Liszt: Dante Sonata (Nakamatsu, Khozyainov, Korstick)

[@AshishXiangyiKumar]

INTRODUCTION 00:00 - Motif A, descending chain of tritones (later smoothed out into 4ths and 5ths). 00:58 - Development of Motif A, expanding into dramatic contrary motion passage at m.20. 01:25 - Motif B (m.25), a ominously ascending/descending passage. 01:38 - Premonition of Theme 1 (m.30). EXPOSITION 01:52 - Theme 1 proper (m.35). A chromatic lament, descending and then ascending. (At 2.26, LH makes a passing reference to Motif B, and at 3:04, Motif A.) 03:09 - Transition (m.77), using the ascending portion of Motif B. Moves into an octatonic passage (m.90), and then a beautiful passage exploiting mediant harmonic relationships and heavily laden with Motif A* (3:46, m.94). 04:01 - Theme 2 (m.103). A triumphant chorale in F#, with a strong mixolydian flavour (at least at first). Its melodic contour is based on Theme 1’s. DEVELOPMENT 04:29 - Introduction is repeated, in truncated form. 05:13 - Theme 1a, in F# (m.124). Slower, in a different rhythmic profile, and with its chromatic ascents replaced by leaps. Moves into A and returns to F#. Wistful. 06:14 - Theme 2a, in F# (m.136). Now meditative. 06:53 - Transition in Gm, using Theme 1 (m.145). 07:53 - Theme 1b, in F# (m.157). A breathtaking transformation. Luminous and very delicate at first, turning ecstatic. Yet again, the emphasis is almost wholly on the descent. Moves into C, from whence it slips miraculously into 08:36 - Theme 1c, in F# (m.167). Now Theme 1 is stripped of nearly all chromaticism, and is reduced to a descending major scale. Repeated thrice, each time growing faster and louder. On the last repeat the main voice shifts from the LH to the RH (see Liszt’s accents). 09:04 - Transition (m.176). An intense recitative in D (based on a highly diminuted T1), with an implied C# pedal adding tension. Culminates in a series of C# dominant b9 chords which turn into a dissonant throbbing in the LH. 09:22 - Motif A enters in the RH (m.183). 09:41 - Motif B enters in the LH (m.190), with Motif A (itself alternating its descending and ascending forms) sandwiched between its ascending and descending halves. This procedure repeats 4 times until 09:58 - Theme 1 returns (m.199) in truncated form. This time it is confined to the LH, while the RH plays leaping chords. A dramatic octave passage (a variant of Motif B?) leads to 10:18 - An elaboration of Motif A* (m.211), beginning in Ab but modulating through B, to D. This leads to a wonderful passage (m.225) where the harmony starts to descend in whole-tone steps with increasing speed, until it pauses on a dramatic statement of Motif A* (m.233). 11:05 - The transformation of A* back to A heralds a new developmental episode in which Theme 1d (now just an octave descending scale) wails in the RH while Motif A (now thickened unto full chords) thunders in the bass. The harmony here heavily exploits the modulatory properties of the A diminished 7th chord. 11:28 - Theme 2b, in B, before moving into G, and Bb (also readable as C mixolydian - with some bitonality introduced in the LH for good measure in m.268). 12:19 - Transition, using Motif B. 12:23 - Theme 1e, in Dm (m.273). Doleful and eerie. The agonising chromatic climbs return. Closes on Motif A* (m.285). RECAPITULATION 13:25 - Theme 2c, in D (m.290). A texture like cirrus clouds. 14:01 - Transition using Motif B (m.300). 14:12 - Theme 2d (m.306). Huge, clamorous bell-peals. 14:36 - Transition, using Motif A (m.318), cleverly recalling the premonition of Theme 1 at m.32. CODA 14:51 - Theme 1f, in a syncopated frenzy (m.327). The chromaticism is back, but it now has a dizzying, drunken effect. 15:11 - Theme 1g (m.339). Now in the same melodic contour as 1c, but in fleet, leaping octaves, syncopated against the LH (which also discreetly doubles the melody). 15:26 - Theme 1 returns (m.353) in something similar to its original form - chromatic, but no ascents. Now we have a clear sense we are at the final cadence. 15:38 - Theme 2 appears to return for two bars, (mm.361-362), but then its mixolydian D to C shift becomes extended(!) into the same whole-tone progression we heard at 10:49, dropping through Bb and Ab to arrive at F# - the main key of Theme 2. (This is one of the most amazing structural tricks Liszt manages in his whole oeuvre. Stupid-clever stuff.) 15:47 - Motif A* closes, its dissonance finally purged. Liszt also makes a nice decision to replace the typical plagal cadence with a vi-IV-ii-I.

[@elrichardo1337]

and just a few weeks ago I made my own timestamps for your video of the pletnev recording lol regardless, these analyses are a joy to read as always - thank you!

[@gergelykiss]

Also worth considering: Motif A and Theme 1 are organically linked as they are both made up of pairs of repeated notes - in Motif A it's AA EbEb AA EbEb etc, in Theme 1 it is AA BbBb AA G#G# GG etc - it is written differently, but it is the same rhythmic idea. In Motive A with grace notes, in Theme 1 it is like a 16th upbeat to each melody note. (We might add Motif B as well - here the notes are repeated an octave apart.)

[@timward276]

Ashish, thanks for adding the measure numbers to the analysis: it helps when you're listening to the 2nd or 3rd recordings (like Korstick's--and you're right, his version is spectacular) since the timestamps don't line up.

[@bdellovibrioo5242]

Ashish: "You can't really mess up structure and harmony - they're in the score." My trembling hands at recital: "Is that a challenge?"

[@Prometeur]

Nakamatsu is a super nice guy. I've had a couple of lessons for him, and he played for me - believe it or not, he can barely reach an octave!

[@NFStopsnuf]

Us small-handed pianists always find a way to make it work!

[@vincentk5775]

WHY WOULD YOU LEARN OP 10 when an eight year old could learn it better🤏😑

[@yes-fq6jd]

Inspirational

[@lucasgust7720]

He is an amazing pianist.

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

I always found it funny that the first movement of the Dante sonata is An-dante

[@ack7956]

Get out of town, you nasty. Take my angry thumbs up.

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

@@ack7956 ahahah

[@thelittlegamer6209]

When Dante wasn’t even his real name:

[@thelittlegamer6209]

Isn’t this quasi Sonata in one single movement?

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

@@thelittlegamer6209 yeah it would be more correct to say "the first tempo indication"

[@Adam_Pianist]

I keep coming back and listening to this everyday for like a month now 😫

[@user-gp8rv9kf9w]

I strongly recommend you to listen to Cho's if you haven't

[@josephmathmusic]

The best artistic illustration of the irrationality of square root of 2!

[@marcelpetzold7931]

The first really convincing interpretation of the Dante Sonata I heard was by Alfred Brendel. Since then I have felt that the Dante Sonata has a tendency to fall apart in the virtuoso parts when a certain threshold is crossed. Then when I heard Korstick's recording a few years ago, it was a complete antithesis to that assumption. The amazing thing with Korstick for me is always that I don't get the feeling that he is flaunting his superhuman technique (the Hammerklavier Sonata is also a good example of this). Ashish has already pointed out in other interpretations of Korstick the emphasis on dynamic contrasts and it is amazing to me that this very aspect is neglected by other pianists. Korstick himself is an admirer of Horowitz, which at first glance seems surprising in terms of their differences. However, if there is a commonality, it is the overemphasis on dynamic contrasts. With Horowitz it served more for melodic accentuation, with Korstick it is a necessary component of his overall interpretive concept. I admire both, although I readily admit that Korstick ends up on the turntable more often. Too bad there aren't more recordings of him yet. p.s. Sorry for the gibberish.

[@SCRIABINIST]

One of Liszt's pinnacle works, I think this alongside the Sonata in B Minor and Reminisce don Juan was Liszt's compositional high point in all of his works.

[@konstantin1943]

Ballade b-moll?

[@jimbo1215]

Totally agree that as I listened to it Liszt's Sonata in B Minor came to my mind as did the don Juan. Other great pieces are captured in Liszt's twelve Etudes. When you listen to these pieces it is a complete transformation that many very simplistic, quiet and relaxing pieces can be equally expressive such as his consolation pieces.

[@PieInTheSky9]

I never realized how similar this is to his sonata in B minor, in the sense of Liszt developing a relatively simple chromatic theme into a sprawling masterwork. He does this very effectively in his second piano concerto as well.

[@CatkhosruShapurrjiFurabji]

New to Korstick's Liszt, but I'm sure it's going to be great, now that you uploaded one of his recordings.

[@NFStopsnuf]

What’s great about the opening note is that the super accent is played with such force that the fifth over it, or the second harmonic can be heard! Great contrast is felt with the e-flat directly after, clashing in perceived dissonance.

[@paulseidl4335]

Hard to believe the skill to play this piece, the compsers reasoning and, thoughts to please it's audience for technicality, action, liveliness and, pure challenge to comprehend it's classical application!

[@brettowen7174]

Wonderful performance and wonderful piano!

[@KorAnos1]

Can't give you enough credit for your essays in the video descriptions and comments, Ashish. As a music lover and once-musician (albeit saxophone and not piano), you bring the theoretical splendors of these great works almost within reach for me. Sondheim once said, "Music is a foreign language which everyone knows but only musicians can speak," and I feel like I've at least got a little phrasebook for the languages of these pieces when I read your passionately detailed analyses.

[@mazeppa1231]

Wow, I'm should've seen this earlier!! Thanks for putting Nakamatsu's recording here, I LOVED his interpretation on the Dante Sonata, especially the part at 9:20 - 9:38, where he emphasizes the left hand at every 4th chord. It was BRILLIANT!! When I first learned the Dante Sonata, I incorporated that into my own playing. I found it amazing.

[@percyhxtn5307]

Two outstanding performances that standup to my "go to" played by Horowitz. Your attention to interpretations of under-performed pianists is well-served here. Thank you!

[@teddythemlgcorgi7309]

Horowitz never recorded this piece.

[@accipiterignitus5123]

I liked a lot Korstick's interpretation! Super satisfying

[@IEEMAZ_Convoluted_14.2.8.5]

Stunning

[@surkova_a]

Thanks🤍 Great sonata!👏

[@_iakvb771]

tbis goes so hard it's unreal

[@cyzhouhk]

I love the Dante sonata. It's what made me want to read the Divine Comedy, now the book eagerly sits on my (kindle) bookshelf, waiting for me to finish my current one.

[@lolsup9817]

If you do read it, it’s a lot of work. Currently in the very middle of the book and it is one of the most difficult but rewarding reads I’ve ever done

[@yebyo]

A masterpiece

[@DariusMo]

44:21 sounds soooo good

[@KenWangpiano]

Korstick is full of fire!

[@leonardbernstein2285]

Considering the structural tightness of pieces like this, the sonata ect., it seems baffling to me that Liszt is casually being accused of having a bad sense of timing or composing formally dysfunctional pieces, or whatsoever (e.c. the tone poems).

[@AshishXiangyiKumar]

Hearty agree on this - on the basis of (at least) the B minor Sonata, the B minor Ballade, this work, and Vallee d'Obermann, Liszt should be regarded as having produced some of the most thematically efficient, formally disciplined, structurally innovative works in the entire piano repertoire.

[@joshuaslater7858]

@@AshishXiangyiKumar don’t forget benediction dans la solitude 😁

[@mikesimpson3207]

There seems to be a certain tendency to perceive music with pictorial or literary elements as less "structural" or "logical". It often isn't true, of course. Even in pieces where the structure is more determined by what "felt right" narratively than any stock form, that usually results in a coherent structure anyway. I've noticed this sort of dismissal with Gershwin for instance, who if nothing else knows how to move from idea to idea, and bring previous ideas back in a satisfying way. What is form if not that?

[@leonardbernstein2285]

@@mikesimpson3207 I had read somewhere that Gershwin (whom I’m not super familiar with yet) used in a piece the same arch form that Bartok was using in many works (though Bartok is hailed as an innovator in structure, while Gershwin largely as a patchy jazz dude - demonstrating a general dismissiveness for any kind of jazz too).

[@georgiepentch]

40:41-41:42

[@sethjeppson5680]

The piano sounds amazing in the Korstick recording

[@MasmorraAoE]

Hey Ashish, do you happen to know what's the piano used in Korstick's recording? Has a lovely soft sound but sounds very harsh/metallic in the forte passages.

[@fidelcastro9112]

41:14 , 47:28

[@AnatoArchives]

11:05 those octaves are outstandingly detached!

[@Schubertd960]

Theme 2 sounds a bit like Mazeppa- moments like 14:22 and 4:10, for example...

[@LM-oz2sc]

I like all of this permormances, but Lazar Berman or Hamelin performances of this ridiculously difficult piece are amazing.

[@SWGR9311]

Yes for sure. Hamelin's virtuosity can also be heard and watched in his own cadenza in Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 which the composer allows for.

[@slot2]

Hello. Could you upload Max Jentsch concert etude no.6 (appassionata) please?

[@lazza1160]

No one: My brain at 2 am: 15:32

[@lucasgust7720]

I love Nakamatsu's sound.

[@RobinLSL]

I've always had a pet peeve against calling this piece "Dante Sonata". It's explicitly called a fantasy and "almost" a sonata. Doing my own small scale campaign to call it "Dante Fantasy" instead...

[@AshishXiangyiKumar]

Fantasy is more misleading title than Sonata, though - nothing in this work is remotely improvisatory or episodic. Sonata implies a certain degree of heft and structural robustness, and this piece has that in spades.

[@timward276]

It's obvious that the piece starts with a descent into the Inferno (reaching it in measure 35), but where exactly do the Purgatory and Paradise sections start? I'd guess Purgatory starts either at m.124 after the reprise of the opening tritones, or at the "dolcissimo con amore" passage at m. 157; Paradiso must start with the celestial tremolos in m. 290.

[@ariannasuen4061]

I can’t be the only one who hears bits of paganini caprice and chopin ballades

[@ack7956]

My favorite of these would probably be Nakamatsu, there's something about the tone that's so magical to me. The recap especially is incredible to me, the return of theme 1 is so frantic and energetic, vividly painting the picture of hell, the souls screaming as Dante escapes from the underworld. I don't really care for religious stuff or the ilk, but even not having read the Inferno, nor even a synopsis, I can still tell what's being depicted. None of the other interpretations give me the same chills, they don't make my heart pound the way Nakamatsu's does. Not to say the other ones are bad, just Nakamatsu's conjures the images so well in his playing. Then of course there's the dolcissimo segment where theme 1 returns somberly midway through the piece, the softness with which Nakamatsu plays genuinely makes tears come to my eyes. It's like when I first listened to Yuja Wang's Liszt Sonata in B minor, every emotion perfectly captured in their playing. Edit: I am still fairly familiar with the story of the Inferno, being born and raised among a very religious family. However, I've never gotten the full picture of it, as I've never read it, only gotten small anecdotes of it.

[@sciagurrato1831]

All very fine recordings, but the Korstick is conceptually on the broadest scale but with the same precision articulated in detail. Also his virtuosity is on yet another level to his peers. Interpretively he seems to outdistance the past of Arrau and Brendel as well.

[@santiagocaldeira7555]

I really like volodos' version

[@maquina7002]

The most popular one of course

[@MrZappianoify]

Impresionante montaña rusa de vaivenes cromáticos, una joya poco reconocida.

[@I0nK1ng]

Measure 103 is stolen from Chopin’s black key Etude (the octave passage that ends the Etude)

[@roy8769]

8:17

[@snorefest1621]

good "song" I watch the premier

[@sgwinenoob2115]

Hey Ashish did you manage to catch Yunchan Lim in VCH on sunday? What did you think of his performance?

[@siuhinwong1675]

damn it’s soooooooo good. I attended his recital in HK. The enormous contrast and flexibility of his playing can not be described in words. He displayed such sensitivity in his playing that was not found in most if not all pianists. Def the best interpretation i hv ever heard. Definitely the best recital i hv attended, even better than kissin’s. He was extremely adaptive that he kinda switched his mode and style instantaneously when going thro different phrases, making his playing super intriguing. highly respect his repertoire, not the kind of stuff that u will come over in a regular concert, but with a respectable degree of depth. Yunchan is def going to be one of the brightest star in the league of pianists in his coming performing career. Repertoire: brahms 4 ballade MENDELSSOHN Fantasia in F-sharp minor, Op. 28 liszt Deux légendes liszt dante sonata

[@siuhinwong1675]

Yunchan’s version is extremely similar to Korstick’s one, probably more polished and even more contrasting esp in the quieter section

[@sgwinenoob2115]

@@siuhinwong1675 I completely agree. He has a deep understanding of pedaling esp with regard to when a passage needs the una corda vs the sostenuto pedal. Such as in the 2nd ballade (where the pedal point is held and the soprano voice is soft and detached). Ive not witnessed playing of such sensitivity before. I didnt understand the choice of the mendelssohn, which to me is an inferior piece, but he pulled it off with as much panache as any ive witnessed. The legends were fabulous too. Esp the crunchiness and the subtle accelerando of the wave motif in the later piece, which i felt brought the visual aspect to life brilliantly. Dante was good, technically perfect. Although at times a little too mushily pedaled. Could not agree more with your assessment. He is surely one of the brightest stars of our musical firmament. What a gift to the world!

[@siuhinwong1675]

@@sgwinenoob2115 i agree w u that in some parts of his playing, he kinda overused the pedal, and probably also partly due to the acoustics of the recital hall, making some phrases less crispy/audible as it should be. But i guess it was within the acceptable range, so didn’t really much affect his overall playing

[@letsgoooooo6628]

13:51 that’s one little big mistake.

[@biomuseum6645]

Explain me, how is this different from Dante fantasia quasi sonata, also from Liszt

[@AshishXiangyiKumar]

It's not.

[@biomuseum6645]

@@AshishXiangyiKumar sorry i got confused

[@GICM]

incidentally how would you say the Pletnev recording compares to these?

[@AshishXiangyiKumar]

Not very favourably, unforch - pretty saggy in many parts. Generally, if I reupload a work. it means I have soured a fair bit on the earlier recording I put up!

[@GICM]

@@AshishXiangyiKumar ah, so would you say that you're satisfied with the videos on say, the Chopin Ballades? it'd be interesting to see them get the same treatment (i mean performances by lesser known pianists). though i guess to be fair you already did 3 videos on them though (well 4 if we include the old Glemser ones)

[@AshishXiangyiKumar]

@@GICM Yeah, some days I really think it'd be great to do a separate video for each Ballade, because there are so many interesting and not too well-known recordings out there. But I'm honestly very happy with both the Zimerman and CSJ recordings that are already here, plus there's so much more repertoire I have to get through - so it's unlikely you'll see a new video of the Ballades up anytime soon.