FRANZ LISZT Madness in Battle Against Lord Arthur, Who, in the Third Act, on the March from I Puritani
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572241bk Liszt31 US:570034bk Hasse 2/4/10 3:45 PM Page 4 Sir Richard, who sees that the woman is not Elvira. She, the Princess to declare Thalberg the first pianist in the thinking herself deserted, goes mad. Sir George, her uncle, world, and Liszt unique. For the same charity event she had and Sir Richard resolve to seek revenge for Elvira‘s commissioned sets of variations from six leading pianists FRANZ LISZT madness in battle against Lord Arthur, who, in the third act, on the March from I Puritani. In the event the compositite finds Elvira again, in spite of the danger to himself. work, Hexaméron, Grande Variations de bravoure, was 8.572241 Captured, he is about to be executed, when news of Puritan not ready in time, but later became part of Liszt’s Bellini Operas victory brings with it a general pardon. Elvira recovers her repertoire. The march comes at the end of the second act DDD sanity and her lover. Liszt’s transcription was written in of the opera, Suoni la tromba (Let the trumpet sound), as 1836 and dedicated to Princess Belgiojoso. It is based on the Puritans seek revenge for Lord Arthur’s supposed Reminiscences and Fantasy elements of the first of the three acts. A fanfare from the desertion of Elvira, and was the deliberate choice of the guard’s chorus La tromba rimbomba nunzia del dì (The Princess. Liszt wrote the introduction and the statement Hexaméron trumpet resounds, announcing the day) sets the scene. Lord of the theme. The first variation is by Thalberg, the theme Arthur arrives at Lord Walton’s castle, to be betrothed to often heard characteristically in a middle voice. This is Elvira, A te, o cara, amor talora (To you, my dear one, followed by Liszt’s variation and the de bravoure version William Wolfram, Piano beloved). Lord Walton agrees to the match and Elvira by Pixis, to which Liszt adds a transitional Ritornello. The expresses her delight in a Polacca, Son vergin vezzosa (I fourth variation is by Herz and marked Legato e grazioso, am a pretty girl). Liszt continues with Lord Arthur’s and the fifth, Vivo e brillante, is a tour de force by Czerny. declaration and Elvira’s uncle’s wish, Senza occaso, questa This is continued by Liszt in an interlude marked Fuocoso aurora (May this day never be overcast). molto energico and leading to a final F minor Quasi In Paris the press had fomented supposed rivalry recitativo. Chopin’s sixth variation, marked Largo, enters between Liszt and the virtuoso Sigmond Thalberg. another world, linked by Liszt to his own spirited Finale, Princess Belgiojoso took advantage of this by persuading Molto vivace e quasi prestissimo. both to play at her salon in aid of Italian refugees, a supposed contest in which both were winners, allowing Keith Anderson William Wolfram The American pianist William Wolfram was winner of the Silver Medal in both the William Kapell and the Naumberg International Piano Competitions. He also COMPLETE holds the distinction of Bronze medalist of the prestigious Tchaikovsky Piano PIANO Competition in Moscow. A versatile recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician, he has garnered the acclaim of international critics. His concerto début MUSIC with the Pittsburgh Symphony under the baton of Leonard Slatkin was the first Photo: Steve J. Sherman in a long succession of appearances and career relationships with numerous American orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony, the National C Symphony, the Dallas, Minnesota and Seattle Symphonies, among others. A devoted supporter of contemporary music, he has close ties with many composers M and has completed a recording project featuring the piano concertos of Edward Collins.He has also begun a long project with Naxos records featuring the solo Y piano music of Franz Liszt, of which two recordings have been completed. VOLUME 31 K 8.572241 4 572241bk Liszt31 US:570034bk Hasse 2/4/10 3:45 PM Page 2 Franz Liszt (1811–1886) whose salon Liszt became a frequent visitor. The occupation, it deals with the conflict between love and Bellini Operatic Reminiscences, Fantasy and Hexaméron ‘revolutionary Princess’, a fervent supporter of Italian duty, when Norma, a Druid priestess, daughter of the nationalism, had established herself in Paris in the early Druid leader Oroveso, who has secretly born two children How inventively and strongly he plunges the melodic blooms of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Mercadante 1830s and was the centre of a circle that included her to the Roman pro-consul Pollione, tries to prevent her into the billowing flood of his music, so that it is at one time clothed with the heavenly grace of Aphrodite, then reputed lovers LaFayette and Heine, George Sand, Alfred people rising against Rome. Pollione has transferred his with the teasing frolicsomeness of murmuring Naiads, then with the sublime gravity of the God that rules the de Musset and Liszt. Bellini’s command of French was affections to the young Druid priestess Adalgisa, who sea, thence proceeding to ever new delights! limited and he seems to have been happier in the house reveals her disloyalty to Norma and, now understanding – Carlo, Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, 7th December, 1839 outside Paris at Puteaux, made available to him by the reality of the situation, rejects Pollione. Norma Solomon Levy. Heine left a satirical picture of Bellini as considers killing her sons and then asking Adalgisa to go Born at Raiding, in Hungary, in 1811, the son of Adam orchestral music, the symphonic poem, and, as always, to ‘a sigh in dancing pumps’ and the Princess herself with Pollione and be a mother to her children in her place. Liszt, a steward in the service of Haydn’s former patrons, the revision and publication of earlier compositions. suggested that he appeared ‘effeminate, though most Adalgisa refuses to be disloyal to Norma, but goes to the Esterházy Princes, Franz Liszt had early encourage- It was in 1861, at the age of fifty, that Liszt moved to elegant’*. Whatever the impression he made on society, Pollione to recall him to his duty. He will not hear her, ment from members of the Hungarian nobility, allowing Rome, following Princess Carolyne, who had settled there where his French malapropisms aroused some amusement, and Norma now calls for open revolt. Meanwhile Pollione, him in 1822 to go to Vienna, for lessons with Czerny and a year earlier. Divorce and annulment seemed to have his operas and his command of melody had a marked attempting to abduct Adalgisa, has been taken prisoner, a famous meeting with Beethoven. From there he moved opened the way to their marriage, but they now continued effect on other composers, on the young Chopin and on and will be put to death. Norma offers in his place one to Paris, where Cherubini refused him admission to the to live in separate apartments in the city. Liszt eventually Liszt himself. who has broken faith with her people, herself. A funeral Conservatoire, as a foreigner. Nevertheless he was able took minor orders and developed a pattern of life that Bellini’s opera La Sonnambula (The Sleep-Walker) pyre is erected, which she mounts, joined in her final to impress audiences by his performance, now supported divided his time between Weimar, where he imparted was first staged in Milan in 1831. The opera deals with the moments by Pollione. Liszt, in his Réminiscences de by the Erard family, piano manufacturers whose wares he advice to a younger generation, Rome, where he was able misapprehension caused by Amina’s sleep-walking and Norma, written in 1841, summarises the complex plot in was able to advertise in the concert tours on which he to pursue his religious interests, and Pest, where he the jealousy of her betrothed Elvino, when Amina, in her seven passages taken from the opera, opening with the embarked. In 1827 Adam Liszt died, and Franz Liszt was returned now as a national hero. He died in 1886 in sleep, enters the room of Count Rodolpho in the village first act Norma viene (Norma comes), as Norma enters, now joined again by his mother in Paris, while using his Bayreuth, where his daughter Cosima, widow of Richard inn. Matters are resolved when Amina is seen perilously joining the assembled people. This is followed by time to teach, to read and benefit from the intellectual Wagner, lived, more concerned with the continued walking in her sleep, solving the village mystery of a Oroveso’s earlier exhortation to his people, Ite sul colle society with which he came into contact. His interest in propagation of her husband’s music. suspected ghost and the allegations of her infidelity. Before (Go to the hills), and Dell’aura tua profetica (From your virtuoso performance was renewed when he heard the Operatic transcriptions, arrangements, paraphrases and her final reconciliation with Elvino she finds the occasion, prophetic inspiration), as the Druids call on their god to great violinist Paganini, whose technical accomplishments fantasies were a necessary part of the repertoire of any as she sleeps, for a brief mad scene, from which she is inspire Norma. The other themes are taken from the final he now set out to emulate. virtuoso performer. Liszt excelled in these evocations of gently wakened by her lover. Liszt’s Fantasy starts with scene of the opera. Deh! non volerli vittime (Oh let them The years that followed brought a series of composi- the opera house, often treating the borrowed thematic the chorus Osservate! l’uscio è aperto (See, the door is not be victims), Qual cor tradisti (What heart you tions, including transcriptions of songs and operatic material in novel ways that revealed new features.