Liszt: Sonata in B Minor, S.178 (Grynyuk)

A dazzling if obscure performance of the great B minor sonata. Gorgeous cantabile playing, savagely brilliant octave passages, and an unerring feeling for form and pulse. This easily stands alongside Zimerman and Laplante’s renditions, and might well be the most exciting of the three. (More below.)

Liszt’s sonata remains unmatched among piano sonatas for sheer structural brilliance. It is a single movement in sonata-allegro/first-movement form (introduction-exposition-development-recapitulation), and yet this single movement itself contains four separate sonata movements (the first of which itself is in a modified sonata-allegro form!), a wondrous instance of double-function structure. It contains an introduction which introduces the key motifs, before these are then re-introduced as sonata subjects: it is so thematically dense that the exposition itself needs an exposition. (Subjects 2 and 3 are both combinations of Theme 1 + 2.) Its three initial themes are tightly interwoven: the first note of each theme is identical to the last note of the previous theme. And the transformation of these themes into subjects, and these subjects’ further development, is a constant spooling-out of ingenuity. (This is to mention nothing of the sonata’s genius in exploiting ambiguous and daring harmony, and the deceptive apparent beginning of the exposition at 1:24.)

To make the sonata’s thematic density and tightness clear, I’ve timestamped the important structural elements of the sonata below: I’d highly encourage you to go through it – you’ll probably notice lots of stuff you previously missed.

Introduction + Transition
00:00 – Theme 1 (m.1-7)
00:52 – Theme 2 (m.8-13)
01:02 – Theme 3 (m.13-15, LH)
[Transition]
01:24 – T2 (note that m.26 is based on m.10 – the initial suspension is shortened from two beats to a semiquaver, and the diminished 7th downward run is lengthened)
01:33 – T3

Movement 1, Sonata-Allegro = Exposition
01:39 – Subject 1 = T2 (RH) + T3 (LH). The integration of T2 and T3 is extraordinary: note that the D-E#-F#-A in the LH (in the middle of m.32) mirrors theme 2 in the RH above. See similarly m.36. This subject is never directly developed: instead, its constituent parts are, and its purpose is to illustrate the close relationship between T2 and T3.
01:50 – T2, transformed. See the similarity to m.11-12 (3 scalar notes leading to a diminished 7th descent), as well as the beginning upbeat of Theme 3.
02:10 – T2, in Major.
02:48 – T1 (m.82-104)
03:23 – Subject 2 (m.105-114)
04:17 – T2 (m.120-140, transition)
05:13 – T3
05:41 – Subject 3 = T3+2 transformed. One of the most beautiful thematic transformations in the entire literature, where the macabre repeated notes of T3 are pulled out into long cantando melodic lines. T2 occurs at 6:01 (m.161), in highly compressed form. Note also how the bass harmony in T2 moves in tritones – a masterful long-range anticipation of the ending cadence.
06:49 – T2, transformed (LH)
07:05 – T3, transformed
07:15 – T2, transformed (LH, m.197-204)
07:41 – T2, in Major (m.205-208) This is the recapitulation of the first internal movement of the sonata.
07:46 – T1 (LH, modified)
08:03 – T2
08:24 – T2, transformed (again, a beautiful transformation)
08:44 – T3, augmented (RH)
09:09 – T1 (LH)
09:21 – T2
09:36 – Subject 2
10:56 – T3
11:10 – T2 (just its head)
11:20 – T2+3 (T3 an ostinato in LH, T2 in RH)

Movement 2, Andante = Development
12:04 – Subject 4, the main theme of the slow movement (note how this movement begins with a tritone shift in harmony)
13:22 – Subject 3, with just T3
14:28 – Subject 2
15:31 – T2
15:55 – Subject 4
Note how in the scalar passage beginning at 17:03 how the key changes by a tritone
17:51 – Subject 3 = T3+2
19:43 – T1

Movement 3, Scherzo = lead-back from development to recapitulation
20:36 – Subject 1 = T2+3 (the fugue subject is simply the themes played one after another) Note how intensely the themes are developed: from m.502-8 T2 (in chords) is combined with T3, while a middle voice, also sounding T3, creates a stretto between the two lower parts. One half of the fugue subject (T2) is superimposed over the other (T3), before T2 [21:43] is inverted in the LH, accompanying a dotted, augmented version of itself in the RH(!)
22:01 – T2
Note how m.526-9 are not decorative but based on m.12 (T2)

Movement 4, Finale = Recapitulation + Coda
22:12 – T3
22:17 – Subject 1
22:46 – T1
23:02 – T2+1 (alternating in LH)
23:18 – T2, diminished
23:30 – T3
23:43 – Subject 2
24:52 – Subject 3 = T3+2 (25:16)
25:50 – Subject 3 = T3+2 (26:11. Note tritone shifts in LH)
26:22 – T3, augmented
[Coda]
26:27 – T1
26:57 – T2, augmented, in RH then LH
27:15 – Subject 2
27:41 – Subject 4
29:00 – T3 (Note how the themes are presented in reverse order)
29:24 – T2
30:20 – T1