The Music of Liszt

THE

MUSIC

OF

HUMPHREY SEARLE

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY

SARA DAVIS BUECHNER

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

MINEOLA, NEW YORK

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2012, is an unabridged and revised republication of the work first published by Williams & Norgate Ltd., London, in 1954. It contains a preface prepared by the author in 1966. Sara Davis Buechner has prepared a new Introduction for this 2012 edition.

International Standard Book Number

eISBN-13: 978-0-486-78640-7

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

48793801

www.doverpublications.com

In Memory of

CONSTANT LAMBERT

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

MY THANKS are due to the President and Council of the Royal Musical Association for permission to reproduce those parts of Chapter IV which originally appeared in Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. LXXVIII ; and to Messrs. Breitkopf & Härtel for permission to reprint the quotation from Busoni’s edition of the Paganini-Liszt Étude No. .

H. S.

INTRODUCTION

Written in fond affection and memory of Joseph Bloch (1917-2009), who used this book in his Piano Literature lectures on Franz Liszt at the Juilliard School.

LISZT’S OEUVRE

The music of Franz Liszt (1811–1886) continues to amaze current generations even as it did Liszt’s own, and those who immediately followed him; and it is the safest of bets that it shall continue to amaze, confound, and delight music lovers for eternity. For pianists particularly, Liszt is a touchstone figure—one of those select few composers who, like Chopin and Debussy, defined the very essence of pianism through his musical soul. That his life was as richly Romantic and thunderously vigorous as his piano playing, is but a boon to biographers who have lavished their attentions on the sensual combination of virility, stage command and Heaven-storming pathos that the demonic Franz Liszt- pastoral collar round his neck, eyes fixed towards Paradise, Satanic wart-growths flecked upon his nose, hands crushing keyboards and beautiful women simultaneously with Mephistophelian ease—has come to immortalize. Concert pianists are no less hypnotized than the general public by those performers whose technical command admits them to the select Pantheon of virtuosi able to surmount the near-inhuman demands of such masterworks as the Sonata in B minor, Années de Pélerinage, Paganini Studies, Transcendental Etudes, Operatic Fantasies on Don Juan, Rigoletto, Norma, Oberon, et al. It is those lucky musicians who investigate the complexities of such scores who come away with a schooling, not only in simplistic terms of an introduction to the heights of bravura possible on the piano. Pianists who study Liszt’s seemingly bottomless oeuvre are amply rewarded with a deep and abiding respect for his mastery of form, keyboard orchestration, transcription, sheer invention, and sense of sonorous splendor. Franz Liszt, it may be said, was in fact the very personification of the piano. Although there are those who dislike his music—often, those who cannot fathom nor handle its challenges—even they dare not ignore it. A musician who does not come to terms with Liszt is like a New Yorker who fails to find the Empire State Building for lack of searching upward.

Part of the challenge to learning Liszt’s music is the sheer amount of it—probably over a thousand works of which the enormous output for piano is but a part (enough for at least 75 CDs). There are orchestral and choral works, chamber music, songs, and an opera; and for the keyboard, a seemingly bottomless trove of original works for two and four hands; one and two pianos; paraphrases, transcriptions, and arrangements of music by other composers too—Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Chopin, Gounod, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Rossini, Schubert, Schumann, Weber, many more. The unmatched abundance of Liszt’s musical output is a daunting wall to the student who wishes to gain an appreciation of his general style and musical language. Where to start? What are the major works? Minor works? Works that exist in more than one version? Experiments successful and non, and landmarks of note?

The Music of Liszt by Humphrey Searle was the first book in English to discuss Liszt’s music in a scholarly fashion, with a comprehensive appraisal of his compositions arranged in chronological order, and grouped in relation to specific periods of Liszt’s life. Its only real predecessor, in German, was Peter Raabe’s Franz Liszt (Stuttgart, 1931). When Searle’s volume appeared in 1954 (published by Williams & Norgate), interest in Liszt’s experimental later compositions was just beginning, fuelled also by the first publications, by Schott and Co. in London, of the Liszt Society. Thus it is with particular interest to read Searle’s descriptions of such works as En Rêve or the Third Mephisto Waltz, which were then being rediscovered—thanks largely to Searle’s own efforts.

This volume remains an exceedingly persuasive and helpful research guide, particularly for the student who is freshly embarking on research into Liszt’s life and work, as well as for the pianist (or other musician) who wishes to know important background material about a work he or she may be undertaking to perform, analyze, or listen to. Searle’s concluding biographical survey is particularly helpful in matching works to specific events in Liszt’s life. The catalog provided at the end of this volume is likewise of use, but at this point in time should not be regarded as the last word; readers are advised in any case to consult Alan Walker’s comprehensive biography of Franz Liszt (published by Alfred A. Knopf, in three volumes, 1983, 1989, 1996) for further elucidation and corrections, and to examine internet sources that are better able to update timely corrections or evaluation of newly-discovered scores.

SEARLE AND LISZT

After early compositional studies with John Ireland at the Royal College of Music, Humphrey Searle became a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg’s disciple Anton Webern in Vienna. Returning to England shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Searle became one of the leading British proponents (along with Elizabeth Luytens) of twelve-tone music. His bent as a musician strongly gravitated against the conservative grain, and he found allies in such notable leading figures as William Walton, Constant Lambert, Walter Goehr and René Leibowitz. Among his own compositions are five Symphonies (the last dedicated to the memory of Webern), two Piano Concertos, numerous chamber and vocal works, and several important operas including Hamlet (1968). In his later years, he returned to the Royal College of Music as a teacher, and numbered Michael Finnissy among his many illustrious pupils.

Humphrey Searle became fascinated with the music of Franz Liszt at a time when relatively little was understood about the importance of the Hungarian pianist’s place in music history, and the full extant of his compositional output was only beginning to become known. The legacy of Liszt as Hyper-Romantic virtuoso—á la the Hollywood biopic Song Without End—helped to undermine more sober assessments of his tremendous contributions to the development of music as a pianist, composer, conductor, and pedagogue. However, a fortuitous anniversary brought about a new view of Liszt, in the eyes of Searle.

1936 was the 50th anniversary of the death of Liszt, noted Searle in a lengthy autobiographical essay entitled Quadrille with a Raven, written shortly before his death in 1982. I had previously underrated this composer, having been taught that he was ‘flashy and vulgar,’ but in 1936 three things happened which opened my eyes to his importance. My friend Ronald Crichton introduced me to the Années de Pélerinage, beautiful and original lyrical pieces which are certainly neither flashy nor vulgar; I read Sacheverell Sitwell’s biography of Liszt published two years earlier, which gives a fascinating picture of Liszt’s character and the times in which he lived, and the Vic-Wells Ballet put on Apparitions to music by Liszt, chosen by Constant Lambert mostly from Liszt’s late experimental pieces and skilfully orchestrated by Gordon Jacob—the young Margot Fonteyn was the leading ballerina.

Enlisting the help of Lambert as conductor, in November 1936 Searle proceeded to mount a groundbreaking all-Liszt program in Oxford, on which the English premiere of Liszt’s Malediction for piano and strings was given. Additional premieres and rare performances of such Liszt works as La Lugubre Gondola, Csrárdás Macabre, Nuages Gris, and many other pieces were presented. The concert attracted an audience of luminaries, including both Sacheverell Sitwell, pianists Louis Kentner and Ilona Kabos, Lord Berners, and writer Cecil Gray. The resultant publicity and excellent notices helped to fuel English enthusiasm for the then-unknown later music of Franz Liszt, culminating in the formation of the English Liszt Society in 1950. Besides Searle, founding members of this important musicological organization included Edward Dent, Sitwell, Kentner, Lambert, William Walton and the Hon. Edward Sackville-West. Dedicated to the appreciation and study of the life and works of Liszt, and the performance, publication and recording of his music, the Liszt Society has presently published some 14 volumes of rare music by Liszt, and co-sponsored numerous other publications of Liszt’s works. I think that the Society is at any rate partly responsible for the greater appreciation of Liszt as a composer today, not only in England but in other countries as well, wrote Searle. Indeed, today there are Liszt Societies all around the world.

Searle’s enthusiasm for Liszt’s music has at least some connection to his own studies with Arnold Schoenberg’s pupil Anton Webern, and his promotion of serial technique in his mature compositions. The inclination of Liszt towards non-diatonic harmony in such late works as the Bagatelle Without Tonality, as well as the Hungarian composer’s generous and lifelong support of new music and young composers, surely provided a compelling role model for Humphrey Searle. The influence of Liszt as a composer can most surely be seen in Searle’s music for piano, such as his Ballade, op. 10 (1947), Sonata, op. 21 (1951) and two Piano Concertos (1944 and 1955).

Searle, for his part, actually turned down an invitation from Eric Blom to write a full-fledged biography of Liszt for the Masters of Music series; but in 1940, he prepared a complete catalog of Liszt’s music for the fourth edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians. That catalog was revised and re-numbered in 1954 for the fifth edition; and further updated for the second edition of The Music of Liszt in 1966. Searle (S.) numbers are now used in cataloging the music of Franz Liszt, although that catalog has now been amended by both Sharon Winklhofer and Leslie Howard; and continues to need revision as previously unknown manuscripts keep turning up, even to this day.

In addition to his volume on Liszt’s music, Searle wrote an important guide to contrapuntal techniques by prominent composers of his time (Twentieth-Century Counterpoint, Williams & Norgate, 1954), and contributed additional essays to Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, on Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. Searle’s incomplete autobiography, as well as a work list and associated essays, can be found online, at www.musicweb-international.com/searle.

SARA DAVIS BUECHNER

Vancouver, April 2012

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

THE ISSUE of a second edition has made it possible to make some corrections and also to include discussion of some of Liszt’s works which have only come to light since 1954; these include the Historical Hungarian Portraits, the fourth Valse Oubliée, and the Bagatelle sans Tonalité. In addition, the catalogue of works and bibliography have been brought up to date.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

TO WRITE a complete account of Liszt’s music would need several volumes and a lifetime of work; and this book cannot attempt to do that. It only claims to give a general survey of Liszt’s compositions, and in particular to draw attention to a number of his works which deserve more attention than they usually receive. I feel that it is useless to attempt to add to the biographies of Liszt which already exist—in particular the excellent one by Mr. Sacheverell Sitwell, which so admirably evokes the times in which Liszt lived—but a biographical summary is included which gives some idea of the relation in time between Liszt’s life and his works. The works are discussed in chronological periods, and within each period are subdivided according to the medium they are written for; the normal order in each chapter is: piano music, other instrumental music, orchestral works, works for piano and orchestra, organ music, sacred choral works, secular choral works, songs and recitations. An alphabetical index of works at the end of the book gives the number of the page on which each work is referred to, and also the number under which it will be found in the catalogue. Naturally it has been impossible to discuss every one of the seven hundred works which Liszt wrote, and I must ask the indulgence of those who may complain that their favourites have been passed over in silence. All that I have tried to do is to give as much information as possible about all Liszt’s more important and interesting works, and hope that this may stimulate others to pursue researches for themselves. For those who read German a great deal of useful information may be found in the two volumes of Peter Raabe’s Franz Liszt (Stuttgart, 1931), a work to which any subsequent writer on Liszt must record his indebtedness; Raabe was for many years Director of the Liszt Museum at Weimar, and thus had access to a great many unpublished MSS. and letters. Though one may not always agree with Raabe’s critical judgments, his book remains the main authority on the subject, pending the publication of the monumental researches of Professor Emile Haraszti. Further useful sources will be found listed in the bibliography.

CONTENTS

  I. The Early Works (1822-39)

 II. The Virtuoso Period (1839-47)

III. The Weimar Years (1848-61)

IV. The Final Period

Part I. Rome (1861-9)

Part II. Rome, Weimar, Budapest (1869-86)

Biographical Survey

Catalogue of Works

Bibliography

Index of Works Mentioned

Index of Names

THE

MUSIC

OF

CHAPTER I

THE EARLY WORKS (1822-39)

LISZT WAS one of the most prolific of all the great composers. Although out of the seven hundred works or so which will be found in the catalogue at the end of this book many are new versions of earlier pieces, or transcriptions for a different medium of works by other composers or by Liszt himself, nevertheless, when one takes into account the enormous number of activities which he managed to crowd into his very varied life, his output remains astonishing. Of these works well over half are for the piano (including piano duet and two pianos) and in his early period, before he set off on his travels as a virtuoso pianist, he wrote for practically no other medium; even the works which he wrote for piano and orchestra at this time do not appear to have been scored by Liszt himself.

Liszt’s earliest recorded composition (now lost) was a Tantum Ergo for choir, written in 1822, when he was an eleven-year-old pupil of Salieri in Vienna; in later years he dimly remembered this as being similar in mood to the Tantum Ergo of 1869. Apart from this work, and the short opera Don Sanche, all his youthful compositions were, naturally enough, for piano. The earliest surviving piece is a variation, also written in 1822, on the famous theme of Diabelli, for the collection to which fifty Austrian composers were invited to contribute one variation each, and to which Beethoven replied by sending thirty-three; other composers taking part included Schubert, Czerny, Hummel and Kalkbrenner, so this was a decided honour for Liszt. The variations were arranged in alphabetical order of the composers’ names, and Liszt’s is thus the twenty-fourth. It is published in the Breitkopf Collected Edition of Liszt’s works; though certainly it is very competently written, it shows practically no individuality at all.

The same is true of the majority of the works written in his teens. Most of these were composed after his removal to Paris, and already in 1824 Czerny wrote to Adam Liszt that Franz had ready 2 Rondos di bravura, for which offers have been made here, but I will not sell, I Rondo, I Fantasia, Variations on several themes, and I Amusement or rather Quodlibet on various themes of Rossini and Spontini, which he played to His Majesty with much applause. In the following year he mentions also two Concertos, a Sonata for four hands, a Trio and a Quintetto, remarking that the Concertos make those of Hummel seem quite easy by comparison.

Of all these works the only surviving ones * are the Huit Variations in A flat, dedicated to Sebastian Érard, the founder of the well-known piano and harp manufacturing firm, who helped Liszt considerably during this time; the Variations brillantes sur un thème de G. Rossini, a rare work of which copies are only to be found in the British Museum and the library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna (the theme is from Rossini’s Ermione); the Impromptu brillant sur des thèmes de Rossini et Spontini, from the Donna del Lago and Armida of the former, and the Olympia and Fernand Cortez of the latter; the Allegro di Bravura and Rondo di Bravura, dedicated to Count Thaddeus Amaddé, one of the Hungarian magnates who helped to provide for Liszt’s education; the opera Don Sanche ou le Chateau d’Amour, which was produced at the Paris Opera on 17 October 1825; a Scherzo in G minor dating from 1827; two pieces called Zum Andenken (1828), which are interesting as being Liszt’s first essays in the Hungarian style; and, most important of all, the Étude en 48 Exercices dans tous les Tons Majeurs et Mineurs—the earliest version of the Transcendental Studies. In addition the Liszt Museum at Weimar possess sketches for a piano concerto which is the