Time and
again at Weimar I heard Liszt play. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that
he was the greatest pianist of the nineteenth century. Liszt was what the
Germans call Erscheinung - an epoch-making genius.
- William Mason (1829-1908), American pianist,
composer and teacher in Memories of Musical
Life.
The art of transcription essentially began
when the earliest composers took a theme by someone else and created an improvisation or a set of variations. It
was not uncommon among Bach's works to find transcriptions of Vivaldi or other
composers, re-cast in a different instrumental costume.
So it cannot be said that Franz Liszt invented the concert
paraphrase or transcription. But what can be said, is that Liszt, like no other composer before him (or after him),
expanded, nurtured, perfected, and practised the art of transcription. His
influence on succeeding generations of transcribers (Busoni, Godowsky,
Rachmaninov, Grainger, to just name a
few) was enormous.
During his lifetime, Liszt produced an
astonishing quantity and variety of transcriptions. From Palestrina and Allegri
to his nineteenth century musical contemporaries, all music was grist for
Liszt's transcription mill. Most cataloguers of Liszt music divide the
transcription output into two distinct groups - (a) the paraphrases and operatic transcriptions; and
(b) the "partitions de piano". In the paraphrases and operatic
transcriptions, Liszt allowed himself considerable freedom and fantasy, while
the "partition de piano" were essentially instrumental transcriptions
were an objective realisation of the original composer's intentions is provided
on the piano. All of the works on this disc fall into the category of
"partitions de piano".
There is no doubt that Liszt held Mozart's
music and achievements in highest esteem. He was invited to conduct the Mozart
Festival Concert in Vienna on 27th January, 1856, in honour of the centennial
of Mozart's birth. In his letters to his uncle Dr Eduard Liszt and to the Mayor
of Vienna, Dr Ritter von Seiler, Liszt speaks of the "glories which Mozart
unfolds in the different domains of Art," and also "of his
genius," referring to Mozart as "the glorious Master." The two
Mozart transcriptions recorded here were products of the 1860s. A la Chapelle Sixtine is a one-movement work
combining variations on the Miserere mei
Deus by Gregorio Allegri (1682-1652) with Mozart's Ave verum corpus (K.618). The connection
of the works by Liszt was not accidental. In April of 1770 Mozart, with his
father, visited Rome where they heard a performance in the Sistine Chapel
during Holy Week of Allegri's Miserere, a
nine-part choral work, supposedly the exclusive property of the papal choir and
not permitted to be published. According to Leopold Mozart, immediately after
the service Wolfgang (then fourteen years old) wrote out the work from memory,
and the accuracy of his version was attested by a member of the choir. Not
surprisingly, much has been made of this feat in biographies of Mozart, only to
underline that few musicians of any age have demonstrated a comparable ear and
faculty for retention. The Ave verum corpus was
written by Mozart six months before his untimely death and anticipates the
exalted spirit, the profound expressiveness, and the unearthly beauty of his
great Requiem. Liszt's
transcription was published in the piano version, together with an organ transcription,
in 1865. A piano duet version appeared in 1866, and an orchestral version
remains unpublished. In combining the Allegri with the Mozart, Liszt was
creating a work that acts as musical book-ends, a tribute encompassing the
beginning and end, of a composer he greatly admired. The resulting
transcription is more of a homage than a piano evocation of two separate and
distinct works. The Confutatis maledictis and
Lacrymosa from Mozart's Requiem was also published in 1865. In
Mozart's Requiem these sections
are the last two parts of the Dies Irae sequence
that he was able to attempt, before his death. In his work the Confutatis maledictis provides a dramatic
contrast between the male voices declaiming the torments of the damned, and the
upper ones, with only violins accompanying, praying for salvation, with the
full chorus eventually uniting all, to which the strings add an urgent,
throbbing note. The Lacrimosa in
Mozart's manuscript breaks off after a sublime eight bars, with an
extraordinary crescendo on a
chromatic ascent. In essence, these were the last two works Mozart wrote, the Lacrimosa being completed by Franz Xaver
Sussmayr. Liszt's transcription is once again a homage. It should be noted that
the spelling of Lacrymosa in
Liszt's transcription uses the "y" instead of the "i"
commonly found in Mozart scores. August Gollerich (1859-1923), German pianist,
teacher, pupil and biographer of Liszt, on New Year's Eve, 1885, reports that
Liszt "gave to a select circle a transfigured performance of Mozart's Ave verum corpus from his A la Chapelle Sixtine. Together with the Dies Irae and Lacrymosa from the Requiem,
this heaven- soaring work was among his special favourites."
Gollerich recounts Liszt's comments on these works: "The sequences of the Ave verum are among the most beautiful
things that Mozart wrote... I don't think he would have had anything against my
development of them."
Eduard Lassen (1830-1904) was born in
Copenhagen. In 1832 his parents moved to Brussels, where he attended the
Conservatoire. In 1851 he won the Prix de Rome. After travels in Germany and
Italy, and a long stay in Rome, he was appointed court music director at Weimar in 1858. From 1861 to 1895 he
held the position of court Kapellmeister at Weimar as Liszt's successor, being
himself succeeded by d'Albert and Stavenhagen (both Liszt pupils). Much of
Lassen's music has been totally forgotten. Yet, he was an important, if not
prolific composer, whose output included two symphonies, a violin concerto,
three operas, incidental music, cantatas, choruses, and numerous songs. Liszt
championed Lassen's opera Landgraf Ludwigs
Brautfahrt, bringing it to production at Weimar in 1857. Liszt
transcribed two of Lassen's songs for the piano. Lose, Himmel, meine Seele was published in 1866 and Ich weil in tiefer Einsamkeit was
published in 1872. In both cases the music is imaginative and warmly
expressive, treated by Liszt with respect and admiration, leading us to be
curious about Lassen's other forgotten songs.
Robert Franz (1815-1892) was a song-composer,
who published 350 songs, according to Dr Theodore Baker, "remarkable for
their perfect fitness and exquisite finish of the musical setting, and
rivalling Schubert's in beauty of melody, and Schumann's in romantic
expression." His life was full of woes and difficulties. His parents were
unsupportive and continually pressed him to abandon the study of music. After
completing his music education, despite their lack of support, Franz was unable
to find a suitable position, or even a publisher for his compositions.
Eventually, in 1843, his first set of twelve songs appeared and received warm
praise from Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt and others. Soon after he became
organist at the Ulrichskirche in Halle, then conductor of the Singakademie, and
eventually the musical director of Halle University. In 1868, deafness, and a
complication of nervous disorders, forced him to give up all his positions. The
meagre income from his compositions was supplemented by the generosity of his
fellow artists in Germany (primarily Joseph Joachim and Franz Liszt) and
America (Otto Dresel, S.B. Schlesinger and Benjamin J. Lang) who gave a series
of concerts for his benefit in 1872, realising some $25,000 of support for the
ailing composer. Franz Liszt transcribed thirteen songs by Franz, publishing
them in 1849. The first of these, Er ist
gekommen in Sturm und Regen (He came in wind and rain) was published
by Franz as Opus 4, No.7. The remaining twelve
songs Liszt transcribed come from Franz's Opp. 2, 3 and 8. In all
cases, Liszt tips his musical hat to the composer, combining piano
accompaniment with the singer's
musical line in thorough sympathy. All of the
songs are of purely lyrical quality. Their concise form, and the
absence both of extended epic developments and of dramatic modes of expressions
are mirrored in Liszt's transcriptions.
Otto Lessmann (1844-1918) is today a rather
obscure musical curiosity. He studied with Hans von Bülow and Friedrich Kiel,
eventually teaching piano and composition himself, ran his own piano school for
a short period of time, and in 1872 became the head of the music department at the Kaiserin Augusta-Stiftung in
Charlottenburg. From 1882-1907 he was
owner and editor of the AIigemeine Musik-
Zeitung. As such, Lessmann wielded a great deal of power in Germany
as music critic and opinion-maker. He was, throughout his life, a keen
supporter of Liszt. Perhaps, as a token of his appreciation, Liszt transcribed
Lessmann's three songs in 1882, publishing them in the same year. Liszt's
biographers are curiously quiet about these works and about Lessmann, implying
that despite his prominent position in critical circles of his day, Lessmann
was a very minor musical figure and only survives as a footnote as a result of
Liszt's efforts. The New Grove Dictionary of
Music and Musicians does not even bother to acknowledge Lessmann's
contributions by including him in its pages.
Josef Dessauer (1798-1876) was a Prague-born
composer who studied with Johann Wenzel Tomaschek and Dionys Weber. He lived
most of his life in Vienna. Although he composed five operas, several
orchestral overtures, string quartets, a cello sonata and piano works, he was
celebrated in his time for his songs. Ferdinand Hiller described him as
"one of the best of the Viennese Lieder composers," and Berlioz wrote
that "Dessauer's predilection is exclusively for the elegiac. He feels at
ease only with a melancholy soul; tears are his greatest happiness and the woes
of the heart his chief joy." Franz Liszt transcribed three songs by Dessauer
in 1847. Although the first two songs seem to show the more lyrical and poetic
side of Dessauer (sympathetically reflected in Liszt's treatment of the melodic
material), the Spanisches Lied is
a rousing bolero, effectively transcribed into a rousing piano piece. Liszt
admirably matches the the poetic intensity and Latin fervour of the work in
this rarely performed gem.
1998 Marina and Victor Ledin, Encore
Consultants
Valerie Tryon
Valerie Tryon's career as a concert pianist
began when she was still a child. Before she was twelve she had broadcast for
the BBC, and was appearing regularly before the public on the concert platform.
As a scholarship student at the Royal Academy of Music she won many prizes,
receiving the highest award that is conferred on a performer. In 1955 she was
awarded the coveted Boise Scholarship which enabled her to study in Paris with
Jacques Fevrier. A year later, she became a prize winner at the Liszt
Competition in Budapest. Her place among Britain's acknowledged artists was assured
when a Cheltenham Festival debut recital in 1959 brought her the enthusiastic
acclaim of the country's foremost critics. She has given concerts throughout
the world and in 1967 was presented with the Harriet Cohen Award in recognition
of her services to music. Her repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary
composers and includes over fifty concertos. Now a resident of Canada, Valerie
Tryon is pianist-in-residence and faculty member at McMaster University,
Hamilton, Ontario.