Reflections on LisztIn a series of lively essays that tell us much not only about the phenomenon that was Franz Liszt but also about the musical and cultural life of nineteenth-century Europe, Alan Walker muses on aspects of Liszt's life and work that he was unable to explore in his acclaimed three-volume biography of the great composer and pianist. Topics include Liszt's contributions to the Lied, the lifelong impact of his encounter with Beethoven, his influence on students who became famous in their own right, his accomplishments in transcribing and editing the works of other composers, and his innovative piano technique. One chapter is devoted to the Sonata in B Minor, perhaps Liszt's single most celebrated composition. Walker draws heavily on Liszt's astonishingly large personal correspondence with other composers, critics, pianists, and prominent public figures. All the essays reveal Walker's broad and deep knowledge of Liszt and Romantic music generally and, in some cases, his impatience with contemporary performance practice. |
From inside the book
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... composer. 6. The manuscript last page of Schumann's C Major Fantasie, op. 17, with its original ending crossed out and replaced with the “official” ending. 7. The Altenburg. A nineteenth-century woodcut, based on a drawing by Carl ...
... composers, after all, had written notable autobiographies, including his great contemporaries Richard Wagner and ... composer in history whose daily existence was filled with such kaleidoscopic variety. As a boy, Liszt met Beethoven ...
... composer, teacher, and tireless administrator. And in each of these fields he created something new. In the 1830s and 1840s, for example, he evolved a new style of piano playing and introduced the solo “recital”—a word he appropriated ...
... composers, as a few comparisons will make clear. Unlike Beethoven, he wrote with extreme rapidity, and he would often work on three or four scores simultaneously, editing for good measure the music of others while preparing articles for ...
... composer's workshop. As we compare one version with another, the old conundrum returns to haunt us: “Where does music's true identity lie?” With Liszt the answer is, “Not necessarily in the most recent version”; surprisingly, there is ...
Contents
Liszt and the Schubert Song Transcriptions | |
A Study in Declining | |
Three Character Sketches | |
Liszts Sonata in B Minor | |
Liszt and the Lied | |
Liszt as Editor | |
Some Thoughts and Afterthoughts | |
On Music and Musicians | |
An Open Letter to Franz Liszt | |
Sources | |