PIANO MUSIC - Abeille Musique

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine : Domine exaudi vocem
meam.
Fiant aures tuae intendentes : in vocem deprecationis meae.
After a restatement of the psalm by piano and winds a long
development section ensues in which the psalm rhythm
is often applied to the accompaniment of the opening
material, culminating in a close with four mighty E flats
from the depths of the piano. The slow movement begins
with a piano cadenza bl for which some of the material of
the very first cadenza provides the springboard, but which
is interspersed with phrases of the psalm, now in A flat
major. Finally a new melody of disarming beauty emerges,
clearly derived from the psalm, and at the end of the
cadenza this is taken up by divided strings and piano.
After a full close comes the scherzo in the style of a
polonaise bm—except that it keeps sidestepping the
traditional for passages in . The form of this section is:
polonaise; episode in ; trio melody in A major; polonaise
first variation; episode first variation; brief quotation of
psalm theme; trio first variation in B flat minor/major;
truncated polonaise second variation; episode second
variation; trio second variation in D flat major; development
of polonaise with psalm rhythm and main material
leading to the recapitulation proper bn. This section is
greatly telescoped, and we arrive quickly at the reprise of
the psalm theme from the full orchestra, thence into a
modulatory episode (with the soloist) which emerges in
D major, with the concluding march bo. As we have seen,
the march takes the slow movement melody as its basis,
but after its mightiest statement it subsides over a timpani
roll to the concluding phrases which combine fragments
of the psalm with the march rhythm to end the work with
a quieter confidence.
We encounter the ‘symphonique’ epithet again in
the Franz Schubert: Grosse Fantasie opus 15—
symphonisch bearbeitet für Piano und Orchester—
8
Liszt’s beloved ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy in his transcription
which was for many years extremely popular, and which,
frankly, lies much easier under the hands than Schubert’s
original. Apart from the tiny cadenza which forms the
transition to the E flat section of the first movement, Liszt
adheres scrupulously to Schubert’s work, very rarely
allowing himself very much in the way of decoration, let
alone succumbing to the easy chance of adding counterthemes.
(This version is not to be confused with Liszt’s
later reworking of the piece for solo piano, S565a—
Volume 49—but it does equate with Liszt’s published
reduction for two pianos, S653.)
In the first section bp, Liszt lets the orchestra speak
first, and the piano enters only with the second, quiet
statement of the principal theme. Liszt takes various
melodic fragments into the orchestra—often as woodwind
solos—and gives some of Schubert’s repeated
chords over to the orchestra altogether. The slow movement
bq is left to the piano to begin, the orchestra entering
where Schubert’s left-hand tremolo is now taken up by
both hands on the piano whilst the thematic material is
passed to a dialogue between wind and strings. In the
variation with the filigree writing in the right hand Liszt
restores Schubert’s theme in the winds and in the left
hand, where Schubert’s original merely hints at it, and he
allows the whole orchestra to join in Schubert’s mighty
climax. Exchanging phrases between piano and orchestra
is Liszt’s starting point for the arrangement of the scherzo
br and the fugal exposition of the finale bs is left to the
piano, with the orchestra joining gradually thereafter in
a nicely calculated crescendo. Throughout the piece,
Schubert’s more extreme demands are modified: the
octaves at the end of the first movement, the terrible leaps
to the right-hand arpeggios at the end of the scherzo, and
the final page of arpeggios in both hands which so often
brings disaster in concert are entirely avoided, these last