Piano Sonata (Complete) (Liszt) (whom the world recognises) (Please read commentary at the bottom).

Liszt noted on his sonata's manuscript that it was completed on 2 February 1853, but he had composed an earlier version by 1849. At this point in his life, Liszt's career as a travelling virtuoso had almost entirely subsided, as he had been influenced towards leading the life of a composer rather than a performer by Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein almost five years earlier. Liszt's life was established in Weimar and he was living a comfortable lifestyle, composing, and occasionally performing, entirely by choice rather than necessity.
The dedication to Robert Schumann in return for Schumann's dedication of his Fantasie in C major, Op. 17 (published 1839) to Liszt, one which Clara Schumann spitefully expunged in her edition of her late husband’s works!! Clara did not perform the Sonata despite her marriage to Robert Schumann and, according to scholar Alan Walker, she found it "merely a blind noise".
A copy of the work arrived at the Schumann's house in May 1854 after Schumann had entered Endenich sanatorium, the dedication being to Robert.
The Sonata was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1854 and first performed on 27 January 1857 in Berlin by Hans von Bülow. It was attacked by Eduard Hanslick who said "anyone who has heard it and finds it beautiful is beyond help". Johannes Brahms reputedly fell asleep when Liszt performed the work in 1853, and it was also criticised by the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein!!
It took a long time for the Sonata to become commonplace in concert repertoire because of its technical difficulty and negative initial reception due to its status as "new" music. However by the early stages of the twentieth century, the piece had become established as a pinnacle of Liszt's repertoire and has been a popularly performed and extensively analysed piece ever since.
It was influenced by Schubert’s ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy in the shape of the piece and is autobiographical or self-revelatory in style, evoking passionale moments and regretful points in his life up until then.
(This is most definitely autobiographical, turning the emotional ecstasies and disappointments that Liszt went through in his lifetime into music, upto this point in composition.
A most wonderful adaptation of this music is a ballet, danced to an orchestral arrangement of the sonata, named 'Marguerite and Armand'. It was created in 1963 by the British choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton specifically for Nureyev and Fonteyn. The ballet takes its inspiration from the 1848 novel La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, and other adaptations of the same story such as Verdi's 1853 opera La traviata).
(I regard this sonata as being very personal to Liszt. It tells the story of two sides of life, up and down: the up-side was when he was the pianist who everyone wanted to see and hear play; the down-side is when he was simply an entertainer, tolerated in society but not alllowed to get above his Hungarian, earthy roots! He was slim and lithe, and attracted a great number of female admirers, some with whom he had affairs, but there must have been one who caught his attention over all the others and to whom he embodied one of the themes in this sonata. Her name was Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein).
(MEDDLING BODIES OF 'AUTHORITY' :-
After arriving in Weimar, Princess Carolyne lived apart from Liszt, in order to avoid suspicions of impropriety. She wished eventually to marry Liszt, but since her husband was still alive, she had to convince the Roman Catholic authorities that her marriage to him had been invalid. Her appeal to the Archbishop of St Petersburg for an annulment was ultimately unsuccessful, and the couple abandoned pretence and began to live together in the autumn of 1848. After a visit to Rome and an audience with Pope Pius IX in 1860, Carolyne finally secured an annulment. It was planned that she and Liszt would marry in Rome, on 22 October 1861, Liszt's 50th birthday. Liszt arrived in Rome on 21 October, but a Vatican official had arrived the previous day in order to stop the marriage. This was a result of the machinations of Cardinal Hohenlohe (WHO'S HE?) who wanted to protect a complex inheritance agreement brokered by Tsar Alexander II (WHO'S HE?)
Carolyne subsequently gave up all attempts to marry Liszt, even after her husband's death in 1864. She became a recluse, working for the rest of her life on a long work critical of the Catholic Church).
The sonata has recurring themes, or motifs. In order of presentation, they are:
1. demonic, sometimes forthright beleaguering.
2. Lisztian energy.
3. Carolyne's noble stature.
4. Carolyne's tender theme.
GlynGlynn, realiser.
Feel free to leave any comments, be they good, bad, or indifferent as to whether the piece or the performance moved you in any way!
(Since music is an aural art, and not a visual one, it is best to listen to these pieces, and other artists performances, with eyes closed, so as to be able to listen intently as to how the music is portrayed).

[@tillmanward8481]

Mindless criticism..

[@grumpyoldpianistplus]

Mindless? No, I did use my mind, but it was my own thoughts, not the same as yours!!