Nuages Gris

[ted]

In my score of Nuages Gris the last chord has an unmarked B in the right hand, which therefore is a B flat. The recording I have sounds a B natural, which, on the face of it seems more likely. Can somebody confirm please. Thanks.

[goodasgould]

my score has the same thing - an unmarked b (bflat) in the right hand of the last chord. I think this is correct because Liszt is just maintaining the dissonance that was in the second to last chord. (F# + G) And, in the last chord, when the F# resolves to G  -  matching what's in the left hand  -  the dissonance is maintained by making the former b nat. a b flat, which conflicts with the b natural in the left hand, which seems to have been Liszts' intention. I guess he just didn't want it to resolve.

[ted]

Goodasgould:

Thanks - Bb it will be. Have you read Clara Schumann's diaries ? She describes an evening when the elderly Liszt suddenly burst in while she was entertaining friends. He was the worse for drink and insisted on playing some of his new, "modern" pieces. She writes that his new pieces embarassed everyone present.

It is interesting to conjecture how he would have written had he been able to live longer. Perhaps he would have anticipated Charles Ives !

[goodasgould]

i have no doubt....he already anticipated impressionism, blues, atonality, minimalism, ect....

[rachfan]

Although the quality of Liszt's pieces varies, he was a revolutionary in many ways.  He was the first piano virtuoso in the mold of the violinist Paganini.   He started the concept of the solo piano recital (previously pianists shared the stage with another instumentalist or singer).  He turned the grand piano sideways to the audience (pianists used to sit with their back to the audience).  He set the custom of memorizing recital programs (no more sheet music on the music desk!).  His new harmonies were sensational then (and still are), and he threw caution to the winds in  orchestral writing (like the use of the triangle in the E flat concerto.  Given the number of musicians who studied with him, he put an enduring imprint on the artistry of piano playing that has come down to our time.  Yes, his "late pieces" were very experimental and daring indeed.  Had he lived longer, his inventiveness would not have waned in the least, I'm sure of it.  

[frederic]

On my copy of Nuages Gris the last chord is a B natural...

Anyway, How do you like this piece? It sounds so much like Bartok's music. Another great piece by Liszt which is also Bartok-like is Czardas Macabre. Do you know this piece? Its very good and is also worth having a look.

[frederic]

Have any of you learnt czardas macabre?

[rachfan]

On the b and b flat, it's like the famous e or e flat in Chopin's Prelude No 20 in C minor.  Most of us play the e natural, but the controversy never goes away.  No matter what you do in recital, someone will claim it's wrong.  And there are analytical arguments on boths sides of the fray.  These things are among the Mysteries of Life.