PIANO MUSIC - Abeille Musique

appreciate that the storm outside is already remote from
the nun who prays to be taken up to heaven, and the
peaceful bell rings from the very beginning. The
transcription is one of Liszt’s finest, and he even makes a
modest suggestion of an improvement to the last line of
Schubert’s melody, lifting a line from the accompaniment
to the top, thus irradiating the final ‘Alleluia’.
As we have already observed, the present version of
Frühlingsglaube (‘Spring Faith’, D686c) differs from the
earlier edition only insofar as it does not contain an
alternative text for the second verse (see Volume 32). The
acceptance of inevitability is encompassed in this most
tranquil music, with Liszt allowing himself the most
unassuming cadenza at the climax. In Gretchen am
Spinnrade (‘Gretchen at the spinning-wheel’, D118), the
agitated song of a love-struck girl who fears to lose her
reason on account of her passion, Liszt develops the
accompaniment pattern to a symphonic torrent of notes
perhaps in imitation of the effect of a well-sung
performance of this song. Ständchen von Shakespeare
(‘Serenade by Shakespeare’, D889) is usually so called to
distinguish it from that other famous serenade in
Schwanengesang. This song is a free translation by
Schlegel of Shakespeare’s song ‘Hark, hark! the lark at
heaven’s gate sings’ (Cymbeline, Act II, Scene III) with two
extra verses by Friedrich Reil. Liszt contents himself with
two verses—with the text laid over the music, as was his
almost invariable custom with song transcriptions—
treating the second as a variation of some virtuosity.
The pity of Rastlose Liebe (‘Restless love’, D138a),
both as song and transcription, is that it is so short. But
there is no doubt that Schubert perfectly captures the
unsettled cry of the poet that love brings pain and joy
inextricable one from the other. Liszt adds to the music’s
innate recklessness with the trickiest of leaps about the
keyboard. Der Wanderer, D489c, was a very important
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