Liszt - Préludes et Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S171d (Kosyakov)

The history of Liszt’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses is long and painfully complex; the eventual series of ten works (S173) was published by Kistner in 1853, having been finally revised and prepared by the end of 1851, but many of the pieces in that collection started life somewhat earlier and many pieces considered for it were outright discarded. Preceding the less incongruous S172a cycle of 1847, was an attempt at grouping several pieces together under the extended title "Préludes et Harmonies poétiques et religieuses", dated from 1845/6. With the exception of the opening prelude this set is a far cry from the 1853 cycle (it is clear that the religious aspect of this project grew more firm over the years) and an analysis of the Tasso Sketchbook wherein these works were originally penned reveals that Liszt even briefly considered including the second Petrarch sonnet, the Élégie sur des motifs de Prince Louis Ferdinand, and a work in the style of Chopin (echoes of Schumann’s Carnaval), in the Harmonies cycle.

These pieces would have remained overlooked and unpublished were it not for the excellent work of the indefatigable Leslie Howard, who not only provided codas for the unfinished works (No.4 and 6) but also a fully developed completion in homage to Liszt of the eighth piece.

The first piece is headed ‘Nancy 16 nov 45’; the musical material is the only part of the 1845–6 series which makes its way through the 1847 set and into the 1853 set–as part of Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude. The second piece (‘20 nov 45’) is very indistinctly titled; if "Langueur?" is correct (and whatever else it may be, the question mark is Liszt’s), it is not especially reflected in the content of the piece, which is a yearning melody punctuated by a more hymn-like section–derived from the same theme–which, after the reprise, forms the coda. This is an excellent piece and Liszt’s subsequent neglect of it is inexplicable. The third, untitled piece (‘4 dec 45’) is also effectively monothematic, but the appassionato transformation of the material is of such a different character that the kinship with the opening may not seem apparent upon a first hearing. The fourth piece is a much larger work, and its principal theme will be easily recognized as the forerunner to that of the First Ballade; this complex work, which ranges over an extraordinary array of key changes, also contains (albeit in a very different guise) the theme of the last Consolations' coda. The fifth piece (untitled, but dated ‘6 dec 45’) is again monothematic, and is an early example of a kind of piano writing often found in Liszt’s compositions in the enharmonic F-sharp major, especially those of a religious serenity. The sixth piece is entitled Attente, but there is no further clue as to its application to this piece. Liszt has indicated the reprise of some of the opening material after the contrasting middle section, but has not supplied the coda. The seventh piece bears the title Alternative, and whether it is merely an alternative to the sixth piece is impossible to tell; this work is complete on one page, and has virtually the same melody (but with an unfamiliar introduction) as the song Gestorben war ich (best known in the later piano transcription as Liebesträume No.2). The eighth piece is really only a sketch: an eight-bar Andante ending with ‘etc’, and a rough nine-bar sketch for a middle section. The title almost certainly refers to Marie Kalergis, a Polish noblewoman, pianist, salon hostess and patron of the arts; Liszt recuperated at her hospitable home after the difficulties of the Bonn Beethoven festival in 1845. Howard's completion is remarkably idiomatic.

Видео Liszt - Préludes et Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S171d (Kosyakov) канала Andrei Cristian Anghel