Liszt/Busoni: Fantasia and Fugue on the Chorale ’Ad nos, ad salutarem undam’ (Tetzloff)

Along with the great B Minor Piano Sonata, this may be the grandest of all of Franz Liszt’s keyboard works. Originally composed for the organ in 1850, it is heard here in the spectacular solo piano transcription by Ferruccio Busoni. The entire work is built around one motif, which Liszt lifted from Meyerbeer’s grand opera Le Prophéte. In the opera, a group of proselytizing Anabaptists chants “Come to us, to the saving waters.” It is a reference to their belief in the necessity of re-baptizing those who had been baptized into the church as infants (a practice they deemed heretical). Liszt imbues the Anabaptists’ lugubrious C minor theme with a burnished nobility while making some key harmonic alterations, such as the drop of a tritone at 00:10 (a foreshadowing of the overall harmonic plan, with the outer movements both in C minor and the central Adagio a tritone away, in F sharp major?). Liszt’s treatment of this material runs the emotional and sonic gamut, from Gothic resplendence to demonic virtuosity, for nearly thirty hair-raising minutes. It begins with a free Fantasia, recalling the tradition of organ improvisation. After reaching intense heights, Liszt writes a quietly devotional slow movement: the devout heart of the work. A sudden, furious cadenza leads into the fugue (one of Liszt’s favorite forms in large works - used famously in the B Minor Sonata). Ultimately, the architectural rigor of the fugue cannot contain this music, as it soon breaks into furious, unrestrained bravura. The final statement comes in C major - a harmonic summit that thus far had been carefully avoided, reserved for the ending - and the Anabaptists’ theme resounds in triumph. There are a few passages which I opted to play according to Liszt’s original organ score, rather than following Busoni’s elaborations: for instance, playing even triplets in the section starting at 3:23, instead of Busoni’s more extended arpeggiations, omitting Busoni’s added trill at 26:05, and, at the end of the work, playing the more straightforward 6/4 - 5/3 - 4/2 - 5/3 progression written by Liszt (27:31). 00:00 Fantasia 09:22 Adagio 19:24 Fugue Reed Tetzloff, piano Website: Facebook: