Beschreibung
Franz Liszt completed his Piano Sonata in B Minor at Weimar in 1853. It met with a mixed reception from the musical establishment of the day but is now a part of the repertoire of every leading pianist and may even be the most frequently recorded and performed piano work ever written. It is the outstanding example of the compositional process of thematic transformation. The grandeur and lyrical power of its themes, based on three motifs so clearly stated at the outset, place it at the pinnacle of the piano literature. Wensleydale Press has launched a series of Liszt Piano Sonata Monographs on special aspects of musicological interest. Each monograph upholds the best traditions of modern musicological scholarship while presenting the contents in an attractive way for the general reader. The first monograph, published in the (northern) autumn of 2010, discusses in detail the Hupfeld piano roll recording of the Sonata performed by Arthur Friedheim. For many years the roll was believed to have been lost or destroyed but in March 2010 it turned up in a private collection in New York. Arthur Friedheim studied the Sonata with Franz Liszt who said of his concert performance, 'that is how I thought the composition when I wrote it!' The only other recording of the Sonata by a Liszt pupil that has come down to us is that of Eugen d'Albert but he seems never to have actually studied it with Liszt himself. (Liszt pupil Josef Weiss recorded the Sonata but enquiries to-date have failed to reveal any trace of the roll.) It follows that the Friedheim roll is an epoch-making find for scholars and performers. The first monograph discusses: * Friedheims performances * Friedheims piano roll * Melodydelaying and arpeggiata * Friedheim amalgam * Other harmonic changes * Other textual changes * Final bar * Tempos and metronome markings * Stylistic freedom * Pedalling * Dynamics * Recitatives * Phonola range analysis * Musical aesthetic * Traditions * Timeline of performances, editions, books, recordings and events * Excerpts from Hupfeld catalogues * Tempo comparison (Friedheim vs. Brendel, Stradal and dAlbert) * Timing comparison (Friedheim vs. Brendel) Contact: info@lisztsonata.com More information: www.lisztsonata.com
Autorenportrait
Gerard Carter (*1943) is the author of four books on the Liszt Sonata and has produced CDs of historic recordings as well as of his own performance. Martin Adler (*1973) has a doctorate of natural sciences from the University of Marburg and runs an internet consultancy in Bonn where he lives with his wife and their three children.
