Liszt, Erard 1852 (Piano Works on Authentic Instruments)

Liszt at Érard

Franz Liszt was one of the leaders of the Romantic movement. The imaginative and technical innovations in his compositions influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated many twentieth-century ideas. His radical harmonic experiments and transformation of themes gave expression to the ideals and aspirations of the nineteenth century to an exceptional degree.

As many scholars have observed, one of the chief difficulties facing Liszt’s music is finding satisfactory interpreters. It can attract players who believe that playing fast and loudly is enough. Nothing could be further from the truth, especially on an Érard, one of Liszt’s favourite pianos. Performers who return to the same small handful of pieces never experience the enormous range of his output, depriving themselves of an important opportunity to learn. His music depends to an unusual degree on the personality of its interpreter. Liszt composed with a performer’s outlook and performed with a composer’s insight. He was the finest interpreter of his own music, and even critics who generally disliked his compositions, such as Hanslick and Brahms, were impressed when he played them himself. Great Liszt interpreters of the past — Petri, Rosenthal, Rachmaninoff and Beecham — brought refinement, subtlety and colour to their performances, holding virtuosity in reserve until it was needed. Hearing this music on a historical instrument, as on this recording, calls for a change of perspective. To modern listeners it may seem less conventionally “Romantic”, just as Chopin or Rossini can sound different on the pianos of their own time.

For Liszt, a composition was rarely finished: it continued to evolve over the years. Later versions do not necessarily replace earlier ones. Some works survive in three or four radically different versions, each of which can be performed. Given the speed at which he worked, it is hardly surprising that Liszt’s manuscripts are often untidy and sometimes almost illegible. The Érard piano brings out something of this openness and flexibility. The sound of an instrument closer to those the composer knew can transform our understanding of familiar concert works and cast new light on Liszt himself.

The Liszt and Érard families developed a lifelong friendship from 1823. Sébastien Érard, the fourth son of a maker of church furniture and the head of the piano firm, presented Liszt with a magnificent seven-octave grand piano incorporating his newly invented repetition action. This mechanism enabled extremely rapid repetition of notes, opening new possibilities for virtuosity that Liszt was among the first to explore. The firm standardised its grand-piano construction in 1841; by 1844 it had produced 25,000 instruments.

During the first half of the twentieth century, much of the Romantic repertoire fell out of favour, and Liszt’s reputation suffered more than most. Pianos, meanwhile, were developing into the instruments familiar today. Much of Liszt’s music was dismissed as flamboyant or excessive. Between the two world wars, his reputation was sustained chiefly by his piano music, performed on modern instruments by a relatively small circle of devoted pianists. The Romantic revival of the 1950s made possible a new and more favourable assessment. Interest in historical performance has since offered another way of discovering what a “Liszt sound” might be, alongside the breadth of his personality, the range of his musical interests and the striking originality of his compositions.

The Grand Duke of Weimar once told Busoni: “Liszt was what a prince should be.” Pianist, composer, teacher, conductor, writer and musical administrator, Liszt enriched everything he touched and helped advance the dignity of the musical profession.

The instrument heard here is an Érard made in 1852, identified in the original booklet as serial number 23509. It retains its original construction, allowing the listener to hear the character of a piano from the middle of the nineteenth century. The booklet identifies it as a model No. 2, the earlier designation for a type of half-grand subsequently called No. 1 after 1865, with a usual length of 212 cm. This instrument is slightly shorter, measuring 205 cm, with five longitudinal bars and a mahogany case. It was completed in September 1852 and sold on 13 November 1852 to Bertera in Paris. The sales record gives the purchaser’s address as 142 rue Saint-Lazare. Its price was 3,400 francs, with a discount of 1,000 francs: 2,400 francs were paid in cash. The original notes estimated the equivalent value at approximately €25,000.

Album notes by Edmondo Filippini. Complete original text, with English revised. Reference: Alan Walker, “Liszt, Franz”, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, 2001.

Recording credits

Maria Luisa Macellaro La Franca, piano · Érard, 1852.

Recorded at Salle du Mascaret, Blanquefort, with thanks to Philippe Peres. Recording, mixing and editing: Fred Foulquier. Cover photograph: the Érard piano of 1852.

The Consolations are dedicated in memoriam to Fiona Albek. Dedication to Valentino: “Art and beauty often become one in a single sea — to Valentino, who was able to sail perilous waves and create a haven for all artists.”

Design and art direction: Osaka Mozart Association. Copyright in the sound recording and artwork: Osaka Mozart Association. ℗ & © Da Vinci Classics · DDD · Manufactured in Japan.