About the Transcriptions. Liszt as a Pianist

Transcription

1 Liszt s Pinist It is diffiult to ppreite the enormous impt Liszt hd on the development of pino plying His expnsion of the then tehnil demnds mde on the performer still hllenges the est virtuosos of tody Even now, ertin works of his omposed during his yers of touring ontin pssges tht order on the unplyle Liszt developed new stndrds for the reitl s suh, nd fored pino mnufturers to model their instruments so s to keep pe with his tehnil demnds He ws the first pino virtuoso to perform in profile to his udiene, for until then it hd een ustomry for plyers to fe the udiene His onerts, espeilly during his touring yers, generted hysteri similr to tht of modern rok onert Leding musiins of his dy were uniform in their prises Even Chopin, who ws often ustilly ritil of other pinists, wrote, Liszt is plying my études, nd trnsporting me outside my respetle thoughts I should like to stel from him the wy to ply my own études! Clr Wiek (89 896), who ws lter to eome the foremost womn pinist of her time nd the wife of Roert Shumnn (80 86), wrote, Liszt plyed t sight wht we toil over nd t the end get nowhere with Besides Liszt, other virtuosos pper so smll! 6 Sir Chrles Hllé (89 89), n English pinist nd ondutor, wrote, For him there were no diffiulties of exeution, the most inredile seeming hild s ply under his fingers The power he drew from his instrument ws suh s I hve never herd sine, ut never hrsh, never suggesting thumping 7 Although there re differing ounts of the size of Liszt s hnds, Crl Lhmund (8 98), pupil of Liszt s from 88 8, stted tht Liszt ommented t lesson, The puli redits me with hving very lrge hnd, ut you see I n ust streth this 0th to ply it quietly 8 On this topi, the Amerin pinist Amy Fy ommented, His hnds re very nrrow, with long nd slender fingers tht look s if they hve twie s mny oints s other people s They re so flexile nd supple tht it mkes you nervous to look t them 9 Aout the Trnsriptions The trnsription ws enormously populr during the 9th entury Liszt, in ddition to eing one of tht entury s most originl omposers, ws trnsrier of genius, not only of the musi of others, ut of his own ompositions s well He lter wrote tht he ws the first to desrie nd differentite etween suh ompositions s trnsriptions nd prphrses For Liszt, trnsription hd to remin very lose to the originl soure, wheres prphrse ould disply muh more freedom, with the rrnger eing llowed fr greter rnge of modifitions to the originl Unfortuntely, during the erly yers of the 0th entury, with n inresing onern mong musiologists for unedited Urtext originl sores, the trnsription s n rt form eme something of dirty word mong musil purists Any musil omposition tht ltered the omposer s originl text ws onsidered inferior nd rude Yet, s the eminent Liszt sholr Aln Wlker ( 90) hs pointed out, There is purely musil defense of rrngements tht is so simple noody ever thinks of it You nnot tell, simply y listening, whih is the rrngement nd whih is the originl If the rrngements relly were lower form of musil tivity, why do they not revel themselves for wht they re from the moment they strt to sound 0 It is lso onveniently forgotten tht Johnn Sestin Bh (68 70) himself mde signifint numer of trnsriptions of musi y his ontemporries Fortuntely, the ill-informed, nrrow-minded htred of the purists for trnsriptions hs strongly eroded, so tht tody trnsriptions y suh figures s Ferruio Busoni (866 9), Igny Friedmn (88 98), Leopold Godowsky (870 98), Sergei Prokofiev (89 9), Sergei Rhmninoff (87 9), nd, of ourse, Liszt, re one more extremely vlued y oth performers nd the puli A signifint numer of Liszt s ompositions inluded in the present nthology re either trnsriptions or else served s the ses for lter trnsriptions y him Trnsriing ws in integrl prt of Liszt s retive tivity, nd demonstrted vitl nd unique prt of his musil genius Perhps no other omposer fter Liszt hs displyed suh mstery over the rt of trnsription! Hrold C Shonerg, The Gret Pinists s (New York: Simon nd Shuster, 96), p 6 Iid, p 9 7 Iid, p 9 8 Iid, p 68 9 Musi-Study in Germny, pp Aln Wlker, Liszt nd the Shuert Song Trnsriptions, Frnz Liszt: The Shuert Song Trnsriptions for Solo Pino Series III: The Complete Shwnengesng (Mineol, New York: Dover Pulitions, In, 999), p xiii 6

2 Aout the Piees in This Colletion Ehemls, from Weihnhtsum, S 86/0 Ehemls (Old Times) is one of set of piees under the title Christms Tree: pino piees for the most prt esy to ply Liszt wrote two versions, one for solo pino nd the other for one pino, four hnds He egn omposing them in 87 during the time he ws stying t the Vill d Este t Tivoli, ust outside Rome After further revisions, the two versions were pulished in 88 y Adolph Fürstner in Berlin The set is dedited to Dniel von Bülow, the dughter of Hns von Bülow, Liszt s fvorite pupil, nd Liszt s dughter Cosim Some of the set ontins rrngements of Christms rols Ehemls, however, is thought y mny to evoke the memory of Liszt s first meeting with Priness Crolyne Syn-Wittgenstein, who hd een Liszt s lover sine their meeting in the Ukrine in 87 Étude, Op 6, No 7; S 6/7 0 Aording to Liszt, the Études, Op 6, were written in 86, when he ws ge, then printed yer lter y the Frenh pulisher Boisselot in Mrseille s his first opus A susequent edition ppered round 88, whih ws printed in Leipzig y Hofmeister, this time s Liszt s Op 6 Liszt dedited the entire set to Lydie Grell Little is known of Grell exept tht she plyed duets on the pino with him, gve him ndy, nd ws hunhk In 87 nd 8, Liszt wrote two huge extended versions of of the Études in the Op 6 set No 7 eme the th Trnsendentl Étude entitled Hrmonies du soir (Evening Hrmonies) This inredile growth from the youthful works of Op 6 to the lter Trnsendentl Études is one of the most remrkle musil trnsformtions in the history of musi Ih liee dih, S (posth) Ih liee dih (I Love Thee) is nother of Liszt s mny trnsriptions It originlly ws song y Liszt, whih ws written in 87 nd set to words y Friedrih Rükert ( ) Liszt inluded the words in the pino sore The trnsltion is s follows: I love thee, euse I must; I love thee, euse I nnot do otherwise; I love thee, following Heven s ommnd; I love thee, ound y mgi spell I love thee, s the rose her lefy ush; I love thee, s the sun his right em; I love thee, euse thou rt my life s reth; I love thee, euse to love thee is my life 9

3 0 Étude Frnz Liszt (8 886) Op 6, No 7; S 6/7 Allegretto on molto espressione q = 96 n n n ( p) dole (sempre legto) n n n n n n n 6 n n n n w rit The metronome indition is y Liszt All inditions for slurs nd phrses re s in the originl

4 ƒ Mrhe de Rákózy Édition populire pour pino (Rákózy Mrh Populr Edition for Pino) Frnz Liszt (8 886) S / Allegro deiso ed energio ssi (q = 60 68) J S n J n n n n n n n n J J n n n n n n n n n ƒ sempre n 0 ( )

5 Six Consoltions 6 No in E Mor Frnz Liszt (8 886) S 7/ Andnte on moto (q = 9 96) ( p) dole n 7 Ó 0 Ó Ó

6 Ständhen (Serende) 8 Frnz Shuert (797 88) Trnsried y Frnz Liszt (8 886) S 60/7 6 Tempo ruto (q = 69 7) π (Pedle à hque mesure) gli ompgnmenti sempre stto e π π J P espressivo 6 (P) tre orde F J J tre orde Pedl t eh mesure The ompniment lwys stto nd pinissimo ( ) ( J ) un ord π π un orde J un ord