Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat
Franz Liszt (1811-86)
Allegro maestoso; Quasi adagio; Allegretto vivace/allegro animato; Allegro marziale animato
Sketches for this concerto go back to 1830. Franz Liszt worked on the score in the late 1840s and again in 1853. Still more revisions of detail followed the première, which took place at Weimar in 1855, the composer as soloist, Hector Berlioz conducting. With a gestation period of around 25 years, the concerto should have something special to offer, and it does.
Despite its brevity (about 20 minutes) it presents several innovations, some of which startle today but all of which must have seemed remarkable in 1855. The concerto comprises four movements rather than the usual three. The second, third and fourth movements are played without breaks between them. In many modern performances, the break between the first movement and the others is dispensed with as well, leaving a seamless flow of music free from distractions. The orchestra is of conventional size and composition for its period, but Liszt features one instrument with special favour, perhaps trying to make up for decades if not centuries of neglect: the triangle!
Perhaps the most unusual feature of the concerto is its form. As with Liszt’s tone poem, Les Préludes, listeners seeking to spot the hallmarks of conventional form in his First Piano Concerto might struggle. Liszt introduces a number of characterful melodies and motifs, then revisits them in all four movements, often furnishing them with new harmonies and character. Known as ‘metamorphosis’ or ‘transformation’, the technique predates Liszt by a long time. Examples can be found in the music of W.A. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Berlioz but, for the most part, those composers used it as an embellishment within familiar formal frameworks such as sonata form, rondo and scherzo. Liszt brings it centre stage, using ‘metamorphosis’ as the principal means of giving the work coherence. The result is a wonderfully rhapsodic stream of musical consciousness linked to pianistic virtuosity of the highest order.
The opening motif dominates. Liszt jocularly supplied some words for it. Loosely translated: (strings) ‘No-one here can understand!’ (woodwind) ‘Aha!!’ And maybe no-one can because this concerto has a reputation for being intellectually and expressively inferior to his Second Concerto and to his Piano Sonata in B minor. Some have even described it as vulgar. That is unfair and not borne out by history since it has become Liszt’s best known and best loved composition.
Franz Liszt (1811-86)
Allegro maestoso; Quasi adagio; Allegretto vivace/allegro animato; Allegro marziale animato
Sketches for this concerto go back to 1830. Franz Liszt worked on the score in the late 1840s and again in 1853. Still more revisions of detail followed the première, which took place at Weimar in 1855, the composer as soloist, Hector Berlioz conducting. With a gestation period of around 25 years, the concerto should have something special to offer, and it does.
Despite its brevity (about 20 minutes) it presents several innovations, some of which startle today but all of which must have seemed remarkable in 1855. The concerto comprises four movements rather than the usual three. The second, third and fourth movements are played without breaks between them. In many modern performances, the break between the first movement and the others is dispensed with as well, leaving a seamless flow of music free from distractions. The orchestra is of conventional size and composition for its period, but Liszt features one instrument with special favour, perhaps trying to make up for decades if not centuries of neglect: the triangle!
Perhaps the most unusual feature of the concerto is its form. As with Liszt’s tone poem, Les Préludes, listeners seeking to spot the hallmarks of conventional form in his First Piano Concerto might struggle. Liszt introduces a number of characterful melodies and motifs, then revisits them in all four movements, often furnishing them with new harmonies and character. Known as ‘metamorphosis’ or ‘transformation’, the technique predates Liszt by a long time. Examples can be found in the music of W.A. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Berlioz but, for the most part, those composers used it as an embellishment within familiar formal frameworks such as sonata form, rondo and scherzo. Liszt brings it centre stage, using ‘metamorphosis’ as the principal means of giving the work coherence. The result is a wonderfully rhapsodic stream of musical consciousness linked to pianistic virtuosity of the highest order.
The opening motif dominates. Liszt jocularly supplied some words for it. Loosely translated: (strings) ‘No-one here can understand!’ (woodwind) ‘Aha!!’ And maybe no-one can because this concerto has a reputation for being intellectually and expressively inferior to his Second Concerto and to his Piano Sonata in B minor. Some have even described it as vulgar. That is unfair and not borne out by history since it has become Liszt’s best known and best loved composition.