Classical Music | Piano Music

Franz Liszt

Transcendental Etude no. 11, Harmonies du Soir  Play

Steven Vanhauwaert Piano

Recorded on 06/10/2015, uploaded on 11/10/2015

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

 

In 1826, a 15 year old Liszt wrote a set of 12 exercises, called Étude en douze exercises, aimed at helping himself to master the art of piano playing. In 1837, he revised the set, making them considerably harder and turning them into individual compositions. Liszt became dissatisfied with the emphasis on empty virtuosity, and revised them one last time in 1852, turning them into tone poems, and giving them a new name: 'Transcendental Etudes'. Harmonies du Soir (‘Evening Harmonies’) is the eleventh etude of the set, and evokes the changing colors of the sunset and movements of the clouds as night sets in. Liszt experiments here with harmonies around a center note A flat, which is present in nearly all harmonies played throughout the piece.       Steven Vanhauwaert