Portrait of Liszt during the late years.
Among the many things that are representative of Liszt, such as the 19th century piano virtuoso and concert artist, the concept of thematic transformation and father of the symphonic poem, the so-called “half gypsy, half priest,” the fascination on Liszt and his output tops off as the ideal Romantic figure.
However, Liszt was often in controversy during his life, something he still face today. Like two sides of a coin, there are strong followers and also ones who dislike of Liszt’s music. I myself never fancied much of Liszt at the beginning, mostly because of the over-dramatization, shallowness, and superfluous gestures often portrayed in music and recordings, and my lack of piano ‘chops’ to perform the work confidently. These negative personal attributions to Liszt gradually went away as I began to search deeper into Liszt’s life and music.
With many studies done and music performed from Liszt’s early and middle periods, I divert my area of focus to the late period (1869-1886) where an abundance of content and music still exists but less studied and performed. The late years in my opinion, are most revolutionary in 19th century music development - Liszt made radical decisions in form, texture, harmony, and timbre - seemingly a foreshadowing of the future. The music also reflects the reality and vulnerability present in humanity, qualities that the earlier works lacked from.
“The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself.” - Caspar David Friedrich
The music of the aging Liszt reflected his personal feelings, struggles, and integrity - a pour out of creativity. The reception of his late music faced great criticism, even his “friend”/son-in-law Richard Wagner called Liszt’s music “budding insanity.” The mention of R.W. is important to study F.L. and will require a separate entry to further explore their fated/ill-fated relationship.
Now, first back to Liszt. It is true that so much has been studied on Liszt and the question arises why do we need more of Liszt. Therefore, I approached the subject with a mindset to explore and evaluate by using these prominent questions as basis: ‘What is the value of Liszt’s late piano music?’, and ‘Are they worth studying?’ With time and research spent, I found a growing interest to develop a study based on the performance and pedagogical aspect of Liszt’s late piano music. This study aims to provide the following:
Address the style characteristics and composition techniques used in the late music;
Provide a performance and pedagogy guide catalogue of the late piano works organized by category and level of study;
Promote study and program of the late piano music into performance;
Foster the value of Liszt’s late life and music in music learning and performance.
I am excited in this interesting project and looking forward to see progress soon!