LDV100

23 MICHEL DALBERTO Liszt refused almost systematically to teach the Sonata to his students, arguing that it was too personal. How do you perceive that autobiographical dimension in the work? It’s true that Liszt gave no clues about the work, which is, paradoxically, quite revealing. Yet a careful analysis of the score allows us to understand its origins to some extent. Just look at the first two descending scales. Each of them is based on a different mode. The first scale (from 0’05 to 0’13) is built on the Dorian mode used in liturgical music, and the second (from 0’19 to 0’28) on the Hungarian or Gypsy mode. Religious faith and the political, if not patriotic, dimension – Liszt knew little of his homeland but was extremely attentive to what was happening there – are the two pillars on which the Sonata is constructed. Those descending scales are repeated before the fugato section and then at the very end, as if to ensure the solidity of the architectural foundations. Anton Bruckner used this same principle in his Fifth Symphony. Other elements of analysis: the slow movement or second movement of the of the Sonata (from 12’14) is in song or ternary form, one of the simplest formal schemes in music. In choosing it, Liszt wants to express his faith, but a very simple, uncomplicated faith. Of course, temptation will soon return and there will be a bitter struggle between the two. Yet the end of the Sonata, calm and consoling, seems to indicate that he has chosen which side he’s on. Again, it’s a song, a lied, which begins with a concluding cadential formula: is Liszt trying to tell us that, for him, prayer is something final?