Conventions, Genres, Practices in the Performance of Liszt’s Piano Music

Pace, Ian (2006) Conventions, Genres, Practices in the Performance of Liszt’s Piano Music. Liszt Society Journal, 31. pp. 70-103. ISSN 0141-0792

Abstract / Summary

The article and its companion piece 'Performing Liszt in the 'Style Hongroise'', Liszt Society Journal, Volume 32 (2007), 24935 words in total, constitute the most extensive work to date in English on Liszt performance practice. Together they draw upon a wealth of research into Liszt’s masterclasses, writings, letters, and many memoirs (in various languages) from those who knew him or studied with him, brought into a dialogue with other considerations derived from structural, analytical, programmatic and biographical aspects of the work. The first article concentrates on the 'Sonata in B Minor' and various of Liszt’s transcriptions, whilst the focus of the second is on the 'Rhapsodies Hongroises' in the context of the history of Hungarian nationalism, the situation of the Roma in the Hungary of Liszt’s time, and his own changing allegiances in this respect in the period between the first and second versions of the pieces. As regards Liszt's transcriptions, changing approaches to performance of the works transcribed (especially Beethoven's symphonies), between the works' composition and Liszt’s lifetime, are examined for clues to the types of interpretive approaches that Liszt desired. Different constructions of Liszt and the virtuoso tradition, as examined by scholars associated with the ‘New Musicology’, are also considered in this context. This work constitutes part of Pace's research into 19th-century performance practice, including a whole book on Brahms published by Ashgate, and a chapter on performance of 19th-century instrumental music in 'The Cambridge History of Musical Performance', edited by Colin Lawson and Robin Stowell. It builds in part upon lectures Pace gave in several countries, entitled ‘Rethinking Romanticism’.

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