Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 07/26/2005, uploaded on 01/20/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

One of the greatest epic poems in Western literature, Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy inspired two compositions from the pen of Franz Liszt. The composer was introduced to the works of Dante in the 1830s and soon after composed a two-movement piece titled Fragment after Dante, which he premiered in Vienna in 1839. Liszt later returned to the work in 1849, concurrent with the composition of the much grander Dante Symphony, and revised it into a lengthy, single-movement composition. Giving the work a new title, Après une Lecture de Dante, borrowed from Victor Hugo, Liszt made it the last installment in the second volume of his Années de Pèlerinage (“Years of Pilgrimage”).

Liszt termed the work a Fantasia quasi Sonata. Though it is often referred to as the “Dante Sonata,” it is strictly speaking certainly more the former than the latter. Structured quite freely, it is based on two distinct themes, with the second being a transformation of the first. After a menacing introduction of tritones and dissonant harmonies, Liszt arrives at the key of D minor and the chromatic first theme depicting the tortured souls Dante witnessed in Hell. Liszt also used D minor in the Dante Symphony and the key has a rather infamous reputation throughout classical music of being associated with death. This theme is developed to great extent before the arrival of the second theme. Shifting to F-sharp major, Liszt now portrays the joy of those in Heaven. The chromatic first theme also reappears, though greatly transformed, and now appropriate for the heavenly vision. Ultimately arriving at the key of D major, the ending comes not in gentle tones that one might expect of a depiction of Paradise but instead with grandiloquent chords in D major. The final cadence, plagal in nature, concludes with resonant open fifths, hearkening back to the religious works of centuries past.      Joseph DuBose

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Franz Liszt and Italy

"The beautiful in this special land became evident to me in its purest and most sublime form. Art in all its splendor disclosed itself to my eyes. It revealed its universality and unity to me. Day by day my feelings and thoughts gave me a better insight into the hidden relationship that unites all works of genius. Raphael and Michelangelo increased my understanding of Mozart and Beethoven; Giovanni Pisano, Fra Beato, and Il Francia explained Allegri, Marcello and Palestrina to me. Titian and Rossini appeared to me like twin stars shining with the same light. The Colosseum and the Campo Santo are not as foreign as one thinks to the Eroica Symphony and the Requiem. Dante has found his pictorial expression in Orcagna and Michelangelo, and someday perhaps he will find his musical expression in the Beethoven of the future."

Liszt's words are a clear example of his love for Italy. In his later years, during the period that eminent scholar Alan Walker calls "a threefold life," when Liszt divided his time among Rome, Weimar and Budapest, Rome was always a special, spiritual place for Liszt, a devout Catholic. Today's recital is dedicated to Italy as a source of inspiration in Liszt's piano works, and covers a wide range of his artistic output.

Après une lecture de Dante

First composed in 1839, the early version of this piece does not survive. The version to be performed today was revised in Weimar in 1849. It ends the second volume from the collection Years of Pilgrimage, subtitled Italy. It is a very powerful piano work, and its title refers to a poem by Victor Hugo, written after a reading of Dante's Inferno. Rather than a simplistic programmatic approach, the work portrays the endless search for something higher, common to every human being.    Alexandre Dossin

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.