Liszt
Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2010 12:02 pm
We seem not to have a thread dedicated to this man -- only his pupils -- so I thought we had better have one.
I am learning the Malediction at the moment, and will play it in a month. I am trying to find out more about this piece. Even basic facts such as its title and date of composition and later discovery are not agreed on.
I have found the following -- a programme note -- on the web, but couldn't find the author. But anyone could point us in the direction of more information, I for one would be very interested and grateful.
Liszt had a particularly difficult time with the concerto genre. In the 1830s he started work on several works for piano and orchestra. Both the E-flat major and the A-major concertos were begun many years before they were completed in the 1850s. But in addition, there was a third piano concerto (also in E-flat) that was rediscovered only in the 1980s, the “instrumental psalm” De profundis that turned up around the same time-and Malédiction, which was discovered in 1915 but is still something of a rarity, known only to die-hard Liszt aficionados.
The world certainly wasn’t ready for this piece when it was first written. It contains chords the likes of which the world had never seen; there are few traces of classical sonata form; abrupt changes occur at every turn. It is a truly “experimental” piece from before that term was coined.
Malédiction is not, properly speaking, the title — the manuscript doesn’t have one. Instead, it is the word Liszt wrote over the opening theme, described by musicologist Derek Watson, for good reason, as “astonishingly bold.” This theme was later re-used in Liszt’s incidental music to Herder’s drama Prometheus Unbound, to portray the curse pronounced on the hero. A later, strongly rhythmic theme bears the inscription orgueil (pride); this motif is heard again in the “Mephisto” movement of the Faust Symphony. A hesitant lyrical motif, interrupted by rests, was marked pleurs-angoisse-songes (tears, fears, dreams), and a fast virtuoso passage portays raillerie (jesting, mocking). After a highly dramatic recitative for the piano, accompanied by intense tremolos, the opening “curse” returns menacingly, only to be brushed aside by a sudden modulation from minor to major and a brilliant dash to the end. The music becomes more and more breathless as the time signature changes from 4/4 to 3/4 to 2/4 to, most unusually, 1/4, moving the downbeats closer and closer to one another. This triumphant ending, in which all the previous turmoil is resolved, was a prototype for the conclusions of many of Liszt’s later symphonic poems.
I am learning the Malediction at the moment, and will play it in a month. I am trying to find out more about this piece. Even basic facts such as its title and date of composition and later discovery are not agreed on.
I have found the following -- a programme note -- on the web, but couldn't find the author. But anyone could point us in the direction of more information, I for one would be very interested and grateful.
Liszt had a particularly difficult time with the concerto genre. In the 1830s he started work on several works for piano and orchestra. Both the E-flat major and the A-major concertos were begun many years before they were completed in the 1850s. But in addition, there was a third piano concerto (also in E-flat) that was rediscovered only in the 1980s, the “instrumental psalm” De profundis that turned up around the same time-and Malédiction, which was discovered in 1915 but is still something of a rarity, known only to die-hard Liszt aficionados.
The world certainly wasn’t ready for this piece when it was first written. It contains chords the likes of which the world had never seen; there are few traces of classical sonata form; abrupt changes occur at every turn. It is a truly “experimental” piece from before that term was coined.
Malédiction is not, properly speaking, the title — the manuscript doesn’t have one. Instead, it is the word Liszt wrote over the opening theme, described by musicologist Derek Watson, for good reason, as “astonishingly bold.” This theme was later re-used in Liszt’s incidental music to Herder’s drama Prometheus Unbound, to portray the curse pronounced on the hero. A later, strongly rhythmic theme bears the inscription orgueil (pride); this motif is heard again in the “Mephisto” movement of the Faust Symphony. A hesitant lyrical motif, interrupted by rests, was marked pleurs-angoisse-songes (tears, fears, dreams), and a fast virtuoso passage portays raillerie (jesting, mocking). After a highly dramatic recitative for the piano, accompanied by intense tremolos, the opening “curse” returns menacingly, only to be brushed aside by a sudden modulation from minor to major and a brilliant dash to the end. The music becomes more and more breathless as the time signature changes from 4/4 to 3/4 to 2/4 to, most unusually, 1/4, moving the downbeats closer and closer to one another. This triumphant ending, in which all the previous turmoil is resolved, was a prototype for the conclusions of many of Liszt’s later symphonic poems.