Book Series Speculum musicae, vol. 20

Grandeur et finesse: Chopin, Liszt and the Parisian Musical Scene

Luca Sala (ed)

  • Pages: 362 p.
  • Size:210 x 270 mm
  • Language(s):English, French
  • Publication Year:2013

  • € 120,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-2-503-54884-5
  • Hardback
  • Available


The present book takes as its subject the significance and output of both Chopin and Liszt, approaching them from historical, analytical and aesthetical points of view.

Review(s)

"(...) Grandeur et Finesse shines a bright light on the complex and complicated relationship between Chopin and Liszt; the tangled strands of composition, aesthetics, reception, biography and performance receive thoughtful treatment, and, cumulatively, the analysis presented here reveals new and fruitful paths of inquiry. Paris, the geographical and/or cultural home of these case studies, emerges in some ways very clearly (...)" (Alicia C. Levin, in: Nineteenth-Century Music Review, 12.1, June 2015, p. 148-151)

« De collaboration résolument internationale, cet ouvrage nous permet d’approfondir nos connaissances sur les deux grands compositeurs-virtuoses, notamment notre vision du rôle historique et esthétique de Liszt et de Chopin, en les replaçant parmi leurs contemporains ayant eu une influence non seulement dans l’évolution de la composition, de l’art du piano et de la musique en général, mais aussi dans l’histoire sociale de l’Europe du XIXe siècle. » (Livia Laifrova, dans : Ad Parnassum, issue XIII/26, October 2015, p. 138)

Summary

Due to its plethora of concert halls, publishing houses and piano factories, Paris was one of the leading European capitals of nineteenth-century piano music, able to attract the greatest interpreters of the bravura tradition. The present book takes as its subject the significance and output of the two-composer-pianists mentioned in the title, approaching them from historical, analytical and aesthetical points of view. In so doing the book encompasses many aspects of the Parisian musical scene in which the two composers were involved or to which they were in some way connected. The authors featured are: Michele Calella, Céline Carenco, Andrew Davis, Mariacarla De Giorgi, Christoph Flamm, James Garrat, Inès Guittard, Andrew Haringer, Magdalena Oliferko, Anne Penesco, Cécile Reynaud, David Rowland, Michael Saffle, Laure Schnapper, Rohan H. Stewart-MacDonald, Renata Suchowiejko, Corey Tu, Andrzej Tuchowski.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

Context and Environment:

Cécile Reynaud, Frédéric Chopin et Franz Liszt: deux carrières parisiennes – Renata Suchowiejko, Chopin au Théâtre Italien en 1835: Contexte historique et coulisses de l’organisation du concert – Anne Penesco, Les violonistes à Pianopolis: Chopin, Liszt et les violonistes dans l’univers musical parisien

Form, Sources and Processes:

Rohan H. Stewart-MacDonald, Chopin and the Eighteenth Century: Contrapuntal Process and Syntax in the Formation of His Mature Sonata Style – Andrew Davis, Narrative, Reminiscence, and Fragmentation in Liszt’s B-Minor Sonata – David Rowland, Piano Notation in Chopin and Liszt’s Paris – Céline Carenco, De la Symphonie révolutionnaire à l’Héroïde funèbre Michele Calella, The ‘Genius of the Nation’ and the Paris Salon: Liszt’s Tarantella and Neapolitan Song

Text and Musical Thought: À la recherche d’une estéthique à narrer:

Andrew Haringer, ‘De la situation des artistes’ and Lamennais: Liszt’s First Essay Reconsidered – James Garratt, Between Paris and Weimar: Conflicting Currents in Liszt’s Writings and Music Around 1850 – Christoph Flamm, « ... des compositions on ne peut plus distinguées ... »: Liszt Exploring Alkan Andrzej Tuchowski, From Lyricism to Ecstasy: Chopin’s ‘Apotheoses’. Recapitulations, Their Impact on Liszt and on Other Composers of European Neo-Romanticism Michael Saffle, Liszt, Pastoral, and the Sublime: Topical Gestures, Musical Programmism, and Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne

Legacy and Musical Inheritance:

Mariacarla De Giorgi, Pauline Viardot Garcia e la poetica della chanson populaire nelle trascrizioni per voce delle Mazurche di Chopin – Inès Taillandier-Guittard, Aspects de Chopin d’Alfred Cortot. Du musicien au biographe – Magdalena Oliferko, Chopin and Liszt in Fontanas Cuban Episode – Laure Schnapper, Herz face à Liszt et à Chopin: des relations contrastées

Biographies – Index of Names