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Piano Sonata in B minor (Liszt)

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Piano Sonata
by Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt portrait, 1856
KeyB minor
CatalogueS.178
Composed1842 (1842)–1853
DedicationRobert Schumann
Performed27 January 1857 (1857-01-27): Berlin
Published1854 (1854)
Duration30 min.
Movements1

The Piano Sonata in B minor (German: Klaviersonate h-moll), S.178, is a single movement piano sonata by Franz Liszt. Liszt completed the work during his time in Weimar, Germany in 1853, a year before it was published in 1854 and performed in 1857. He dedicated the piece to Robert Schumann, in return for Schumann's dedication to Liszt in his Fantasie in C major, Op. 17. A typical performance of this piece lasts around 30 minutes.[1]

History

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Liszt noted on the sonata's manuscript that it was completed on 2 February 1853,[2] but he had composed an earlier version by 1849.[3][4] At this point in his life, Liszt's career as a traveling virtuoso had almost entirely subsided, as Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein had influenced him to concentrate on composing rather than performing.[5] Liszt settled in Weimar in 1848 where he devoted to composition,[6] and live a comfortable lifestyle, composing, and occasionally performing, entirely by choice rather than necessity.[citation needed]

The Sonata was dedicated to Robert Schumann, in return for Schumann's dedication of his Fantasie in C major, Op.17 (published 1839) to Liszt.[7] A copy of the work arrived at Schumann's house in May 1854, after he had entered Endenich sanatorium. Pianist and composer Clara Schumann did not perform the Sonata despite her marriage to Robert Schumann; according to scholar Alan Walker she found it "merely a blind noise".[8]

Music

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Sonata in B Minor
Performed by Jorge Bolet
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No other work of Liszt's has attracted anywhere near the amount of scholarly attention paid to the Sonata in B minor. It has provoked a wide range of divergent theories from those of its admirers who feel compelled to search for hidden meanings. Possibilities include the following:[9]

  • The Sonata is a musical portrait of the Faust legend, with "Faust," "Gretchen," and "Mephistopheles" themes symbolizing the main characters.[10][11]
  • The Sonata is autobiographical; its musical contrasts spring from the conflicts within Liszt's own personality.[12][citation not found][13]
  • The Sonata is about the divine and the diabolical; it is based on the Bible and on John Milton's Paradise Lost.[14]
  • The Sonata is an allegory set in the Garden of Eden; it deals with the Fall of Man and contains "God," "Lucifer," "Serpent," "Adam," and "Eve" themes.[15]
  • The Sonata has no programmatic allusions; it is a piece of "expressive form" with no meaning beyond itself.[16]

The complexity of the sonata means no analytical interpretation has been widely accepted.[17] Some analyses suggest that the Sonata has four movements,[18] although there is no gap between them. Superimposed upon the four movements is a large sonata form structure,[19] although the precise beginnings and endings of the traditional development and recapitulation sections have long been a topic of debate. Others claim a three-movement form,[20] an extended one-movement sonata form,[17] and a rotational three-movement work with a double exposition and recapitulation.[21]

Analysis

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The opening of Liszt Sonata in B minor, with the first theme marked Lento assai and the second theme marked Allegro energico

An average performance of the sonata lasts approximately 30 minutes.[1] While its distinct movements: allegro, adagio, scherzo and finale, are combined into one, the entire work is encompassed within an overarching sonata form — exposition, development, and recapitulation.[19] Liszt effectively composed a sonata within a sonata, which is part of the work's uniqueness, and he was economical with his thematic material.[17] The first page contains three motive ideas that provide the basis for nearly all that follows, with the ideas being transformed throughout.

The marcato motif in the sonata

The first theme is a descending scale marked Lento assai; full of ominous undertow. It reappears at crucial points in the work's structure, especially in the coda.[22] After the first theme, the time signature changes from 4
4 to Alla breve, and the second theme marked Allegro energico, consisting of a jagged, forceful motif in octaves, is introduced.[23] This is quickly followed by the third theme, which Liszt characterize as Hammerschlag ('hammer-blow') to describe the single note repetition in the theme.[24] A dialogue ensues, with mounting energy, until reaching the noble Grandioso material in D major. Liszt transforms the "hammer-blow" motif into a lyrical melody later in the piece.[25] The slow movement, an Andante sostenuto in F-sharp major, is the centerpiece of the Sonata. This fully-fledged movement, in compound ternary form, features, in quick succession, a number of themes heard earlier in the Sonata in a tour de force of thematic economy.[26]

Page 25 of the manuscript. The large section crossed out in red contains the original loud ending.

The final recapitulatory section is launched by a driving fugato of contrapuntal skill which leads to the compressed return of the opening material. Calling upon every intellectual resource and fully exploiting the pianist's technical arsenal, it is at this point where a performer's concentration might wane. Each of the sections are examples of Classical forms, which means that this piece is one of the first instances of Double-function form, a musical piece which has two classical forms happening at the same time; one containing others. Already in 1851 Liszt experimented with a non-programmatic "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.[27] Walker claims the quiet ending of the Sonata was an afterthought; the original manuscript contains a crossed-out ending section which would have ended the work in a loud flourish instead.[7]


Reception

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The Sonata was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854[28] and first performed on 27 January 1857 in Berlin[29] by Hans von Bülow.[30] It was attacked by Eduard Hanslick who said "anyone who has heard it and finds it beautiful is beyond help".[31] Johannes Brahms reputedly fell asleep when Liszt performed the work in 1853,[32] and it was also criticized by the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein.[citation needed] However, the Sonata drew enthusiasm from Richard Wagner following a private performance of the piece by Karl Klindworth on April 5, 1855.[33] Otto Gumprecht of the German newspaper Nationalzeitung referred to it as "an invitation to hissing and stomping".[34] It took a long time for the Sonata to become commonplace in concert repertoire because of its technical difficulty and negative initial reception due to its status as "new" music. However by the early stages of the twentieth century, the piece had become established as a pinnacle of Liszt's repertoire and has been a popularly performed and extensively analyzed piece ever since.[35]

Arrangements

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Camille Saint-Saëns, a close friend of Liszt, made a two-piano arrangement of the Sonata in 1914, but it was never published in his lifetime because of rights issues. It was first published in 2004 by Édition Durand in Paris, edited by Sabrina Teller Ratner. According to a letter from Saint-Saëns to Jacques Durand, dated 23 August 1914, the two-piano arrangement was something that Liszt had announced but never realized.[36]

Leó Weiner made an orchestral arrangement of the Sonata in 1955. The arrangement has not been published and exists only in manuscript form. It was recorded in 2006 by the orchestra of Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar with Nicolás Pasquet conducting,[37] and in 2009 by the North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra under László Kovács [hu] for the label Hungaroton.

Heinz Roemheld orchestrated the Sonata which is heard on some 1930s movies, including The Black Cat (1934), starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, The Raven (1935), as well as the Flash Gordon serials (1936) (Chapters 6–13), Werewolf of London (1936), and Mars Attacks the World (1938).[citation needed]

There is an orchestrated excerpt version of the Sonata in the 1952 film Hans Christian Andersen starring Danny Kaye where the ballet scene for "The Little Mermaid" is danced near the end of the film.

An orchestrated version of the lyrical parts of the Sonata appears in the 1960 Hollywood film of Liszt's life called Song Without End.

Frederick Ashton used the Sonata for his 1963 ballet Marguerite and Armand, created for Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, based on "The Lady of the Camellias" by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The original performances used an orchestral transcription of the Sonata by Humphrey Searle.[38] In 1968 the Royal Ballet commissioned a new arrangement, by Gordon Jacob.[39]

An organ transcription of the Sonata was made in 1984 by Bernhard Haas.[40] Other transcriptions for organ includes one by Nathan Laube, which was performed in 2022.[41]

There is also a transcription of the Sonata for solo cello made by cellist Johann Sebastian Paetsch in 2013. This has been published by the Hofmeister Musikverlag in Leipzig.[42]

Recordings

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The Sonata is considered a standard of the piano repertoire.[43] Recordings include performances by Nicholas Angelich, Martha Argerich, Claudio Arrau, Emanuel Ax, Jorge Bolet, Khatia Buniatishvili, Leon Fleisher, Emil Gilels, Hélène Grimaud, Vladimir Horowitz, Paul Lewis, Maurizio Pollini, Sviatoslav Richter, Arthur Rubinstein, Van Cliburn, Yundi Li, Daniil Trifonov, Tamás Vásáry, Yuja Wang, André Watts, Krystian Zimerman, Benjamin Grosvenor, Kenneth Hamilton, Sophia Agranovich, Seong-Jin Cho and Igor Levit.

References

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  1. ^ a b Young 2009, p. 18
  2. ^ Walker 1989, p. 150
  3. ^ Gerard Carter, Martin Adler: Liszt Piano Sonata Monographs. Franz Liszt's Precursor Sonata of 1849: a trial run in the Master's inner circle. Wensleydale Press, Sydney, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8442-0842-9.
  4. ^ Mária Eckhardt, preface to Klaviersonate h-moll. Faksimile der Handschrift. Henle, München, revised edition 2015.
  5. ^ Pesce, Eckhardt & Mueller 2001
  6. ^ Hamilton 1996, p. 1.
  7. ^ a b Walker 1989, p. 156
  8. ^ Walker 1989, pp. 156–57
  9. ^ Walker 1989, p. 150
  10. ^ Ott 1981
  11. ^ Whitelaw 2017
  12. ^ Raabe 1931
  13. ^ Brown 2003, p. 7
  14. ^ Szász 1984
  15. ^ Brown 2003, p. 6
  16. ^ Winklhofer 1980
  17. ^ a b c Searle 1985, p. 275
  18. ^ Newman 1972, p. 375
  19. ^ a b Rosen 1995, p. 480
  20. ^ Longyear 1973
  21. ^ Whitelaw 2017
  22. ^ Pesce, Eckhardt & Mueller 2001
  23. ^ Young 2009, p. 20
  24. ^ Hamilton 1996, p. 35
  25. ^ Rosen 1995, p. 481
  26. ^ Walker 1989, p. 154
  27. ^ Whitelaw 2017
  28. ^ Hamilton 1996, p. 58
  29. ^ Walker 1989, p. 157
  30. ^ Walker 1989, p. 413
  31. ^ Hamilton 1996, p. ix (preface)
  32. ^ Walker 1989, p. 229
  33. ^ Hamilton 1996, p. 69
  34. ^ Hamilton 1996, p. 70
  35. ^ Hamilton 1996, p. x (preface)
  36. ^ Paris: Édition Durand, 2004. Plate D.& F.15316.
    "J'ai envie de faire aussi un arrangement de la Sonate de Liszt pour deux pianos, arrangement annoncé et jamais réalisé par l'auteur."
  37. ^ Cologne: Avi-Service, 2008. LC 15080 (booklet)
  38. ^ Nureyev: Marguerite and Armand
  39. ^ "Marguerite and Armand", Royal Opera House performance database. Retrieved 16 January 2021
  40. ^ Audite, label No. Audite20.009
  41. ^ Maddocks, Fiona (2022-09-03). "The week in classical: The Dream of Gerontius, Bach's Mass in B minor and Nathan Laube at the Proms". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
  42. ^ Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister Verlag, FH 2487, Sonate in h-moll, 2014, (Editor/Arranger – Johann Sebastian Paetsch), ISMN: 9790203424871
  43. ^ Rosen 1995, p. 480

Bibliography

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