Piano Sonata, S. 178
28 min
Recording
- Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178Jorge Bolet · 196027:36
Liszt built his Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178, from transformations of a few themes, so that a hammered figure returns as a melody and later as a fugue subject. Jorge Bolet plays the complete work in this recording from 1960.
Listening notes · joins
- Opening, bars 1–7
Two low Gs, separated by rests, are followed by a descending scale. Liszt marks the piano sotto voce, under the breath. The scale falls twice, with different intervals the second time, and no B minor chord sounds yet.
- Allegro energico, two motifs
The Allegro energico introduces two short ideas, an octave leap with a falling triplet at bar 8 and a repeated-note figure at bar 13. Both return in varied forms. At bar 153 the repeated-note figure becomes a cantando espressivo melody.
- Autograph manuscript
Liszt wrote the manuscript on green-blue paper, first in black ink. He added articulation, dynamics and fingerings in red, and made later changes in red crayon and pencil. It has many corrections and paste-overs.
- Grandioso in D major
At bar 105 the Grandioso theme enters in D major, a melody over broad chords. The accompaniment beneath it is in repeated quavers, like the hammering figure heard earlier.
- Hammer motif as melody
The music turns to dolce con grazia at bar 120. At bar 153 the hammering figure becomes a melody marked cantando espressivo, its quavers lengthened to crotchets over a triplet accompaniment.
- Liszt at Weimar
At Weimar Liszt was court Kapellmeister, and his relationship with Princess Carolyne gave him peace to compose. The final versions of his two piano concertos and the Faust and Dante symphonies date from the same years.
- Agitato and incalzando
After the singing tune (bar 153), the score marks the tune agitato at bar 191. At bar 255 comes incalzando: the music presses forward, faster, forceful and boisterous, until the Andante sostenuto at bar 331.
- Early version, Weimar, 1849
Liszt is said to have presented an early version to a private circle in Weimar in the summer of 1849, and the first surviving sketch dates from that year. Most of the work was done in 1852–53. The autograph is dated 2 February 1853.
- Dedication to Schumann, 1854
The Sonata was published in 1854 with a dedication to Robert Schumann, who had dedicated his C major Fantasy to Liszt fifteen years earlier. When Liszt’s score reached the Schumann household that May, Robert was in the sanatorium at Endenich.
- Clara Schumann’s diary, May 1854
Liszt sent the dedication copy to Clara Schumann on 21 May 1854. On 25 May she wrote in her diary: “Brahms played them to me, but I became completely wretched. … It is nothing but blind noise.”
- Andante sostenuto in F♯ major, 3/4
The Andante sostenuto, at bar 331, is in F♯ major and three beats to the bar. A quiet melody moves over soft piano chords. The earlier singing tune and the Grandioso return within this slow section, leading to a broad F♯ major climax at bar 397.
- Blank lines in the autograph
In the autograph Liszt left a few blank lines before the Andante sostenuto (bar 331) and again before the later Allegro energico fugato (bar 460). In his preface to the Henle edition (2016), Ernst Herttrich identified these sections as a slow movement and a scherzo within the single span.
- Klindworth plays it to Wagner, 1855
On 5 April 1855 Karl Klindworth played the Sonata to Wagner in London. That evening Wagner wrote to Liszt that it was “beautiful beyond anything, grand and sweet, deep and noble, sublime as you are yourself”, and that “The London misery was forgotten all at once.”
- Climax and return of the slow theme
The slow section reaches its climax on a broad F♯ major chord. As the chord is held, a rising scale in the left hand leads back to the slow theme, now accompanied by left-hand scales moving up and down.
- Programme and the Faust tale
Liszt gave the Sonata no written programme. Numerous commentators have nonetheless read it as another musical version of the Faust tale, which attracted many Romantic composers. Liszt used the same techniques in his Faust Symphony, begun in 1854.
- The fugato and the form
Scholars have disagreed about where the fugato belongs in the form. Alan Walker called it “both a third movement and an extended leadback into the recapitulation”. Kenneth Hamilton described it as development, as part of a non-tonic recapitulation or as a scherzo, “or not, depending on your reaction to this stroke of genius”.
- Fugato in B♭ minor
At bar 460 a fugato begins in B♭ minor, built on the leaping figure and the repeated-note figure from the opening. One voice enters with the subject, and a second enters while the first continues.
- First performance, Berlin, 1857
On 22 January 1857 Hans von Bülow gave the Sonata its first public performance, at a trio evening in Berlin’s Englisches Haus. He had studied with Liszt since 1851. Later that year he married Liszt’s daughter Cosima, and her father attended the wedding.
- Recapitulation in B minor
The fugato leads back to B minor and the main theme of the opening Allegro at bar 533. Liszt compresses the return, and the Grandioso and the singing melody reappear in a much shorter span. A Prestissimo follows at bar 682, then a final grand statement.
- Jorge Bolet and Moriz Rosenthal
Jorge Bolet studied with Moriz Rosenthal, a renowned pupil of Liszt. In 1960, the year of this recording, he played the piano soundtrack for the film Song Without End, in which Dirk Bogarde plays Liszt.
- Prestissimo and final climax
A Prestissimo leads to the return of the Grandioso melody and the last climax. Alan Walker stressed that the silence after that climax must be long enough.
- Andante sostenuto and revised ending
After the grand climax, the piano returns to Andante sostenuto at bar 711. Liszt’s manuscript contains a louder ending, crossed out. In its place the opening ideas return quietly in reverse order, with the repeated-note figure at bar 729, the leap at bar 737 and the falling scale at bar 750.
- Letter to Wagner, 1855
Liszt replied to Wagner from Weimar on 2 May 1855: “Your letter about the sonata has highly delighted me, and you must excuse me for not having thanked you at once.”
Joins
- From Lento assai to Allegro energico
The low Gs and falling scales of Lento assai lead to Allegro energico at bar 8. The piano leaps in octaves, plays a triplet figure and then strikes a repeated note. B minor is firmly established later, at bar 32.
- Falling bass scales lead to D major
The descending scale from the opening returns in the bass of the piano, beneath the hammering figure. The figure is repeated as the harmony moves towards D major, the relative major of B minor. At Grandioso, the right hand plays the new melody in broad chords and the left hand continues in repeated quavers.
- From the Grandioso to cantando espressivo
After the D major Grandioso at bar 105, the principal theme returns in the piano at bar 120, marked dolce con grazia. At the cantando espressivo at bar 153, Liszt doubles the note values of the repeated-note figure, and triplets in the accompaniment sit under the new melodic line.
- Andante sostenuto in F♯ major
At the Andante sostenuto (bar 331), the piano moves to F♯ major and 3/4. The right hand plays a quiet melody over moving chords, and a low note sits under each change of chord. The slow section brings back the singing theme and the Grandioso.
- Slow section to fugato
The slow section leads to Allegro energico in B♭ minor, where a fugato begins at bar 460. The piano’s lower voice takes up the leaping and repeated-note figures, and a second voice enters above it. In short staccato notes, the earlier hammer-blow figure becomes a running fugue subject.
- The fugato returns to B minor
The fugato leads back to B minor. At bar 533 the piano plays the principal theme first heard at bar 32 again, with its leaping octaves and repeated-note figure together. The Grandioso and the singing melody follow in shortened versions.
- Silence before the final Andante
The climax at bar 710 is followed by a pause. The Andante sostenuto begins at bar 711, where the quiet melody returns. Liszt then brings back the repeated-note figure, the octave leap and the descending scale of the opening, now in reverse order, with thematic returns at bars 729, 737 and 750.