PIANO MUSIC - Abeille Musique

Further variant versions of waltzes follow: the Vierter Mephisto-Walzer © 0 is given here as
originally drafted before Liszt sketched the interpolated Andantino (Volume 1), whereas the
version of the Valse-Impromptu recorded here (©OD - compare again with Volume 1) includes
various added passages which Liszt passed to his pupils in his last years - which were notated for
the Liszt-Pedagögium by August Riesenauer.
The first disc concludes with the unpublished Variations sur Le Carnaval de Venise © El
whose theme probably came to Liszt via Paganini, although the melody was long in circulation
before Paganini employed it. We have some circumstantial evidence in a Liszt letter to suggest
that the piece was written in 1843, but the only extant manuscript is in a copyist's hand (Eduard
Lassen?) and therefore dates the copy itself probably in the later years of Liszt's life. But the date
is not so important; the piece is really an artless little study, with some gentle humour at the
theme's expense, including a tantalizing five-note reprise of the theme after the final chord and
double bar, as if the variations could begin again or go on for ever.
Liszt arranged ail thirteen of his symphonie poems for piano duet, and ail but the last one for two
pianos, whereas he arranged the last one for piano solo (Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe - see
Volume 25). The other twelve works were all published for solo piano with Liszt's blessing, and
on occasion his collaboration. In the case of Les Préludes (Volume 38) his part in the
proceedings was publicly acknowledged from the beginning - the arrangement having been
originally made in 1865 by Karl Klauser and published with Liszt's additions and altérations the
following year. With Hungaria © • Liszt made his altérations to a copy of the already published
transcription by Friedrich Spiro, and marked it up fully for the engraver to make a second
édition, in which his own additional work would be acknowledged. Sadly, this édition was never
published, and the holograph remains in Weimar. The work lies well for solo piano since it was
based on a piano piece: the Heroischer Marsch im ungarischen Styl (Volume 28). Liszt had
prepared an orchestral version of that march, intending it to be published by Schlesinger, but for
some reason the score remained in manuscript. The symphonie poem is more than twice the
length of the original piece, and the second subject of the earlier work is adapted to 4 / 4 tiine from
the original 6 / 8. There are many new ideas and a much broader dramatic canvas, and several
specifically Hungarian elements are added.
The Hungarian element is maintained with a further version of the Rakóczi-Marsch (D 0, in this
case the so-called simplified version of the transcription of the orchestral version. (The
unsimplified version is in Volume 28; other versions are to be found in Volumes 27, 29, 35, 51,
56 and 57.)
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