AB II-18

Description

Franz Liszt

THREE SKETCHES FROM SKETCHBOOK N6

Reconstructed and edited by

Albert Brussee

(Third, Revised Edition)

The three works published here all stem from Liszt’s sketchbook N6 (GSA60/N6), kept in the Goethe- and Schiller-Archiv in Weimar. Of the nine surviving sketchbooks, this is the oldest; Liszt worked in it from 1829 up to and including 1833. The works concerned are: a Largo in B minor, Essai sur l’indifférence in E-flat major and  Mazeppa, a composition in F minor which has nothing to do with the famous concert study of that name. The three sketches, which appear here for the first time in print, show that between 1829 and 1832 the young composer was developing his style in many ways, especially in the harmonic and metric sense.

CONTENTS
Introduction (with 5 facsimiles)
Largo in B minor
– Urtext (original sketch)
– Marked score
– Commentary on the Reconstruction
Essai sur l’indifférence 
– Urtext (original sketch)
– Reconstruction (marked score)
– Commentary on the Reconstruction
Mazeppa
– Urtext (original sketch)
– Reconstruction; marked score)
– Commentary on the Reconstruction

REVIEWS
“Most of us get to know a composer by means of compositions that have appeared in print. These are however often the result of a more or less laborious process of development. The development towards mastery usually remains obscure. Of course there are good biographers who offer in understandable language some light in the darkness. And the new urtext standard in the world of publishing also provides highly valuable background information. Sometimes you can be lucky and have some publisher who also records the early version of a composition. And just now and then there appears a facsimile. But even such a facsimile is preceded by sketches. In the case of some composers, sketchbooks have survived. These can reveal a wealth of secrets for those able to decipher the scribbles. They offer a glimpse into the earliest stages of compositions and reveal which ideas were eventually used and how composers have wrestled with them before the definitive work came into being.
Albert Brussee has laid bare three of Liszt’s sketches in an exemplary manner. Alongside the original sketches, he has made reconstructions of the compositions, which he completely justifies. In addition he offers a wealth of information regarding the genesis of the sketches. With this he throws surprising new light on the period 1828–1833, a time during which it is generally assumed that Liszt’s productivity as a composer stagnated due to his perfecting his technique as a pianist. Nothing could be less true. Distinct characteristics of Liszt’s composing style, such as metrical freedom and harmonic inventiveness, are already in evidence here.
The publication is beautifully produced and is a gift of considerable worth for both musicology and the lovers of Liszt’s oeuvre.”
Maarten Boonstra, PianoWereld 2010-4. (Translated from the Dutch)

“(…) The present publication is highly scrupulous and has been produced with much care. Here is to be found an introduction which offers a lot of useful information as well as the reproduction of five facsimiles, very well clarified and making them highly instructive. For each piece you have alongside the most precisely reproduced autograph the editor’s ‘reconstructed’ version along with his commentary. The three pieces examined throw an interesting light on the research into Liszt’s composition practice during the most obscure period of his existence. It is highly evident from the samples offered to us here that the composer was at that time in full effervescence, trying out daring formulations, developing his style, but still totally in a period of incubation. This explains why two of the three pieces remained unfinished; in the eyes of their composer they had not reached a satisfactory level of mastery in writing.”
Serge Gut, Revue de musicologie Tome 97-1 (2011). (Translated from the French)

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
© 2010 AB Music Productions & Editions, The Hague (Third, Revised Edition).
Full-colour cover, 32 pages.