Progetto Martha Argerich

italiano

Works

Franz Liszt

Totentanz R. 188

 

The third piece by Liszt on today’s concert – the Totentanz (Dance of death) – is closely related to the composer’s visit to Pisa’s monumental cemetery, in 1838. There he was able to admire Orcagna’s famous frescoes depicting “The Triumph of Death”, which gave him the idea of a work for piano and orchestra based on the Dies Irae theme from Gregorian chant. The first draft of the composition occupied Liszt for about ten years; two revisions were published in 1853 and 1859, and the final version was first performed at The Hague on 15 April 1865 by Hans von Bülow, who would become the dedicatee of the first printed edition. With respect to form, the Totentanz is simply a series of variations, of which the first five are based on the Dies Irae theme. What Liszt calls the sixth variation is in fact a series of six short variations on a complementary second theme that also seems to have been derived from Gregorian chant.

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