PIANO MUSIC - Abeille Musique

version the waltz is preceded by Der Nächtliche Zug (The
Nocturnal Procession) and the whole work is called Two
Episodes from Lenau’s ‘Faust’. Unlike the piano duet
version, which is a straight forward transcription of the
orchestral work, the solo version is really quite an
independent piece. It is not known when Liszt wrote the
two extra passages, but this was certainly a habit of his
later years when, probably whilst teaching his music to
aspiring pianists, he made a good many slight additions
and alterations to the published versions—which, happily,
may be consulted in the Neue Liszt-Ausgabe.
The Mephisto Waltz No 1 (piano version) is dedicated to
Karl Tausig; the Mephisto Waltz No 2, in both the
concurrently written piano and orchestral versions, is
dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns. The second waltz begins,
and dares to end, with the unresolved interval of a
tritone—the familiar diabolus in musica, whilst the piece
proper is, for all its spiky dissonance, firmly in E flat until
the expected climax is shattered by the return of the B–F
interval, and the piece ends unmistakably and
disconcertingly on B, rather than in B! Anticipations of the
harmonic world of Busoni, Skryabin or Bartók continue in
the Mephisto Waltz No 3 (which, like its successor, exists
only as a solo piano piece). Like its companions, it has the
devil dancing a waltz where the groups of three move by so
quickly that a larger rhythm of four is established, and
indeed the third waltz abandons all reference to triple time
in the dreamlike passage towards the end. Tonally, the
piece is constantly pulled between F sharp major, D minor
and D sharp minor.
The reference to the Faust legend is maintained
throughout all of the Mephisto music, but the seventyyear-old
Liszt’s Mephistopheles is a grimmer, more
unrelenting figure than that of the Faust Symphony or the
Mephisto Waltz No 1. The Bagatelle sans tonalité (what
a title, in 1885!) and the Mephisto Waltz No 4 remained
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unpublished for eighty years. It’s not certain exactly when
the Bagatelle was written, but since it bears (confusingly)
the title of Fourth Mephisto Waltz it must postdate the
Third. Whilst the piece is not especially dissonant, it is
certainly very wayward in any kind of feeling for a tonal
centre and ends with an upward-rushing set of diminished
sevenths. The piece for which the title Mephisto Waltz No 4
is nowadays exclusively reserved resembles the second in
its possession of an introduction and coda which defy the
basic key. Here the piece is in D, but begins and ends on C
sharp. This similarity was an encouragement, when
completing the sketches for the contrasting section, to
refer to the main material during the Andantino, and to
recapitulate a portion of the Allegro before Liszt’s coda.
The four Valses oubliées are all wistful late works and,
as their marvellous title suggests, conjure up images of
times and joys past. Although they are as modern in their
harmonic style as the late Mephisto music, they speak in a
much gentler language. The first was an immediate
success, and has remained so. Liszt had it reprinted
shortly afterwards with the second, which refers nostalgically
to a passage from the Valse de bravoure, and the
third, with its almost impressionistic colourings and
repeated chords. The fourth became almost permanently
‘oubliée’ and the first publication was not until 1954. Like
many of the visionary pieces of Liszt’s last years, the
ending is enigmatic: a beautiful irresolution of a striving
dominant seventh over the immovable keynote.
LESLIE HOWARD © 1986
Recorded on 24–25 October 1985
Recording Engineer ANTONY HOWELL
Recording Producer MARTIN COMPTON
Executive Producer EDWARD PERRY
P & C Hyperion Records Limited, London, MCMLXXXVI
Front illustration: A Scene from El hechizado por fuerza
(The Forcibly Bewitched) by Francisco de Goya (1746–1828)