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Franz LISZT (1811-1886) Complete Piano Music. Vol. 27- Donizetti Operatic
Reminiscences and Transcriptions Valse de concert sur deux motifs de Lucia et Parisina,
S.214/3 (pub. 1852) [9:48] Réminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia (second version),
S.400 (1840) (Trio du second Acte [10:02]; Chanson à boire (Orgie) -
Duo - Finale [13:37]) Réminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor: (Andante
final (the sextet) S.397 (1835-36) [5:04]; Marche
funèbre et Cavatine de la Lucia di Lammermoor, S.398
(1835-36) [10:33]) Spirto gentil de l'opéra La Favorite, S.400a [7:12] Marche funèbre de Dom Sébastien, S.402 (1844) [9:41]
William
Wolfram (piano)
rec: 13-15 January 2006, Glenn Gould Studio, CBC, Toronto,
Canada. DDD NAXOS 8.570137 [65:56]
“Whoever really wants to know what Liszt has done for the piano
should study his old operatic fantasies. They represent
the classicism of piano technique.” Johannes Brahms
This
Naxos series of the Complete Piano Music of Liszt has
been going from strength to strength. A couple of months ago
I selected two discs from this series as my 2007 ‘Records of
the Year’: volume 24 played by Giuseppe Andaloro on 8.557814 and
volume 25 played by Alexandre Dossin on 8.557904.
Performed
by American soloist William Wolfram this instalment contains a
selection of attractive operatic transcriptions
and reminiscences from the operas of Gaetano
Donizetti. This is Wolfram’s second
disc in the series and I enjoyed reviewing his earlier volume
20 from 2003 that includes the 2 Concert Etudes; 3
Etudes de concert; Etude en douze exercices and Mazeppa on
Naxos 8.557014.
Liszt was a highly prolific and versatile composer who, according
to Humphrey Searle’s works listA (1966), produced
around eight hundred scores - embracing most genres - about
half of which are for piano. A more recent Liszt work listB identifies
around a thousand works.
In the days before gramophone records, radio broadcasts and
the miniature score, save for attending an actual performance,
music-lovers only had access to orchestral and operatic scores
in pared down arrangements that were principally for the piano
and for performance in the drawing room or salon. Liszt was
the undisputed master of the ‘art of
the transcription’ making numerous
arrangements of songs, operas and symphonies. He mainly championed
the music of those contemporaries that were in vogue or he
felt deserved attention. For example, the reputation of Schubert’s lieder was
greatly enhanced by the liberal advocacy of Liszt’s
numerous transcriptions.
Transcriptions and arrangements, sometimes known as piano reductions - also prepared
for other solo instruments such as the violin and cello - were
the lifeblood of many virtuoso performers in Liszt’s
day. Although providing no financial profit to the original
composer, Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini, Wagner and Verdi all
benefited from Liszt’s forays into their operatic works by assisting in the dissemination
of their scores to a wider audience. The transcription served
to popularise the melodies from their operas and still further
advance their reputations. Liszt knew many of the famous
operas of the day intimately having conducted many of them
in his role as Kapellmeister at Weimar. A Liszt transcription
was no mere plagiarism but a sincere tribute from one great
composer to another. A quick check reveals that opera paraphrases
and transcriptions often formed a significant and popular
part of a Liszt piano recital programme.
The first work here is the Valse de concert sur deux motifs
de Lucia et Parisina, S.214/3. The Valse de
concert was one of a set of three Caprices valses and
the score was published in 1852. Liszt uses as a theme
the aria Verranno a te sull'aure from Lucia
di Lammermoor (1835) and also a theme from the second
act of Parisina d’Este (1833). Searle describes
the Valse de concert as having, “all the freshness
and brilliance of Liszt at his youthful best.”A
For the next score Réminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia, S.400 Liszt
has turned to the opera Lucrezia Borgia (1833, rev.
1839 and 1840) that Donizetti based on Victor Hugo’s dramatic
play. Cast in two parts the Lucrezia Borgia Réminiscences published
in 1849 were held in high regard by the composer. In the
first piece Liszt utilises material from the trio of
the opera titled Trio du second Acte and with
the second piece he takes music from the Chanson à boirefrom
act two and also from the prologue. It seems that this is
Liszt’s revision of an earlier score from Hamburg in 1840.
TheRéminiscences de Lucia di Lammermooris taken
from Donizetti’s three act opera of 1835 based on Sir Walter
Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor. It was composed
in 1835-36 and is in two parts which were published separately
in 1841 and 1844. The first, the Andante final,
S.397 is a transcription of the celebrated sextet from
the second act. The second, the Marche funèbre et Cavatine
de la Lucia di Lammermoor, S.398 is based on the
funeral march that laments the death of Lucia from act three
and the cavatina.
Donizetti’s four act opera La Favorite was completed in 1840
for Paris. Wagner clearly admired La Favorite making
several arrangements including a piano score. Liszt uses
Wagner’s arrangement as the basis for his transcription of
Fernando’s beautiful cavatina from the fourth act
titled Spirto gentil, S.400a.
The final work on the disc is from Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal,
the last of Donizetti’s operas to be composed. Donizetti
considered this grand opéra in five acts, completed in 1843
for Paris, to be his masterpiece. It was in 1844 that Liszt
made his transcription of the opera’s funeral march. Liszt
must have been most proud of his Marche funèbre arrangement
because in 1845 he presented a “dedicated copy”C to
Queen Maria II of Portugal at the royal palace in Lisbon.
Donizetti himself also admired Liszt’s Marche funèbre transcription,
a tour de force of the répertoire, calling on a friend
to, “Buy Liszt’s arrangement of the March; it will
make your hair stand on end.”C
New York City-based pianist William Wolfram is on splendid form throughout
these technically difficult, emotionally demanding and physically
taxing works. He expertly negotiates the wide gamut of intense
emotions. I was able to identify: the stormy power of anger,
the hurt of jealousy, the immediacy of the dark melancholy
of abandonment, the turbulent emotional depths of the heartbreaking
pain of grief, the sensitivity of the rapture and elation
of love and the surging energy of the dread of impending
violence. This 2006 Toronto recording is clear but a touch
bright for my taste.
Michael Cookson
see also review by Dan Morgan
Notes A ‘The
Music of Liszt’ by Humphrey Searle, Dover Publications, second
revised edition (1966)
B As part
of the International Music Score Library Project, Wikipedia
(the free on-line encyclopedia) hold a detailed and helpful
guide titled ‘List of Compositions by Franz Liszt’ that
is based Humphrey Searle’s 1966 Catalogue of Works and
evidently contains additions made by Sharon Winklhofer and
Leslie Howard. Designed in two sections the list of Searle
numbers (S) run from S.1-S.350 and S.351-S.999. This Wikipedia list
proves to be valuable tool for Lisztians.
C Franz
Liszt (Volume 1), ‘The Virtuoso Years 1811-1847’ by
Alan Walker, Publisher: Cornell University Press (1983, revised
edition 1987) ISBN 0-8014-9421-4. Pg. 411
Liszt’s
letters: Some 260 of Liszt’s letters are available in English
translations.
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