Hey everyone! Today we’ll be talking about Liszt’s three piano concertos.
Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) was a Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist during the Romantic era. Liszt composed three piano concertos, one not being exactly titled a piano concerto since it was not written at full length but widely considered as a concerto, called Totentanz.
Concerto no. 1 in E flat major S. 124, composed in 1849 and published in 1856, was premiered in Weimar, Germany on February 17, 1885. Liszt was the pianist and Hector Berlioz conducting. The main themes of this concerto were written in a journal dated 1830, when Liszt was 19. Although he seemed to have finished it in 1849, he made some adjustments in 1853. This concerto has 4 movements.
Yuja Wang plays Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1
Liszt wrote drafts for the second concerto in A major S. 125 from 1839-1840. A decade later, he returned to the concerto. After the fourth revision, it was finished, 21 years later in 1861. Liszt dedicated this piece to his student, Hans von Bronsart, who premiered it with Liszt conducting in Weimar, January 1857. The performance time for this concerto is about 25 minutes. Similar to the first piano Concerto, Liszt revised the piano part a great deal. In his revisions, Liszt made certain passages noticeably simpler. One large aspect of his revisions was replacing passages in broken octaves with passages for alternating hands.
Georgii Cherkin plays Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2
Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major was possibly composed in 1839. It is believed that this piece was composed before the first two concertos, but the dates aren’t certain as there are claims it was not finished until 1847. Like his second piano concerto, it is a one-movement piece. The concerto was premiered by Janina Fialkowska on May 3, 1990, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Jean conducting.
Totentanz S. 126, which in English means “dance of the dead” specifically shows Liszt’s fascination with death. He frequently visited "hospitals, gambling casinos and asylums'' in the early 1830s, and he even went down into prison dungeons in order to see those condemned to die. This piece is a set of variations for piano and orchestra. Some more notable performances of this piece were by Bartok, Rachmaninoff, Busoni, and so many more.
Bertrand Chamayou plays Liszt’s Totentanz S. 126
That’s all and see you next time!