Get ready, Soliliquy. Here we go:
The Liszt Sonata is cast in a "double structure." It is in an enormous Sonata Allegro form, complete with exposition, development, recapitulation, and coda. Simultaneously, it is in a four-movement form, including a Sonatina form first movement, complete sonata form 2nd movement, a fugato/scherzo third movement, and a finale. I have actually argued that there may be a scherzo within the sonatina form first movement, creating a symmetrical structure of Fast/Scherzo/Slow/Scherzo/Fast.
A structure of this kind was not imitated until 1901, nearly 50 years later, when Schoenberg wrote his first chamber symphony.
When it comes to tonality, we have B minor defined as tonic at measure 18 or 35 (forgive me, it's been 10 months since my paper.) We leave it soon and never return to it until m. 535, the recapitulation. This is a double return, heralded by an enormous climax and a spectacular ride.
The second movement is in the Tonic major, which is unusual for a minor key, but not unusual if you consider Liszt's choices for tonality in his second subject sections. Interestingly enough, Liszt's tonalities have specific ideas or moods attached. D minor is the key of death and damnation, Ab the key of love, E Major the religious mode, F# major representing the distant or unattainable, for example. The andante sostenuto is in F# major.
When it comes to discussions of climax, there are 7 places in the sonata which are marked FFF. While other climaxes rival it in terms of sheer volume, that in the climax of the Andante Sostenuto has the greatest emotional pull and therefore, it should be differentiated as such.
Hope you have a better understanding of the sonata now,
Daniel
Topic: Liszt best compositions