![]() ![]() Through a study of Carl Czerny's influence on Liszt, and the latter's own improvisational practices, I take a medium-sensitive approach to the “Dante” Sonata by interrogating the historical concept of Phantasieren as part of a rereading of the compositional technique of thematic transformation. As a work borne expressly of improvisational acts, the “Dante” Sonata exhibits paradoxical traits that bind it to both performance and compositional traditions. As such, it documents the mise-en-scène of Liszt's self-fashioned metamorphosis from virtuoso to composer. The staggered compositional history of one particular piano work, Après une lecture du Dante-Fantasie quasi Sonata (1839–58), straddles this schism uniquely in that it bridged two distinct periods of Liszt's life: the Glanzzeit of immensely successful European concert tours, and the predominantly compositional span as Kapellmeister in Weimar. The European press of the late 1830s indicates a glaring disparity between Liszt's questionable status as a composer and his eminence as a virtuoso performer.
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