Franz Liszt - Piano Concerto No. 2, S.125 {René Duchâble}

Franz Liszt (Hungarian Liszt Ferencz, in modern usage Liszt Ferenc ((October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, teacher and Franciscan tertiary.

Piano Concerto No. 2, S.125
Dedication: Hans Bronsart von Schellendorff (1830–1913)

1. Adagio sostenuto assai (0:00) - Allegro agitato assai (5:40) - Un poco più mosso (6:15) - Tempo del andante (7:15)
2. Allegro moderato (7:45)
3. Allegro deciso (13:02) - Marziale un poco meno allegro (15:55) - Un poco animato (16:27) - Un poco meno mosso
4. Allegro animato (20:05)

François-René Duchâble and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by James Conlon

Description by Robert Cummings [-]
Liszt began work on his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1839 and initially completed it in 1857. Further revisions were made over the course of the next few years and a final version was fashioned in 1861, with its publication in 1863. Like the first piano concerto, it is cast in a single movement although, unlike its sibling, the sections comprising it are numerous and less distinct, prompting some musicologists to view it as a symphonic poem with piano. W.F. Apthorp subtitled the concerto, "The life and adventures of a melody." His description is quite appropriate because, also like the First, the whole of this concerto derives from its opening melody, which, over the course of the work's 20 or so minutes, yields many transformations and variations. This is also a more intimate composition than the first, and, ironically, more bombastic, as well.

The work was premiered in Weimar on January 7, 1857, with the work's dedicatee, Hans von Bronsart, as soloist and Liszt conducting.

Publisher info:
Franz Liszt: Musikalische Werke. Serie I, Band 13. (pp.59-134)
Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1914. Plate F.L. 28.
Copyright:
Public Domain