Mephisto Waltzes

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The Mephisto Waltzes are four waltzes composed by Franz Liszt in 1859-62, 1880-81, 1883 and 1885. Nos. 1-2 were composed for orchestra, later arranged for piano, piano duet and two pianos, whereas 3 and 4 were written for piano only. Of the four, the first is the most popular and has been frequently performed in concert and recorded[citation needed].

[edit] The Waltzes

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Mephisto Waltz No. 1, Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke (The Dance in the Village Inn), was conceived as both an orchestra and a piano work. Three versions, orchestral (S.110/2), piano duet (S.599/2) and piano solo, (S.514), all date more or less from the same period (1859-62). The Waltz is a typical example of program music, taking for its program an episode from Faust, not by Goethe but by Nikolaus Lenau (1802-50). It was originally composed in 1856-1861 for orchestra, of which Liszt in 1859-62 made an arrangement for piano solo. Liszt dedicated the piece to Carl Tausig, his favourite pupil (who died prematurely at the age of 29 in 1870).

Lenau's episode at the village inn, which Liszt chose, ("The Dance / Village Inn / Wedding. Music and Dance") is of a rather erotic nature: Faust and Mephistopheles as hunter enter an inn where a wedding party is being held. Mephistopheles takes a fiddle from one of the minstrels, tunes it (represented in Liszt's music by the 5ths build up at the start of the piece) and plays a frantic dance. The music [Liszt] slows for an amorous new waltz theme which intoxicates the village peasants. Even the "echoing walls" [Lenau] of the inn "lament, pale with jealousy, because they cannot join in the dancing" [Lenau]. Faust takes advantage of this and dances with the bride, a black-eyed beauty (not "Gretchen" but "Hannchen"), and after some wooing, elopes into the woods with the young girl..., a nightingale sings a tune, and the music [Liszt] builds to an exciting climax when the pair is "swallowed up by the impetuous waves of amorous rapture" [Lenau]. Before the climax of this "rapture" Liszt lets the sensual lyrical theme of the Waltz reappear.

It was Liszt’s original intention to publish the Waltz simultaneously with another episode from Lenau, the Night Procession ("Der nächtliche Zug"), which was to precede the Waltz (in Lenau though this episode appears later than the dance in the village inn): "...The publication of the two Lenau's Faust episodes... I entrust to Schuberth's own judgement; as to whether the piano version or the score appears first, makes no difference to me; the only important thing is that both pieces should appear simultaneously, the Night Procession as No.1 and the Mephisto Waltz as No.2. There is naturally no thematic relationship between the two pieces; but they are related nonetheless by all the contrasts of emotions. A Mephisto of this kind may only arise from such a poodle!..." [from a letter of Liszt to Fr. Brendel, Rome, 29 August 1862]. Liszt’s request was not fulfilled and the two episodes were published separately.

The Second Mephisto Waltz (S.111) followed the first by some 20 years. Its composition took place between 1878 and 1881. Liszt arranged the piece for piano right after the completion of the orchestral score (S.515). The piece is dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns..

The Third Mephisto Waltz (S.216) takes the harmonic language even further. Composed in 1883, it features chords built up by fourths and there are numerous ominous passages with succession of descending minor triads whose roots are a semi-tone apart. Liszt made no orchestral version of the Third Waltz.

The Fourth Mephisto Waltz (S.696) remained unfinished. Liszt worked on the piece in 1885. There is a version (S.216b) with the completed fast outer sections (without the incomplete slow middle section) that has been performed and recorded in recent years. Leslie Howard the acclaimed Australian pianist, who recorded all of Liszt's solo piano pieces (over 95 CDs) made a recording of the whole Waltz including the incomplete middle section that he assembled from Liszt's manuscript sources and completed in line with the composer's late style adding a minimum number of his own notes. It is available on Hyperion's "complete piano music of Liszt"-series. No orchestral version of this Waltz was made by Liszt.

[edit] Legacy

The pieces are referenced as the title of the 1969 novel, The Mephisto Waltz by American author and Juilliard-trained pianist Fred Mustard Stewart.

[edit] External links

The "Mephisto Waltz" No.1 for piano, S. 514, (arr. Busoni), performed by the pianist Cecile Licad, Live recording from "The Concert Podcast", The Isabella Steward Gardner Museum, Boston MA (MP3 file, 128kbps, Creative Commons Music Sharing Licence)