Liszt, F.: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Totentanz

Featuring

Vasily Petrenko
Eldar Nebolsin
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Franz Liszt

Did you know?

1/7

Compositional Technique

Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 is structurally novel, written in one continuous movement.

Composer Biography

Liszt's technical brilliance as a pianist was inspired by hearing the 'demon violinist' Paganini.

Composer Biography

Franz Liszt, born in Hungary in 1811, was the son of a steward for the Esterházy Princes, who were also patrons of Haydn.

Critical Reception

Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 caused a scandal due to its inclusion of a triangle in the Scherzo, leading critic Hanslick to call it a 'triangle concerto'.

Composition History

Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1, sketched in 1832, was orchestrated with the help of young composer Joachim Raff and premiered in 1855 with Berlioz conducting.

Performer Biography

Eldar Nebolsin, the pianist on this recording, launched his international career by winning the Eleventh Santander International Piano Competition in 1992.

Composition History

The source of Liszt's 'Totentanz' (Dance of Death), a paraphrase of the Dies irae from the Requiem Mass, was pictorial, possibly inspired by a fresco in Pisa or Holbein's wood engravings.