PIANO MUSIC - Abeille Musique

famous octave leaps from the piano. This exchange is
followed by a short cadenza in C major whose opening is
also structurally relevant. Two further exchanges present
the opening motif with an accompaniment of repeated
chords, and the piano’s answer and arpeggio leading into
a lyrical phrase. This is taken up by the clarinet and
produces the transition to the second subject proper—a
falling phrase in C minor. The development immediately
combines the clarinet phrase with the first motif, and leads
to a tutti on the first theme and a piano/orchestra
combination of that motif in descending chromatic octaves
against a version of the clarinet arpeggio. The recapitulation
is much truncated—it begins with the piano
cadenza now in F sharp major, and the second subject
does not return—and the coda again combines the two
motifs, ending enharmonically in D sharp major, making
the move to B major for the second part look less unusual.
The theme of the miniature slow movement 2 has two
main phrases, one rising, one falling, which are developed
separately. The second generates the central recitative
which yields to a new theme from the flute over the piano
trill, and the first theme returns briefly to effect the
transition to the scherzo 3 in E flat minor, whose motifs
derive from the second subject of the first movement and
the second phrase of the theme of the slow movement.
After the scherzo, a brief cadenza reintroduces material
from the first movement, adding the flute theme from the
slow movement, all designed to introduce the finale 4.
This march returns us to E flat major, and it is based on
the first phrase of the slow movement alternating with a
version of the second subject of the first movement. The
recitative of the second movement is then recalled in an
exchange between bassoons, trombones and lower strings
and the piano, and the music moves to B major for a
second theme—derived from the slow movement flute
melody. After a variation on the march theme, a new
6
theme appears—a transformation of the scherzo—in
E minor, but leading to a variation in E flat major, and
thence to the coda, which is largely and ingeniously
transformed from first movement material.
After the final revisions were complete, Liszt issued his
Ruins of Athens Fantasy in three versions, whose texts
run parallel bar-for-bar, and dedicated all of them to
Nikolay Rubinstein: the versions are for solo piano
(S389—see Vol 18 of this series), two pianos (S649) and
piano and orchestra. Liszt’s earlier Capriccio alla turca
(S388, also in Vol 18) provided much of the material,
although texturally considerably altered, and the recently
published transcription of the Marsch und Chor (No 6 in
Beethoven’s incidental music, Opus 113)—under the
title of Fantasie über Motive aus Beethovens Ruinen von
Athen, first version (S388b—see Vol 44)—supplied the
basis for the new beginning. In the version with orchestra,
Liszt is happy to have the piano remain silent for the whole
introduction 5, and he then introduces the soloist with a
mighty outburst 6, and the theme of the introduction
gives way to that of the Dervishes’ Chorus (Beethoven’s
No 3), in which the orchestra gradually joins. The final
section 7 is based on the famous Turkish March
(Beethoven’s No 4) which Liszt introduces in a very gentle
way, little by little increasing the orchestration, the volume
and the tempo, finally reaching a coda in which the other
themes reappear. For some inscrutable reason, this excellent
work is almost never encountered in concert, a fate which
seems to have befallen Beethoven’s original, too.
Plainsong themes were important to Liszt, both for
reasons of his faith and because of their intrinsic musical
value, and whilst one might expect to encounter them
more often in the works of his Roman period in the 1860s,
they feature over the whole range of his composing life,
and notably in two of the titles recorded here. Unlike
Berlioz, who had already employed two phrases of the Dies