Liebestraume Help please!!!

[rach3pianoconcerto]

Hi Piano players i need your advice.

I just have a queston about liszt's most famous liebestraume. I am looking primarily at his 2 cadenzas. My question lies in the first one. How would you explain that from a theoretical or analytical way so that one could understand that cluster of small notes. What is going on there.  Is it just a bunch of dimished chords. Please explain. Thank you kindly
 

[jazzyprof]

I am no theory expert so my analysis may be completely crazy.  However, this is how I made sense of it. 

Let's start with the the first triad in the cadenza:  Fb, Ab, Db, with the Fb in the left hand.  I see it just as a first inversion Db minor triad.  Skip the next triad and go to the third triad:  Ab, Db, Fb, with the Ab in the left hand.  That's a second inversion Db minor triad.  Again skip the intervening triad and go to the next:  Db, Fb, Ab, with the Ab in the left hand.  That's a root position Db minor triad.  So you can read every other triad in the cadenza as some inversion of the Db minor triad. 

Interspersed with the Db minor triads are the various inversions of an Eb major triad.  In fact the second triad in the cadenza is a root position Eb major triad:  Eb, G, Bb, with the Eb in the left hand.  When I play this cadenza I think in terms of Db minor triads sliding down to Eb major triads.

Now this is where I'm not sure if I'm on firm ground or not, but I think the piece has made a temporary modulation from the starting key of Ab major to Ab harmonic minor.  Theory experts may chime in here!  

[bflatminor24]

Well, your analysis is correct but incomplete.

The upward run is indeed alternating, ascending triads in D flat minor and E flat major. In analytical terms, this represents:

iv V iv⁶ V⁶ iv^6/4 V^6/4 iv V

The piece then modulates to the relative major (B major).

Try to make those jumps as smooth as possible.

The next run is of course, chromatic descending dominant 7ths in the ^6/4 position.

~Max~