Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 09/04/2007, uploaded on 01/24/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Liszt is known for making often extensive revisions to his own works, producing multiple versions of them. Such is the case with the Études d’exécution transcendante (Transcendental Etudes), where a quarter of a century passed between their conception and final form. Liszt began the etudes as early as 1826, when he was only fifteen years of age. The original twelve etudes bore the title Étude in douze exercices (Studies in Twelve Exercises) and were intended to be the first in a much larger set of 48 total etudes. The remaining etudes, however, never materialized. Liszt returned to the twelve etudes in 1837 and produced revised versions and gave them a new title: Douze Grande Études (Twelve Great Studies). A little more than a decade later, in 1851-52, he returned once again to the etudes and fashioned them into their final form and rechristened them with the title by which they are known today. In this final version, Liszt removed some of the technical difficulties of the 1837 version, including stretches larger than a tenth, to accommodate pianists with smaller hands and less technical skill. This final set Liszt dedicated to his former teacher, Carl Czerny.

 “Chasse-Neige” (“Snowstorm”), the last of the Transcendental Etudes, is a study in tremolos masked in Liszt’s aural depiction of a blizzard. It begins peacefully with a melodic motif heard first in the right hand and answered in the left. However, an ominous undercurrent is established by the etude’s B-flat minor key signature. Right and left hands alternate with the etude’s motif, yet as the storm grows more intense their melodies begin to overlap and the notes compound upon one another like the increasing falling snow of Liszt’s scene. Later, a whirling chromatic figure, like a piecing cold wind, is added to the steady accompaniment of tremolos. The wind grows fiercer slowly supplanting the falling snow, and in a whirlwind of chromatic scales, the etude’s climax is reached. The music recedes uneasily from this climax, a sort of calm resignation, the peaceful but disparaging aftermath of a blizzard.      Joseph DuBose

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Transcendental Etude No. 12, Chasse-Neige (Blizzard)        Franz Liszt      

The Transcendental Etudes are a series of twelve compositions begun in 1826 and finalized in 1851.  The first version of the études was published in 1826 when Liszt was 15 years old.  Two subsequent revisions were published in 1837 and finally in 1852.

These are among the most difficult pieces for piano ever written. Liszt realized that his virtuoso piano technique, which influenced the composition of the études, was virtually unsurpassable; consequently they are less difficult in their final form, while still posing incredible physical and technical demands for the performer. Liszt added the programmatic title himself-most of them in French.  Today's selection is the concluding étude of the set, titled "Snowstorm" or "Blizzard".    Soojin Ahn

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.