Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No.1, S.514 (Montero, Grynyuk, Goerner)

Liszt’s first Mephisto Waltz has become regarded as just a (admittedly dazzling) showpiece, when it’s a wildly creative and technically extremely sophisticated work. (It ought to be celebrated as much as Chopin’s 1st or 4th ballades, it really is that good.) Start with the work’s structure – it’s extremely tightly knit, and follows an A-B-A’-Coda form in which the B section is essentially a theme and variations, and almost every bar in the A’ section engages in some drastic thematic transformation of material already heard before. Most of the work, therefore, consists of continuous development. The efficiency with which material is used is remarkable: the middle section melody (3:08), for instance, generates the passages at m.676 (7:41), m.737 (8:22), m.764 (8:43), m.792 (9:05), and so on. On a more granular level, the colours/harmonies/textures Liszt deploys here are extraordinary. Most famously, the work begins with a pileup of 5ths that sneakily introduces the rhythmic shape of the work’s first real theme. But there’s lots of other wonderful things too: the care Liszt takes to write out the sparkling 32nd notes at m.149 (1:17) & similar, instead of using staccato chords or grace notes; the syncopation & yearning non-harmonic tones (especially the flattened 6th, which becomes its own motif and helps to unsettle major-key passages) which give the middle section an untethered, seductive effect; the way the flattened Bb comes to life in the C section, taking over the role of the dominant & giving the section its double harmonic major colour; the birds at 4:58 and the languorous nightingale in the Coda.

A SECTION
00:00 – Introduction/tuning section. Quintal (and in the unison passages, implied quartal) harmonies. It feels to me like we’re in E dorian at m.14, when Liszt avoids the G# (so stopping this from becoming a usual dominant prolongation), with a Bm7/E harmony entering with the D. At 0:33 rising sequence of fourths, in octaves. Culminates in a huge C# min climax, which then pauses (0:46) as if it has made a mistake, before correcting itself into an implied Esus4. (Note that the bass like of the whole introduction outlines an E-C#-A descent, which explains the rather surprising C# min chord).
00:57 – Theme 1 = T.1, basically just an elaborated A major chord. Note how the opening rhythm of T.1’s first 3 notes is already heard at m.17 + 93.
01:11 – Transition
01:15 – T.2
01:24 – T.3
01:46 – T.1/2/3 presented again, before being capped off at 2:35 by a restatement of T.1

B SECTION
03:08 – T.4, in Db, built from 3 important motifs. Motif 4.1 = (4.1) is the first 4 melody notes you hear starting from m.339. (4.2) is the next 4 notes you hear the melody – a single note (flattened 6th) repeated thrice (or four times), before dipping by a semitone. You first hear it at 3:14, but it’s everywhere, even in the next section of the melody: 3:42, 3:47, etc. (4.3) is the sighing RH followed by an upward run at 4:06. (Note also how the melody starting from m.389 mirrors the shape of T.1.)
04:58 – T.5. Birds, perhaps? Mehistopheles’ laughter? A nice recurring motif, anyway.
05:10 – T.4, Variation 1, in E. (4.1) in syncopated duplets, (4.2) in LH decorated with upward run in RH.
05:42 – T.5
06:03 – T.4, Variation 2, in Db.

C SECTION
07:19 – T.1, sotto voce, in Bb.
07:41 – T.4 developed. (4.1) + (4.2) in bass, beneath arpeggios
08:00 – T.1, now in a frantic, desperate variation.
08:21 – (4.3) developed.
08:43 – T.4 developed. (4.1) in faintly absurd octave leaps, (4.2) transformed into a spasm.
09:04 – (4.2) turns into a kind of heady, glittering cataclysm. Cadenza in double harmonic major at 9:25, the Bb and A clashing violently, before diminishing into a trembling in the middle of the keyboard over which there enters
09:42 – T.5

CODA
09:59 – The Nightingale. A recitative variant of T.4, repeated thrice in ever-higher registers. Even the B-C-Eb-B-C-F# figure at m. 852 (10:39) is based on (4.1).
11:08 – Final flourish, but even this is based on (4.2), grinding away in the bass. The flattened 6ths so prominent in the rest of the work reappear, as does a reference to Bb harmony. The final octave run is based on the double harmonic major scale (flattened 2nd and 6th scale degrees).

Видео Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No.1, S.514 (Montero, Grynyuk, Goerner) канала Ashish Xiangyi Kumar