Liszt - Variations on a Theme of Bach, S180 (Poom Prommachart)

Liszt's last 25 years were tragic—they oversaw his thwarted marriage to Princess von Sayn-Wittgenstein, the widespread rejection of his music, his historic quarrel with Richard Wagner, various health-related tribulations of old age, his growing estrangement from his younger daughter, Cosima, and the death of his elder daughter, Blandine; because of the many setbacks he endured, both public and private, Liszt's embattled character succumbed to a series of depressions, culminating in 1877 in a desire, several times repeated, to commit suicide—an act of despair from which only his devout Catholicism saved him (his correspondence with Olga von Meyendorff tells it all: "... I am extremely tired of living; but as I believe that God's Fifth Commandment "thou shalt not kill" also applies to suicide, I go on existing....").
The aforementioned death of his elder daughter brought him severe anguish, and thus Liszt brought forth his Variations on Bach's "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" (Weeping, lamenting, worrying, fearing); the work is best understood as a symptom of the grieving process, and like so much else of Liszt's output this music is really autobiographical. Liszt found in the first movement of Bach's cantata a wonderful vehicle for his grief, and he composed his own variations on its ground bass.
Brief analysis:
00:00—Introduction (Improvisatory; based on chromatic descent)
00:59—Var. 1-8 (Polyphonic; explicitly contrapuntal)
02:39—Var. 9-19 (Register expands)
04:51—Var. 20-24, 25 (Register expands; more pianistic style)
05:38—Var. 26-33 (More chromatic; middle register)
06:23—Var. 34-35 (Unison octaves;
register expands again)
06:34—Var. 36-39 (Rhetorical style;
register expanded)
07:20—Var. 40-43 (Diminished harmony;
maximum register expansion)
08:17—Var 44-45 (Whole-tone harmony, descent to bass register; motive fragmented)
lunga pausa
09:12—Var. 46-47 (Recitative; motive used to accompany)
10:47—Var. 48 (Motive fragmented; very chromatic harmony)
11:54—Transition (Based on chromatic descent; strong tonal direction: diminished harmony leads to V pedal: register expands)
13:17—Recitative (Interruption of harmonic motion towards cadence, Tristanesque enhancements)
13:56—Chorale (Strong cadence into F major; middle register, gradually expanding outwards)
15:49—Coda
To take an overall view, the work begins with highly unstable chromatic harmony, very short-term harmonic goals and a rapid rate of change, all conveyed through a detailed contrapuntal foreground (Variations 1-8)—also apparent here is Liszt's technique
of dovetailing: this technique, borrowed from J. S. Bach,
appears throughout the variations as a means of
disguising the underlying regularity of the motive, but is
particularly evident here. Bach's dovetailing is most often
achieved by continuing the suspensions into the cadence
point: i.e. the voice-leading of one part carries over across
the division into the next variation; Liszt uses the same
technique here, carefully varying the extent of overlap. Then, through Variations 9 to 38 there is a gradual expansion of vision: register is expanded in both directions; the sense of greater space is enhanced by a concomitant expansion of the rhythmic dimension as quavers give way to quaver triplets, semiquavers, then demisemiquavers; harmonic change is less frequent; and the detailed contrapuntal surface gives way to more broadly sketched scales and arpeggios. Alongside this expansion, is the gradual substitution of diminished for chromatic harmony, which culminates in the tonal chaos of Variation 48; the re-emergence of tonal sense after this breakdown is all the more striking: here for the first time in the work there is a strong sense of long-range directed harmony that is working towards a distinct goal. When that goal is finally glimpsed—at the first perfect cadence into F major in the chorale—it seems that it is absolutely right and fitting; this is no mere token gesture to the source of the
motive, for Liszt uses the chorale to provide a focal point
for the variations as the chorale becomes the climax of the
work, the goal towards which the variations are directed; finally, the ending's statement of "Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan" ("What God does, that is well done"), shows a tremendous possession of heroic spirit, and is an unmistakable reference to the personal loss that he himself suffered, and his acceptance of it.

[poomprommachart]

Thank you for sharing my recording. ❤️

[pietrolandri]

Had I never listened to this piece and should have someone asked me to make an educated guess about whom had written it, I would have said "Busoni" or "Reger" or "Godowski". Harmonic solutions, dynamic evolution, the whole mood of this piece is absolutely visionary....I'm speechless ....

[q.m]

Man this channel is a literal youtube treasure, great work man honestly.

[uwu-khlh]

Imagine being the most famous pop star early in your life and ends your life having so many problems :( feels kinda sad

[jerry_moo]

The placement of the Chorale as the finale has to be one of clever things Liszt has done, its straightforward nature becomes the most powerful statement of the work after a series tumultuous variations, bravo!

[Tenormind]

At the end of the day I know that there’s this incredibly rich and exciting channel which helps me to leave everything behind and dive into another dimension… And it makes me truely happy to see how many people love and appreciate this channel and all this madness! 🔥❤️

[edge]

Your description makes this all the more amazing than I ever thought it could be.

[francoismoreau]

I’m so happy to have found your channel. Greetings from France. Keep up the great work

[marcalexandrefontenay]

Le côté mystique de Liszt transparaît ici et préfigure ses messes, son Christus etc sans que ne disparaisse son côté virtuose du piano qui nous laisse sans voix !

[Musicienne-DAB]

So beautiful, so majestic, so dignified.

[douwemusic]

Of course, Liszt's most visionary piece has to be based on Bach

[kickerduke]

Thank you for explaining the piece. It was very helpful.

[ratzlpli]

Great piece. Seems like a kind of proto-Mahler, especially the Resurrection symphony.

[PaulSmith-qses]

I have this and love to play it. But i never knew who wrote it because it was missing the cover page and the first page only has the title. i thought it was probably newer than liszt. like busoni, maybe. :P

[cinnamonsteakhaus]

I'm relatively new to Liszt's music, given that I've only listened to his 2nd Piano Concertos, his Liebestraums and his transcendental etudes. I always had the impression that he was just a full on showman whose compositions only intend on being flashy and demanding and the Elvis Presley of the 19th century (I seriously have no doubts that Presley is just a reincarnation of Liszt). After I read Liszt's story written in the description though, I realized how little I know about who Liszt actually is as a musician.

[Quotenwagnerianer]

The piano solo version is far better than the organ version. I just love playing it, because it is one of those pieces that you can't just play technically, you have to mirror the emotions of the music into your mind and right back into your playing. So that you literally reach a peak of inner desperation at the climax right before the Coda kicks in and the Choral relieves all the tension that has been building.
I have to say though that Prommachart fails the final build up from the Allegro moderato because he starts this too fast and has no room to further accelerate as Liszt asks. I believe you have to play this with a wider speed amplitude so that you still have reserves to go faster when the "stringendo" comes.

[lukasmiller]

I have heard the story behind this piece and it made me appreciate it more. I'll bet composing the Latin hymns were therapeutic too. I hope to see more of them from your channel soon.

[Chorizo]

Liszt dedicated this piece to Anton Rubinstein!

[Santosificationable]

Wonderful. Would you by chance have access to recordings of Liszt's "Magyar dalok"? I listened to some midis of them, they seem pretty interesting and very ethnic-sounding. I'd love to hear them played.

[CatkhosruShapurrjiFurabji]

The description is apalling!!! Liszt tried suicide attempts?!?!?!