Piano Sonata (Liszt)

Piano Sonata (Liszt)

The Piano Sonata in B minor ( _de. Klaviersonate h-Moll), S.178, is a musical composition for solo piano by Franz Liszt.

Background

The Sonata was composed in 1852-1853, and first performed on January 27, 1857 in Berlin by Liszt's pupil and son-in-law, Hans von Bülow. It was attacked by conservative critics such as Eduard Hanslick, Brahms (who reputedly fell asleep during Liszt's performance of the work at their first meeting), and the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. However, the sonata drew an enthusiastic compliment from Richard Wagner.cite album-notes |first=Humphrey |last=Searle |title=Franz Liszt, Sonate h-moll |bandname=Daniel Barenboim |publisher=Deutsche Grammophon |publisherid=2531-271] The German newspaper "Nationalzeitung" referred to it as "an invitation to hissing and stomping". [Letter No.216 from [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/1lofl10.txt Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 1] ] The sonata was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854. It was dedicated to Robert Schumann, in return for Schumann's dedication of his "Fantasia in C", Op.17 (1836) to Liszt. [Letter No.171 from [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/1lofl10.txt Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 1] ]

Composition

The sonata is notable for being constructed from a small number of motivic elements that are woven into an enormous musical architecture. The motivic units undergo thematic transformation throughout the work to suit the musical context of the moment. The symbolic meaning of the motivic confrontation is subject not only of scholarly discourse. A theme that in one context sounds menacing and even violent, is then transformed into a beautiful melody. [This is Liszt's modified version of Berlioz's "idée fixe", which Liszt referred to as the cyclical system. This is the basis not only for the Sonata, but also Liszt's major orchestral works.] This technique helps to bind the sonata's sprawling structure into a single cohesive unit, although the architectural powers of the musician need to be highly developed to achieve this in performance.Fact|date=June 2007

Broadly speaking, the Sonata has four movements although there is no gap between them. Superimposed upon the four movements is a large sonata form structure, although the precise beginnings and endings of the traditional development and recapitulation sections has long been a topic of debate. Most analystsWho|date=June 2007 agree that the development begins roughly with the slow section and the recapitulation with the scherzo fugue. In using this structure, Liszt was influenced by Franz Schubert's "Wanderer Fantasie",Fact|date=June 2007 a work he greatly admired, performed often and arranged for piano and orchestra. Schubert used the same limited number of musical elements to create a broad four movement work, and used a fugal 4th movement. Already in 1851 Liszt experimented with a nonprogrammatic "four-movements-in-one" form in an extended work for piano solo called "Grosses Concert-Solo". This piece, which in 1865 was published as a two-piano version under the title "Concerto pathétique", shows a thematic relationship to both the "Sonata" and the later Faust Symphony.

The quiet ending of the sonata may have been an afterthought; the original manuscript which is available in the The Morgan Library & Museum [ [http://corsair.morganlibrary.org/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?SC=Title&SEQ=20070618114057&PID=R6mHtQr3Tr6ZYLAgQ3CU3LrLvDo&SA=Grande+Sonate+/+pour+le+Pianoforte+/+par+/+F.+Liszt+/+Termine%CC%81+le+/+2+Fevrier+1853 The Online Catalogue of Piermont Morgan Library] ] in New York City, contains a crossed-out ending section which would have ended the work loudly instead.Alan Walker, "Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years, 1848–1861", Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989, page 156. This is in the middle of an extensive analysis of the sonata, pp. 149–157.)]

References

Sources

Szasz, Tibor. “Liszt’s Symbols for the Divine and Diabolical: Their Revelation of a Program in the B Minor Sonata.” Journal of the American Liszt Society, 15 (1984): 39-95.

External links

*
* [http://kreusch-sheet-music.net/eng/?page=show&query=Piano%20Sonata%20in%20b%20minor%20by%20Franz%20Liszt&order=op www.kreusch-sheet-music.net] - Free Score
* [http://www.superopera.com/sLiszt/SLiszt.htm Recording of this Sonata by Alberto Cobo]
* [http://www.serg.vangennip.com/www/piano.html Recordings of this Sonata by Serg van Gennip]
* [http://tiborszasz.de/en/gen/content/arbeiten Attempts to decifer the symbolic content]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Piano Sonata No. 1 — is the default title for a composers first (or only) piano sonata. It may refer to: * Piano Sonata (Bartók), Sz. 80, by Béla Bartók * Piano Sonata No. 1 (Beethoven), Op. 2, No. 1, by Ludwig van Beethoven * Piano Sonata No. 1 (Boulez), 1946, by… …   Wikipedia

  • Piano Sonata No. 1 (Rachmaninoff) — Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 28, is a piano sonata in D minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff, completed in 1908.cite book |last=Norris |first=Geoffrey |title=The Master Musicians: Rachmaninoff |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=aPc2AAAACAAJ |year=1993… …   Wikipedia

  • Piano Sonata in B-Flat minor — was written by Julius Reubke from December 1856 to March 1857. Although little known, especially compared to Reubke s Sonata on the 94th Psalm for organ, the work is a masterpiece and brilliantly combines Liszt s then new technique of thematic… …   Wikipedia

  • Piano sonata — A piano sonata is a sonata written for unaccompanied piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although occasionally there are just one or two movements. The first movement is usually composed in sonata form. The… …   Wikipedia

  • Sonate pour piano de Liszt — Sonate pour piano en si mineur de Liszt Une des pages du manuscrit original de la sonate. La Sonate pour piano en si mineur est une œuvre pour piano seul, dans la forme sonate, du compositeur Franz Liszt. La pièce est dédiée à Robert Schumann.… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Sonata — (From Latin and Italian sonare , to sound ), in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian cantare , to sing ), a piece sung . The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music,… …   Wikipedia

  • Sonata en si menor (Liszt) — Una de las páginas del manuscrito original de la Sonata en Si menor. La Sonata para piano en si menor, S.178, es una composición musical para piano solo escrita por Franz Liszt. Está considerada como una de las más grandes piezas para piano y… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Piano Concerto No. 2 (Liszt) — Franz Liszt wrote drafts for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A Major, S.125, during his virtuoso period, in 1839 to 1840. He then put away the manuscript for a decade. When he returned to the concerto, he revised and scrutinized it… …   Wikipedia

  • sonata — /seuh nah teuh/, n. Music. a composition for one or two instruments, typically in three or four movements in contrasted forms and keys. [1685 95; < It < L sonata, fem. of sonatus (ptp. of sonare to SOUND1). See SONANT, ATE1] * * * I Musical form… …   Universalium

  • Sonata — Para la forma detallada del primer tiempo de la sonata clásica, véase forma sonata. Para el modelo de automóvil, véase Hyundai Sonata. Sonata es el nombre dado a distintas formas musicales, empleadas desde el período barroco hasta las… …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”