodie espagnole, was composed in Rome in 1863 and published in 1867. It is a reflection of Liszt's impressions of Spain. As reflected by the subtitle 'Folies d'Espagne et Jura Aragonesa', it is based on two traditional Spanish folk-melodies. The tune known as 'La Folia', which derives from a Portuguese dance of the sixteenth-century, was originally a fast dance, which transformed into a slower, solemn, and somewhat sad form by the end of the seventeenth-century. Since then, it has fascinated many composers including A. Corelli, A. Vivaldi, C.P.E. Bach, L. Cherubim, E Sor, C. Nielsen and S. Rachmaninov. The second tune 'Jota Aragonesa' is the lively national dance-song of Aragon, a region of Spain located between Barcelona and Madrid. It has become known far beyond the borders of Spain. The rhapsody starts with a long cadenza-like introduction, followed by a set of free variations on these two attractive tunes, embellished with Liszt's characteristic dramatic flourishes and virtuoso ornamentation. This is indeed a grandioso and satisfying piece with a noble character.