LDV100

22 LISZT | ONCE UPON A TIME How would you describe Liszt’s influence on the composers of subsequent generations? The oeuvre of Liszt has considerable significance in the history of music, whether we’re talking about his influence on the music of Wagner ( Tristan und Isolde would certainly have sounded very different without Lisztian chromaticism) or the Second Viennese School – think of Alban Berg’s Sonata op.1, also in B minor, or the aphorisms of Webern, directly inspired by Liszt’s late pieces – or on French and Central European composers, including Béla Bartók. Certain connections appear to have been decisive for César Franck (chromaticism and organ effects), Claude Debussy ( Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude , or Sposalizio , which is so pre-Debussian) and Gabriel Fauré, at least in his later years. Fauré visited Liszt in 1882 and played him his Ballade op.19, and it was probably on Liszt’s advice that he orchestrated the piece.