Etudes d’exècution transcendante d’après Paganini

• Etudes d’exècution transcendante d’après Paganini was published at the end of 1840 (composed 1838-9)
  • Dedicated to Clara Schumann (meaning that it could not have been published until after September of 1840, as that was when she married Robert Schumann)
  • The final version of the Paganini studies was published in 1851 as Grandes Etudes d’après Paganini (the NLE used this version as the principal source for the two versions, apparently nothing changed but the title? some recordings list the piece under both titles)
  • In Williams’ timelines, he claims that the Grandes Etudes are based on the earlier Etudes…d’après Paganini, published in the same year (1851) as another piece, Etudes d’exècution transcendante (not after Paganini), based on an earlier Grandes Etudes (possibly Vingt-quatres grandes études pour le piano 1837-9?) So anyway, name was changed because he wanted to do something else with that title, he also edited the music a bit to make it easier, presumably

• Clara Wieck Schumann
  • In 1838 Clara hears Liszt for the first time and writes the following in her diary:
    • “We have heard Liszt. He can be compared to no other player… He arouses fright and astonishment… His appearance at the piano is indescribable. He is an original… he is absorbed by the piano.” (quoted in Walker, Relationship 161)
  • Two years later in a letter to R. Schumann, 22 March 1840: “When I heard Liszt for the first time, I was overwhelmed and sobbed aloud, it so shook me. Don’t you feel the same, that it is as though he wanted to be absorbed by the piano? And then again, how heavenly it is when he plays tenderly… In comparison with Liszt other virtuosi seem so small, even Thalberg.” (Letters 84)
  • According to Walker, Liszt dedicated his “Paganini Studies” to Clara several weeks after this initial observation, “a fitting tribute to her powers as a pianist.” (Walker, Virtuoso Years, 255)
  • Liszt on Clara, to Marie 13 April 1838: “A single word about Clara Wieck–distintissimo [distinguished] (but not ‘uomo’, of course!). We are staying in the same hotel, Zur Stadt Frankfurt, and make music as best we can after dinner. She is a very simple person, very well brought up, not in the least c… [probably coquette, according to Williams], entirely preoccupied with her art, but nobly and without childishness. She was flabbergasted when she heard me. Her compositions are truly very remarkable, especially for a woman.” (Letters 84-5)
  • Clara considered a peer of Liszt on piano, two of the first to give solo recitals (Reich, Grove)
  • I don’t think she ever played it, at least I couldn’t find it, but Walker says that the dedication made the Schumanns feel obligated to do something for Liszt
• Paganini
  • “‘And I too am a painter!’ cried Michelangelo [this is usually attributed to Corregio, It. Ren. painter] the first time he beheld a masterpiece… Though poor and unimportant, your friend has not left off repeating those words of a great man ever since Paganini’s last performance. René, what a man, what a violin, what an artist! Heavens! what sufferings, what misery, what torments in those four strings!… As for his expression, his manner of phrasing–they are his very soul!” - Liszt’s letter to Pierre Wolff, 2 May 1832
  • Liszt compares himself to Paganini:
    • “In living memory no one has had such a success in Vienna, not even Paganini.” Letter to Marie d’Agoult, 23 April 1838
    • “With no exaggeration, never since Paganini has anyone made such an impression.” Letter to Marie d’Agoult, 28 April 1838
    • “Even Paganini didn’t do so well.” Letter to Marie, 9 November 1839, about payment in Trieste
    • “According to what everyone says, my success surpasses even that of Paganini, which here as everywhere is the ultimate yardstick.” Letter to Marie, 11 March 1840
    • “I have had an immense success this evening, dear Marie. My London business is nearly done. There is already no parallel possible, unless with Paganini, and him I don’t mind.” Letter to Marie, 9 May 1840
    • “May the artist of the future set his goal within, and not without, himself; may virtuosity be a means and not an end for him; and may he never forget that though the saying is Noblesse oblige, still more than nobility–Génie oblige!” [requires nobility, requires genius] from Liszt’s tribute, written for Paris’ Revue musicale 23 August 1840 (Paganini died in May of 1840)
      • “When you see [Castelli], ask him from me to translate the article that I contributed to the Paris Revue musicale (of 23 August) on Paganini, and to have it published inthe Theater-Zeitung. I should also be very glad if it could be translated into Hungarian, for the Hírnök [Herald] (forgive me if I am spelling it wrongly!), but I don’t know who could do it.” Letter to Franz von Schober, 20 August 1840
• Paganini transcriptions
  • Writing to Lambert Massart (Belgian violinist, intermediary between Liszt and d’Agoult post-breakup in 1844), presumably about getting pieces published: “The six [études] after Paganini… all these things (and a few other trifles) must be brought out this year.” 1 March 1839
  • Walker
    • These 6 pieces are under the influence of Paganini, pretty straight-forward
    • Five are transcriptions from the 24 Caprices
    • The other is based on La Campanella (the little bell), nickname for Paganini’s Rondo movement of the B minor violin concerto (No. 2) because of the use of a bell-imitation (harmonics in violin, to indicate the return of the rondo theme)
    • Walker says he renamed and revised the etudes
      • “Typical of his procedure is the Study in E-flat Major [Liszt’s No. 2, Paganini’s No. 17]… The problem posed by Paganini is how to switch effortlessly from the one technique to the other [scales and double-stops]. Liszt does far more than transfer these notes to the keyboard. He transfers the problem as well, reformulating it in pianistic terms… Liszt has simply incorporated it into his transcription as faithfully as he can, placing physical obstacles on the keyboard which match the ones experience on the violin. By handicapping the pianist’s right hand with double-thirds and a flying leap to the other end of the keyboard, Liszt is attempting to translate an essential technical point in Paganini’s music.” (Virtuoso Years 308-9)
      • On the revisions: “When Liszt revised this study he introduced many simplifications which, on the whole, make it ‘speak’ more effectively.” (Ibid. 309)
• Study 6: based on Paganini Caprice No. 24 (the final Caprice)
  • Etudes d’execution
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1gO1WqDsPI Leslie Howard
  • Theme
    • Texture is thicker on the opening eighth note
    • M. 11 of Liszt begins changes - addition of left hand, inversion of cadence ending
    • Addition of a repeat of B section, with octaves in the right hand of the piano
    • Strict with the transcription of the theme itself
    • A little bit more stacatto than the violin, more happening. Violin is really a bare bones them
  • Repeats written out
  • Variation 1
    • Right hand has var. 1 in the soprano voice; chords added underneath
    • Addition of a first and second ending for the A section
    • Left hand plays the theme to tie it together (not in the violin part)
    • Slight difference in the beginning notes of the 2nd and 4th measures in section B
    • 5th and 6th measures of B adds a line above the melody (sort of in place of the grace notes)
    • Addition of more notes in final measure of B section
    • No repeat of B section
  • Variation 2
    • Transposed var. 2 down an octave for first statement of A section
    • Addition of chord on first beat, articulated each eighth note
    • Second statement of A: var. 2 down three octaves; addition of obbligato in octaves in right hand
    • Much thicker texture in B, var. 2 doubled in both hands (an octave lower)
    • Repeat of B has the same obbligato texture in the right hand, much higher, in chords
    • Addition of a ritard and fermata in the penultimate measure
  • Variation 3
    • Theme in octaves in the right hand (first note is now two 16ths)
    • Var. 3 actually down a minor third + two octaves (starting on A instead of C - probably to work harmonically with the theme, which obviously didn’t occur in the violin part)
    • Addition of two 16th-note chords in left hand to go with theme in right
    • Theme also goes back and forth between original octave and up an octave
    • B theme all up an octave
    • Var. 3 B is now just down two octaves, only one statement of B section (no repeat)
    • Slightly altered penultimate and final measures
  • Variation 4
    • Var. 4 in octaves, no direct inclusion of theme but…
    • Addition of left hand 8th-note chords (reminiscent of the theme)
    • Section A repeat not written out this time
    • Slight variation to second statement of B - 32nd-note grace type-thing (very fast); octaves in penultimate measure; down two octaves + played in octaves and a quintuplet added in final measure
  • Variation 5
    • Paganini - 8th-notes and 16th-notes switch off
    • Liszt - 16th-notes and 16th-note-triplet to 8th
    • Most of the 16th-notes that the two have in common are the same (sometimes transposed up an octave, sometimes down)
  • Variation 6
    • A Section repeat not written out
    • Thicker texture, this time with counterpoint in the left hand
    • Up an octave, addition of an octave to the thirds in right hand
    • Howard plays the ossia in octaves instead of thirds for left hand
    • B section more of the same
    • Second half of B section adds more 16th-notes (instead of dotted quarter-two 16ths)
  • Variation 7
    • A Repeat is not written out this time
    • Piano is playing in both hands in octaves, adding two 16ths-one 8th where the violin has quarters
    • Second half of first phrase and all of second phrase of B varied (shorter triplets at the end of the first two measures, then throughout the last two measures)
    • Final two measures have 32nd-note-triples + 32nd instead of 16th-note-triplets; also completely different notes in penultimate as main note of triplets (the actual notes do occur somewhere)
  • Variation 8
    • The violin plays the chords straight, while the piano has to roll them
    • Left hand countermelody, syncopation in first statement of A
    • Chords are the same but voiced differently, spreading out pianist’s hand
    • Right hand has the counter in second statement of A
    • Bb and Bnatural in first measure of B?
    • B section first phrase has hands switching back and forth
    • B section second phrase has all 16ths, var. 8 is in the soprano voice, octave
  • Variation 9
    • Staccato var.
    • Leaps between octaves, larger range than violin (creating virtuosity in a different way, where the violin needs serious left hand skill, the pianist needs right hand - but both for speed/agility)
    • Left hand playing something like the theme
    • Second phrase of B is legato, same disjointed sound but less so than the violin
  • Variation 10
    • Transposed down two octaves
    • Left hand has trills, plus a rhythmically augmented and single pitch reference to the theme
    • Adds some written out trills in left hand in the second phrase
    • Sixths
    • Seems most different as far as virtuosity is concerned
  • Variation 11
    • First phrase: var. 11 in left hand, right hand plays the opposite (when left hand has runs, right plays eighth note chords; when left hand has little sixteenth note motive, right hand has runs)
    • Runs are different in that the piano part makes an arc, while the violin just goes up; then where the violin comes down the piano part goes up chromatically
    • Also the piano has 24 notes, while violin has 7 + 4
    • B section the var. part is retrograde inversion? backwards and in different octaves
    • B section in violin part is only seven bars of these disjunct things to big runs; piano has eight bars and the last four feature the disjunct leaps sequencing down by step (which the violin kind of does, only up by step and in one beat not two, in the penultimate measure of its B)
    • Final measure of var. 11 in piano slows down rhythmically, prepares for finale/coda
  • Finale (marked as Coda in piano)
  • Runs outlining an a minor chord in violin, right hand of piano (starts an octave lower but goes much higher because there are 24 notes to the violin’s 12 - four extra arpeggios)
  • Theme played in left hand (as 32nds rather than 16ths)
  • Final seven bars are same deal, but the piano plays in octaves as well, changes a few notes (f natural on that last run, and b flat in the final trill)