This programme demonstrates fully what an expressive instrument the piano had become in the 19th century.  It is hard to imagine that 50 years before the birth of Chopin and Liszt, the harpsichord was the principal domestic keyboard instrument.  Public solo keyboard recitals were a thing of the future.  Having siad that, this evening’s 2 composers, while friends and colleagues, were very different animals when it came to public performance.   Liszt thrived on public adulation while Chopin reserved his performances for the society salons of Paris and rarely appeared in public.  As a young prodigy Liszt toured Europe astounding audiences with his extraordinary technique, just as Paganini had as a violinist.  To feed his public recitals Liszt composed new works for a repertoire that also included operatic transcriptions of popular works and songs by Schubert.   He created a musical journal of his travels in his Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) describing visits in pianistic pictures.  

“Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude” comes from the cycle of piano pieces “Harmonies poétiques et religieuses”, inspired by poems of the French romantic poet, Alphonse de Lamartine.  While the piece demonstrates all the virtuosity required of Liszt, it is a wonderfully expressive work and the perfect opening of a programme dedicated to the 19th century piano.  

The combination of musical expression and virtuoso technique applies equally to the music of Chopin.  He was a master of small structures though his 2nd and 3rd Sonatas and his 2 Piano Concertos bear his own particular stamp in larger works.  Chopin composed 4 Scherzos and 4 Ballades.  They were not published or created originally as collections, but a single entities.  If the Scherzos are more virtuosic, the Ballades are lyrical in the extreme, though if they tell story, the composer never let on!    

Much has been written about Liszt’s B minor Sonata.  Liszt has been considered the “father” of programme music, that is music based upon extra musical ideas.  He wrote several orchestral works which he called symphonic poems, all based upon literary or historical themes.  As regards the B minor Sonata, it has often been thought to be influenced by the Faust legend with Marguerite, Faust and Mephistopheles as principal characters.  While Liszt was silent as to any extra musical ideas,  his own students agreed that Faust and Marguerite are present in the musical themes.   
The shape of the Sonata is beyond the classical forms, but they are actually present within one large movement.  The sonata is a cornucopia of musical themes and ideas, rich in invention and harmony.  The Sonata has been described as both a technical and intellectual challenge for the performer and should be regarded as one of the most important works in the whole of the piano repertoire.  

 

Programme Notes Copywrite Alistair Jones, 2026