It is possible, but not likely, that some pianist willing, for the
moment at least, to sacrifice outward success to inward satisfaction,
will, after he has played the Schumann selections on his program,
essay one of Brahms's shorter pianoforte compositions. These are even
more introspective than Schumann's works and combine a wealth of
learning with great depth of musical feeling. It is almost necessary,
however, that one should know them thoroughly in order to appreciate
them, and audiences have been so slow to welcome them that they appear
but infrequently on recital programs. Those of my readers, however,
who are pianists yet still unacquainted with these rare and beautiful
compositions, will soon find themselves under the spell of their
intimate personal expression if they will get them and start to learn
them. The Brahms Variations on a theme by Haendel make a stupendous
work, and the rare occasions on which it is played by any one capable
of mastering it should be regarded as "events."
Grieg, with his clear, fascinating Norwegian clang-tints, which
also play through his fascinating "Concerta" in A minor; Dvorak,
the Bohemian; Tschaikowsky, whose first "Concerto" in B flat minor
is among the finest modern works of its kind; or some of the
neo-Russians, are composers who may figure on the program of a
modern pianoforte recital. But it is more likely that the virtuoso
will here elect to bring his recital to a close with some work by the
grandest figure in the history of pianoforte playing and one of the
greatest in the history of composition--Franz Liszt.
Kissed by Beethoven.
Liszt was born at Raiding, near Odenburg in Hungary, in October, 1811,
and he died in Bayreuth in July, 1886. From early boyhood, when he was
a pianoforte prodigy, almost until his death, he occupied a unique
position in the musical world. He was the Paganini of the pianoforte,
the greatest pianist that ever lived, and he was a great composer; and
although, as a virtuoso, he retired from public performances long
before he died, his fame as a player and his still greater fame as a
composer have not diminished and his influence still is potent.
His father was an amateur, and began giving him instruction when he
was six years old. The boy's talent was so pronounced that even
without professional instruction he was able, when he was nine years
old, to appear in public and play a difficult concerto by Ries. So
great was his success that his father arranged for other concerts at
Pressburg. After the second of these, several Hungarian noblemen
agreed to provide an annual stipend of 600 florins for six years for
Franz's further musical education. The family then removed to Vienna,
where, for about a year and a half, the boy took pianoforte lessons
from Czerny and theory with Salieri. Beethoven heard of him, and asked
to see him, and at their meeting, after Franz had played, without
notes and without the other instruments, Beethoven's pianoforte trio,
Op. 97 (the large one in B flat major), the great master embraced and
kissed him. In 1823 he was taken to Paris with a view to being placed
in the Conservatoire. But although he passed his examination without
difficulty, Cherubini, at that time the director of the institution
and prejudiced against infant phenomena, revived a rule excluding
foreigners and admission was denied him.
His success as a pianist, however, was enormous and there was the
greatest demand in salons and musical circles for "le petit Litz." (As
some writer, whose name I cannot recall, has said, "the nearest Paris
came to appreciating Liszt was to call him 'Litz.'") He was the friend
of Chopin, of other musicians, and of painters and literary men, and
the doors of the most exclusive drawing-rooms of the French capital
were open to him. Paganini played in Paris in 1831, and his wonderful
feats of technique inspired Liszt to efforts to develop the technique
of the pianoforte with as much daring as Paganini had shown in
developing the capacity of the violin. This was the beginning of those
wonderful feats of virtuosity as well as of the remarkable technical
demands made in his compositions, both of which combined have done so
much to make the pianoforte what it is, and to bring out its full
potentiality as regards execution and expression.
Episode with Countess D'Agoult.
For a time Liszt left Paris with the Countess d'Agoult, who wrote
under the nom-de-plume of Daniel Stern, and who was the mother of his
three children, of whom Cosima became the wife, first of Von Buelow and
then of Wagner. His four years with the Countess he passed in Geneva.
Twice, however, he came forth from this retirement to cross the sword
of virtuosity with and vanquish his only serious rival in pianoforte
playing, Sigismund Thalberg, a brilliant player and a man, like Liszt
himself, of fascinating personality, but lacking the Hungarian's
intellectual capacity. In 1829, he and Countess d'Agoult having
separated, he began his triumphal progress through Europe, and for the
following ten years the world rang with his fame. He then settled down
as Court Conductor at Weimar, which became the headquarters of the new
romantic movement in Germany. Hardly a person of distinction in music
or any of the other arts passed through the town without a visit to
the Altenburg, to pay his respects to Liszt. At Weimar, "Lohengrin"
had its first performance; here Berlioz's works found a hearing; here
everything new in music that also was meritorious was made welcome.
Liszt's activity at Weimar continued until 1859, when he left there on
account of the hostility displayed to the production of Cornelius's
opera, "The Barber of Bagdad," and its resultant failure. He remained
away from Weimar for eleven years, living for the most part in Rome,
until 1870, when he was invited to conduct the Beethoven festival and
re-established cordial relations with the Court. Thereafter he
divided his year between Rome, Buda-Pest, where he had been made
President of the new Hungarian Academy of Music, and Weimar.
"Liszt, the artist and the man," says Baker, in his "Biographical
Dictionary of Musicians," "is one of the grand figures in the history
of music. Generous, kindly and liberal-minded, whole-souled in his
devotion to art, superbly equipped as an interpreter of classic and
romantic works alike, a composer of original conceptions and daring
execution, a conductor of marvellous insight, worshipped as teacher
and friend by a host of disciples, reverenced and admired by his
fellow-musicians, honored by institutions of learning and by
potentates as no artist before or since, his influence, spread by
those whom he personally taught and swayed, will probably increase
rather than diminish as time goes on."
It has been said that Liszt passed through six lives in the course of
his existence--only three less than a cat. As "petit Litz" he was the
precocious child adored of Paris; as a youth, he plunged into the
early romanticism which united the devotees of various branches of art
in the French capital: next came the episode with the Countess
d'Agoult; then his triumphal tours through Europe; settling at Weimar,
he became the centre of the modern musical movement in Europe;
finally, he revolved in a cycle through Rome, Buda-Pest and Weimar,
followed from place to place by a band of devotees.
Liszt's compositions for the pianoforte may be classified as follows:
"Fantasies Dramatiques"; "Annees de Pelerinage"; "Harmonies Poetiques
et Religieuses"; the Sonata, Concertos, Etudes, and miscellaneous
works; "Rhapsodies Hongroises"; arrangements and transcriptions from
Berlioz, Beethoven, Weber, Paganini, Schubert and others.
The Don Juan Fantasie.
Among the "Fantasies Dramatiques," which are variations on themes from
operas, not mere potpourris or transcriptions, but genuine fantasies,
and usually based on one or two themes only, the best known is the
"Don Juan Fantasie." It is founded upon the duet, "La ci darem la
mano." Liszt utilizes a passage from the overture as an introduction,
then gives the entire duet, varying it, however, not in set form, but
with the effect of a brilliant fantasia, and then winds up the whole
with a presto on the "Champagne Song." It is true it no longer is
Mozart--but Mozart might be glad if it were. It is even possible that
the time will come when "Don Giovanni" will have vanished from the
operatic stage, yet be remembered by this brilliant fantasia of
Liszt's. It is one of the great _tours de force_ of pianoforte music,
and it is good music as well. Another of the better known "Fantasies
Dramatiques" is the one Liszt made from "Norma," in which occurs a
long sustained trill and a melody for the right hand, while the left
plays another melody and the accompaniment to the whole. In other
words, there is in this passage a trill sustained throughout, two
melodies and the accompaniment, all going on at the same time, yet
written with such perfect knowledge of pianoforte technique that any
virtuoso worthy of the name as used in a modern sense, can compass
it.
A work called the "Hexameron" is included in catalogues of Liszt's
compositions, although he only contributed part of it. It is the march
from Bellini's "Puritani" with six variations, written by six pianists
and originally played by them on six pianofortes, five of them full
grands, while Chopin, whose variation was not of the bravura, kind,
sat at a two-stringed semi-grand. Liszt contributed the introduction,
the connecting links and the finale of the "Hexameron."
The "Annees de Pelerinage" were published in three divisions,
extending in point of time from 1835 to 1883. They are a series of
musical impressions, as the titles indicate--"Au lac de Wallenstadt,
Pastoral," "Au bord d'une source, Sposalizio" (after Raphael's
picture in the Brera), "Il Penseroso" (after Michael Angelo). Many of
these are adroit and elegant in the treatment of the pianoforte, and
at the same time beautiful as music. The "Harmonies" are partly
transcriptions of his own vocal pieces, partly musical illustrations
to poems. Among them is the familiar "Cantique d'Amour," and the
"Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude," of which he himself was very
fond. William Mason says that at the Altenburg a copy of it always was
lying on the pianoforte, "which Liszt had used so many times when
playing for his guests that it became associated with memories of
Berlioz, Rubinstein, Vieuxtemps, Wieniawski, Joachim." When Mr. Mason
left Weimar he took this copy with him as a souvenir, still has it,
and treasures it all the more for the marks of usage which it
bears. The "Consolations," which, as Edward Dannreuther says, may be
taken as corollaries to the "Harmonies," are tenderly expressive
pianoforte pieces.
Giant Strides in Virtuosity.
The Etudes bear the dates 1827, 1839 and 1852, and as they are in the
main progressive editions of the same pieces, they represent the
history of pianoforte technique as it developed under Liszt's own
fingers. In their earliest shape when issued in 1827, they were but
little different from the classical Etudes of Czerny and Cramer. In
their latest shape they form the extreme of virtuosity. Indeed, these
three editions are three giant strides in the development of
pianoforte technique. Von Buelow's coupling of the Etude called "Feux
Follets" with the A flat study (No. 10) of Chopin already has been
quoted under that composer. He considered it even more difficult.
Schumann called the collection "Sturm und Graus Etuden" (Studies of
Storm and Dread), and expressed the opinion that there were only ten
or twelve pianists living who could play them. In the Etude called
"Waldesrauschen" will be found some ingenious double counterpoint. The
theme is divided into two portions, a descending and ascending one,
which later on appear together, with first one and then the other
uppermost. Other titles among the Etudes are "Paysage," "Mazeppa" (a
tremendous test of endurance), "Vision," "Chasse-neige," "Harmonies de
Soir" and "Gnomentanz." Through Liszt's transcriptions of some of the
Paganini pieces in the form of Etudes, which include the famous "Bell
Rondo" from one of the Paganini concertos, this piece, for example,
now is far better known as a pianoforte composition than in its
original form for violin.
Sonata, Concertos and Rhapsodies.
The "Sonata in B Minor" dedicated to Schumann is one of the few
sonatas in which there is psychological unity throughout. This is
due to the fact that it is one movement; although by employing
various themes both in rapid and in slow time, Liszt has given it a
certain aspect of division into movements. It might well serve as a
model to younger composers who think they have to write sonatas.
Dannreuther, it is true, says of it that it is "a curious compound
of true genius and empty rhetoric," but admits that it contains
enough of genuine impulse and originality in the themes of the
opening section, and of suave calm in the melody of the section that
stands for the slow movement, to secure the hearer's attention. Mr.
Hanchett's characterization of it as one of the most masterly
compositions ever put into this form--a gigantic, wholly admirable and
original work--is more just.
The two pianoforte concertos (in E flat and A major) are superb works.
Not only are they written with all the skill which Liszt knew so well
how to apply when composing for the instrument, but with this
technical perfection they also unite thought and feeling. Like the
sonata, they show throughout their development the psychological unity
which is so essentially modern. What the pianoforte owes to Chopin and
Liszt can be summed up by saying that they were poets and thinkers
who took the trouble to thoroughly understand the instrument. Because
their music sounds so well on it, at least one of them, Liszt,
frequently is stigmatized as a trickster of virtuosity and a
charlatan, as if there were some wonderful mark of genius in writing
something for one instrument that sounds better on another or may not
sound as well as it ought to on any. If Liszt's pianoforte music is
grateful to the player and equally grateful to the listener, it is not
only because he knew how to write for the pianoforte, but because,
with deep thoughts and poetic feelings, he also understood how to
express them clearly and pianistically.
The "Rhapsodies Hongroises" are of such dazzling brilliancy and show
off a pianist's technique to such good purpose and so brilliantly,
that their real musical worth has been under-estimated. They are
full of splendid fire, vitality and passion, and their rhythmic throb
is simply irresistible. Like the Etudes, their history is curious.
At first they were merely short transcriptions of Hungarian tunes.
These were elaborated and republished and canceled, and then
rewritten and published again. In all there are fifteen pieces in
the set, ending with the "Rakoczy March." As "Ungarische Melodien"
they began to appear in 1838; as "Melodies Hongroises" in 1846; as
"Rhapsodies Hongroises" in 1854. Consider that they are over fifty
years old, yet remain the greatest pieces for the display of brilliant
technique and the most grateful works for which a pianist can ask,
and that at the same time they are full of admirable musical
content! Because they happen to be brilliant and effective they are
called trashy, whereas they owe their brilliancy and effectiveness
to Liszt's own transcendent virtuosity, to his knowledge of the
pianoforte. In order to be great must music be "classic," heavy and
dull, and badly written for the instrument on which it is to be
played?
How Liszt Played.
In those charming reminiscences from which I already have had occasion
to quote several times, William Mason's "Memories of a Musical Life,"
Mr. Mason says that time and again at Weimar he heard Liszt play, and
that there is absolutely no doubt in his mind that Liszt was the
greatest pianist of the nineteenth century, what the Germans call an
_Erscheinung_, an epoch-making genius. Tausig said of him: "Liszt
dwells alone upon a solitary mountain-top and none of us can approach
him." Rubinstein said to Mr. William Steinway, in the year 1873 (I
quote from Mason): "Put all the rest of us together and we would not
make one Liszt." While Mr. Mason willingly acknowledges that there
have been other great pianists, some of them now living, he adds: "But
I must dissent from those writers who affirm that any of these can be
placed upon a level with Liszt. Those who make this assertion are too
young to have heard Liszt other than in his declining years, and it is
unjust to compare the playing of one who has long since passed his
prime with that of one who is still in it."
Edward Dannreuther, who heard Liszt play from 1863 onward, says that
there was about his playing an air of improvisation and the expression
of a grand and fine personality, perfect self-possession, grace,
dignity and never-failing fire; that his tone was large and
penetrating, but not hard, every effect being produced naturally and
easily. Dannreuther adds that he has heard performances, it may be of
the same pieces, by younger men, such as Rubinstein and Tausig, but
that they left an impression as of Liszt at second-hand or of Liszt
past his prime. "None of his contemporaries or pupils were so
spontaneous, individual and convincing in their playing; and none
except Tausig so infallible with their fingers and wrists."
Liszt himself paid this superb tribute to the pianoforte as an
instrument: "To me my pianoforte is what to the seaman is his boat, to
the Arab his horse; nay, more, it has been till now my eye, my speech,
my life. Its strings have vibrated under my passions and its yielding
keys have obeyed my every caprice. It may be that the secret tie which
binds me to it so closely is a delusion, but I hold the pianoforte
very high. In my view, it takes the first place in the hierarchy of
instruments. It is the oftenest used and the widest spread. In the
circumference of its seven octaves it embraces the whole range of an
orchestra, and a man's ten fingers are enough to render the harmonies
which in an orchestra are brought out only by the combination of
hundreds of musicians. The pianoforte has on the one side the capacity
of assimilation, the capacity of taking unto itself the life of all
instruments; on the other hand it has its own life, its own growth,
its own individual development. My highest ambition is to leave to the
piano players to come after me, some useful instructions, the
footprints of advanced attainment, something which may some day
provide a worthy witness of the labor and study of my youth."
Bear in mind that Liszt played for Beethoven, that he was a
contemporary of Chopin and Schumann, that he was one of the first to
throw himself heart and soul into the Wagner movement, and that death
came to him while he was attending the festival performances at
Bayreuth; bear in mind, I repeat, that he played for Beethoven and
died at "Parsifal"; strive to appreciate the extremes of musical
history and development implied by this; then remember that he remains
a potent force in music--and you may be able to form some idea of his
greatness.