# Franz Liszt: Liszt Complete Piano Music Vol. 30



## classicalmusicfan

*LISZT: Soirees italiennes / Paganini Etudes / Impromptu brillant sur des themes de Rossini et Spontini (Liszt Complete Piano Music Vol. 30)*








Liszt made a large number of free arrangements, transcriptions and paraphrases of music by other composers, works that were a necessary part of his concert repertoire. His _Soirées italiennes, Six amusements pour piano sur des motifs de Mercadante_, dedicated to the Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, née Royal Princess of Savoy, Carignano etc., Vice-Reine of the Realm of Lombardy-Venezia, written in 1838, are free piano arrangements of the work of the same name by Mercadante, his _Serate italiane_, a collection of eight ariettas and four duos for solo voices and piano, settings of verses by Jacopo Crescini, librettist of Mercadante's opera _I briganti_, and Carlo Pepoli, librettist of Bellini's _I puritani_. In the autumn of 1837 Liszt had settled for the time in Italy, by Lake Como. The publisher Ricordi had made his box at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan available to Liszt, who was able to see the operas staged there, including Mercadante's _Il giuramento*_. Liszt's views on the state of La Scala, its audiences and its musical standards, published in a French journal in Paris, had caused him some trouble and this he did his best to answer by performing a work based on Mercadante's new opera. _Il giuramento_ was staged at La Scala in 1837 and had done much to re-establish Mercadante's reputation in Italy, which was only gradually to be eclipsed by the growing importance of Verdi in the 1840s.

Liszt's free arrangement of _Soirées italiennes_ transmutes each song into his own characteristic musical and pianistic language. The set starts with _La primavera_ (Spring), followed by _Il galop_, suggesting the rhythm of the popular dance. _Il pastore svizzero_ (The Swiss Shepherd) opens with echoes of the alpenhorn and _La serenata del marinaro_ (The Sailor's Serenade) has its moments of turbulence, as storms threaten. _Il brindisi_ (The Drinking-Song) is framed by its principal theme and the collection ends with _La zingarella spagnola_ (The Spanish Gypsy Girl), a bolero, a dance of increasing excitement.

It was in Paris in 1832 that Liszt first heard the famous violinist Nicolò Paganini. It was this occasion that inspired Liszt to the fulfilment of a new ideal, to become the Paganini of the piano. On the violin Paganini, who had started his international career only in 1828, achieved technical miracles, and this offered Liszt a new aim, to be achieved, in the first place, by hard work. In 1838 Liszt wrote his own _Etudes d'exécution transcendante d'après Paganini_, a set of six demanding studies based on Paganini's _Capricci_ for solo violin and other works, published in 1840, the year of Paganini's death and dedicated to Clara Schumann. The set was clarified and revised for publication in 1851, originally under the title _Grandes études de Paganini transcendantes pour le piano_. The first study, framed by a version of the introduction and conclusion to _Caprice No. 5_, is an arrangement of Paganini's _Capriccio No. 6 in G minor_, a study in which the melody is given a tremolo accompaniment on an adjacent string. Liszt reproduces something of this effect, while translating the piece into the idiom of the piano. The fourth study, marked _Vivo_ in the revised piano version, is an arrangement of Paganini's _Capriccio No.1_, an E major study in arpeggios. The sixth study offers a version of Paganini's famous _Capriccio No. 24_, a theme familiar from its treatment by other composers, from Brahms to Rachmaninov and Boris Blacher. Liszt transmutes each of the eleven original variations into virtuoso piano writing.

Liszt's _Impromptu brillant sur des thèmes de Rossini et Spontini_ was written in 1824, the year in which the twelve-year-old boy made his début in Paris. It was published in Vienna the following year as _Op. 3_, and dedicated to Countess Eugénie de Noirberne. After a characteristic introduction, Liszt introduces a theme from Rossini's _La donna del lago_ (The Lady of the Lake), followed by a duo from _Armida_. A brief cadenza leads to a chorus from Spontini's _Olimpie_ and the work ends with a theme from the same composer's _Fernand Cortez_.

The _Sept variations brillantes sur un thème de Rossini_, dedicated to Madame Panckoucke, a member of the distinguished publishing family, also date from about 1824 and were published in Paris and London as _Op. 2_ in that year. The work starts again with an _Introduzione_, linked by a short cadenza to the theme, taken from Rossini's opera _Ermione_. The first variation introduces runs of thirds and arpeggios, the second accompanies arpeggiated chords with rapid left-hand figuration. The third variation introduces octaves and at one point ninths, taxing for a boy of Liszt's age, and the fourth, marked _con fuoco_ makes further technical demands. The fifth, in the minor, makes use of a _tremolo_ accompaniment and the sixth, in A major once more, is a _Polonaise_. The work ends with a display of virtuosity, marked _Brillante con forza_, an apt instruction. (Read more on Naxos)

Check out complimentary track: *Grandes Etudes de Paganini, S141/R3b (excerpts): No. 6 in A minor*


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