Franz Liszts Precursor Sonata Of 1849

A discovery which opens a new chapter in the Liszt Sonata research.

A discovery which opens a new chapter in the Liszt Sonata research.

Much of Franz Liszt's musical legacy has often been dismissed as 'trivial’ or 'merely showy,' more or less peripheral contributions to nineteenth-century European culture. But Liszt was a mainstream composer in ways most of his critics have failed to acknowledge; he was also an incessant and often extremely successful innovator. Liszt's mastery of fantasy and sonata traditions, his painstaking settings of texts ranging from erotic verse to portions of the Catholic liturgy, and the remarkable self-awareness he demonstrated even in many of his most 'entertaining' pieces: all these things stamp him not only as a master of Romanticism and an early Impressionist, but as a precursor of Postmodern 'pop.' Liszt's Music places Liszt in historical and cultural focus. At the same time, it examines his principal contributions to musical literature -- from his earliest operatic paraphrases to his final explorations of harmonic and formal possibilities. Liszt's compositional methods, including his penchant for revision, problems associated with early editions of some of his works, and certain aspects of class and gender issues are also discussed. The first book-length assessment of Liszt as composer since Humphrey Searle’s 1956 volume, Liszt's Music is illustrated with well over 100 musical examples.

Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811–1886) was an anomaly. A virtuoso pianist and electrifying showman, he toured extensively throughout the European continent, bringing sold-out audiences to states of ecstasy while courting scandal with his frequent womanizing. Drawing on new, highly revealing documentary sources, including a veritable treasure trove of previously unexamined material on Liszt’s Weimar years, best-selling author Oliver Hilmes shines a spotlight on the extraordinary life and career of this singularly dazzling musical phenomenon. Whereas previous biographies have focused primarily on the composer’s musical contributions, Hilmes showcases Liszt the man in all his many shades and personal reinventions: child prodigy, Romantic eccentric, fervent Catholic, actor, lothario, celebrity, businessman, genius, and extravagant show-off. The author immerses the reader in the intrigues of the nineteenth-century European glitterati (including Liszt’s powerful patrons, the monstrous Wagner clan) while exploring the true, complex face of the artist and the soul of his music. No other Liszt biography in English is as colorful, witty, and compulsively readable, or reveals as much about the true nature of this extraordinary, outrageous talent.

A new and wide-ranging collection of essays by leading international scholars, exploring the concept and practices of virtuosity in Franz Liszt and his contemporaries.

This document provides a resource for Franz Liszt's unfamiliar piano work, the Grosses Konzertsolo and his subsequent rearrangement of the work for two pianos entitled Concerto pathétique. The Introduction places the work in its historical context as a precursor to the great Sonata in B minor and discusses possible reasons for its various revisions. Chapter One details Liszt's productive years from 1849-1853 in Weimar and selected keyboard works from this period which are closely related to the Grosses Konzertsolo. Chapter Two provides information on Liszt's first published piano works and his experiments with form, as well as a comparison of the Grosses Konzertsolo with the Sonata in B minor, in terms of motivic and thematic development. Technical issues and obstacles to performance are also addressed. Chapter Three compares the Concerto pathétique with the Grosses Konzertsolo showing how Liszt's rearrangement becomes more practical as well as effective. Chapter Four discusses Hans von Bülow's version of the Concerto pathétique and includes a brief biography.

One of Liszt's most performed piano masterpieces, with the 6 Consolations, 10 Harmonies poetiques et religieuses, 2 Ballades, and 2 Legendes. Breitkopf and Härtel edition.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.