Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Franz Liszt

«Réminiscences de Don Juan» for two pianos

 

Franz Liszt’s compositions for piano include some sixty “paraphrases” on themes from operas, most of them dedicated to such Italian composers as Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi – Liszt’s contemporaries. But the Réminiscences de Don Juan, written in 1841, are without a doubt one of the bestknown, best-loved and most often played of the Hungarian composer’s paraphrases. In effect, Liszt makes use here of only one of the most famous themes from Mozart’s Don Giovanni – that of the Don Giovanni-Zerlina duet, Là ci darem la mano – to which he adds, as a sort of coda, the theme of Don Giovanni’s short aria, Fin ch’han del vino; this he varies freely, and he inserts it into a sort of broad fantasia of extraordinary effectiveness, in which the piano’s sound seems to become theatre in itself, as if by a miracle. Several years later, Liszt adapted the Réminiscences de Don Juan for two pianos; this version was published by Schlesinger in Berlin in 1877.

listen to Real Media recording

Grave — Duetto (Andantino) — Allegretto — Variation I — Variation II (Tempo giusto) — Presto

Performers

Performance