Played by Avan Yu at the 2018 Wallace International Piano Festival, 12 July 2018.
Avan Yu Photo: Irène Zandel
Liszt’s monumental Piano Sonata in B minor is a work that was not particularly well-received by Liszt’s fellow composers at the time.
It’s dedicated to Robert Schumann. It’s not known what his reaction was ... he had just entered Endernich Sanitorium when Liszt sent it to him. But Clara Schumann described it as “merely blind noise” apparently. Brahms reputedly fell asleep when Liszt played it. Wagner liked it though.
It’s well-established as one of the mightiest works in the piano repertoire now. And it has occasioned a huge amount of analysis from academics over the years. The formal structure continues to confound ... it’s in a single movement without breaks based on a small handful of musical themes which are all presented early on. But within that – are there three submovements or are there four? There’s definitely a slow movement in the middle. And harmonically, the whole thing also works as a classic sonata form with exposition, development and recapitulation.
And is it pure music without any intent for extenal meaning or is there some programme or narrative behind it? Liszt didn’t ever divulge anything but that hasn’t stopped people putting forward theories that it’s based on the Faust legend, or Milton’s Paradise Lost, or Genesis, or even that’s it’s autobiographical ... Liszt telling his own story.
Recorded by RNZ Concert, 12 July 2018
Engineer: Rangi Powick
Producer: Tim Dodd
