Franz Liszt
Piano Sonata b minor
The surviving autograph of Franz Liszt’s b-minor Sonata is a fascinating document that illuminates the compositional process: many cuts and paste-overs show how Liszt refined the architecture of the work. These paste-overs have since been removed and in our new edition we can see for the first time what is hidden behind them. The knowledgeable introduction by the Liszt expert Mária Eckhardt provides an abundance of information and a unique look over the composer’s shoulder.
Video with facsimile: Claudius Tanski
Audio example: Krystian Zimerman
Deutsche Grammophon 028947796978GM2
About the Composer
Franz Liszt
The most famous piano virtuoso of the nineteenth century is regarded as the most influential artist and composer (with Berlioz, Wagner) of the so-called New German School. His immense musical oeuvre comprises, above all else, works for solo piano, including numerous transcriptions; he also devised the symphonic poem. Important, too, are his sacred and secular choral works and songs.
| 1811 | Born in Doborján/Raiding (Sopron) on October 22, son of an official in the service of Prince Esterházy. First piano lessons from his father, early first attempts at composition, first public performance at age nine. |
| 1822 | Relocation of the family to Vienna, studies with Carl Czerny and Antonio Salieri. |
| 1823 | Relocation of the family to Paris. Composition studies with Ferdinando Paër and Antonín Reicha (1826). Performances in salons, concerts. |
| 1824–27 | Concert tours through France, to England and Switzerland. Composition of opera paraphrases for piano. |
| 1830 | Acquaintance with Berlioz, self-study by reading. He becomes Parisian society’sfavourite pianist and piano teacher. |
| 1835 | He moves to Switzerland with Countess Marie d’Agoult: their first child together, Blandine-Rachel, is born here. He continues concertizing in Paris. |
| from 1839 | Continuous concert tours throughout Europe. |
| from 1847 | Symphonic poems, including No. 2, “Tasso: lamento e trionfo”; No. 1, “Ce qu‘on entend sur la montagne” (‘Bergsymphonie,’ ‘Mountain Symphony’); “A Faust Symphony in Three Character Pictures”; “A Symphony to Dante’s Divine Comedy” (‘Dante Symphony’); as well as [No. 11], “Hunnenschlacht” (“Battle of the Huns”). |
| 1848–61 | Kapellmeister in Weimar; he advocates for progressive music (Wagner, Schumann, Berlioz). |
| 1857–62 | Oratorio, “The Legend of St. Elisabeth.” |
| 1861–68 | Resident in Rome. |
| 1865 | Takes minor holy orders. |
| 1866–72 | Oratorio, “Christus.” |
| 1871 | Appointed Hungarian court councilor; he lives in Rome, Weimar, and Budapest. |
| 1886 | Death in Bayreuth on July 31. |
About the Authors
Mária Eckhardt (Preface)
Mária Eckhardt, born in 1943 in Budapest, studied at the Budapest Academy of Music (Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, today University of Music), and in 1966 she graduated with a diploma in choral conducting and teaching music. After holding different posts at the Hungarian National Library Széchényi and at the Institute for Musicology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences she worked at the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Centre of the Liszt Academy of Music, of which she was Head between 1986 and 2009.
Eckhardt has been awarded numerous prizes for her Liszt research, in Hungary, and also in Europe and the US. Alongside Franz Liszt, her main research interests include the musical life of the 19th century and Hungary’s musical history.
Claudio Arrau (Introduction)
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