No. 177 of the ongoing ITYWLTMT series of audio montages can be found in our archives at https://archive.org/details/pcast177 |
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Today’s
podcast is the second in our two-part look at Liszt’s 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies.
After considering the sub-set of six that were set for orchestra, we now turn
to the remaining 13, in their original piano solo setting.
Franz
Liszt's 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies use gypsy tunes from his native Hungary, and
combine them with his own dazzling piano writing. The colorful and flamboyant
pieces which result tax pianists as much as delight listeners!
Interestingly,
however, Liszr was born on the Hungarian side of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
yet spent most of his formative years in Vienna and later in Paris. Liszt's
father played the piano, violin, cello and guitar and had been in the service
of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy. In that musical environment, he met Haydn,
Hummel and Beethoven whom he knew personally. At age six, Franz began listening
attentively to his father's piano playing and showed an interest in both sacred
and Romani (Gypsy) music – so the seed was sewn for these rhapsodies quite
early.
As Liszt
toured Europe as a piano virtuoso, notably in the late 1830’s, he returned to
his native Hungary where he re-encountered those folk tunes of his youth, and
from there the Rhapsodies are finally hatched.
All the
works bear dedications to important Hungarians of the day (Szerdahelyi, Teleki,
Festetics, Kázmér Esterházy, Mme Reviczky, Apponyi, Orczy, Augusz, Egressy), or
to musicians with Hungarian interests (Joachim, Ernst, von Bülow). The later
works express an even stronger affinity with Hungary: Rhapsodies XVI–XVIII are
entirely original compositions in the Hungarian manner, whilst XIX returns to
the methods employed in the earlier works, this time citing the origin of the
themes. The last four Rhapsodies were all published in Hungary, generally with
Hungarian and German titles, and with Liszt’s name in his now-preferred
Hungarian style: Liszt Ferenc. Rapsodie hongroise I was begun no earlier than
1847, and uses material from the Consolations. The piece is in the familiar
csárdás pattern of lassú and friss: fast and slow sections, each with a mixture
of elements of improvisation and variation.
More
insight on the individual rhapsodies can be found in the excellent
“introduction” to the complete rhapsodies recorded by Leslie Howard
for Hyperion. It is hard to characterize the level of pianistic gymnastics
required to perform these works – especially as I am not a pianist myself. If I
were to provide a synopsis of any one of these, I’d say something like “a mix
of melancholy, glittering keyboard acrobatics and stormy, rousing dance”.
The
pianists we have retained for this montage constitute a varied mix of stellar
soloists: Misha Dichter, Nelson Freire, Alfred Cortot, Grigory Ginsburg, Alfred
Brendel and Vladimir Horowitz.
I Think you will love this music too!
As a post-scipt to this post, here is a complete set of all 19 rhapsodies, by an unidentified performer.
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