The Piano Sonata in B minor S.178, is a single movement piano sonata by Franz Liszt. Liszt completed the work during his time in Weimar, Germany in 1853, a year before it was published in 1854 and performed in 1857. Liszt noted on the sonata’s manuscript that it was completed on 2 February 1853, but he had composed an earlier version by 1849. At this point in his life, Liszt’s career as a travelling virtuoso had almost entirely subsided, as Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein had influenced him to concentrate on composing rather than performing. Liszt settled in Weimar in 1848 where he devoted himself to composition, and to living a comfortable lifestyle, composing, and occasionally performing, entirely by choice rather than necessity. He dedicated the piece to Robert Schumann, in return for Schumann’s dedication to Liszt in his Fantasie in C major, Op. 17. A copy of the work arrived at Schumann’s house in May 1854, after he had entered Endenich sanatorium. Pianist and composer Clara Schumann did not perform the Sonata despite her marriage to Robert Schumann; according to scholar Alan Walker she found it “merely a blind noise”.
No other work of Liszt’s has attracted anywhere near the amount of scholarly attention paid to the Sonata in B minor. It has provoked a wide range of divergent theories from those of its admirers who feel compelled to search for hidden meanings. The complexity of the sonata means no analytical interpretation has been widely accepted. Some analyses suggest that the Sonata has four movements, although there is no gap between them. Superimposed upon the four movements is a large sonata form structure, although the precise beginnings and endings of the traditional development and recapitulation sections have long been a topic of debate. Others claim a three-movement form, an extended one-movement sonata form, and a rotational three-movement work with a double exposition and recapitulation.
While its distinct movements: allegro, adagio, scherzo and finale are combined into one, the entire work is encompassed within an overarching sonata form — exposition, development, and recapitulation Liszt is said to have composed a sonata within a sonata, which is part of the work’s uniqueness, and he was economical with his thematic material. The first page contains three motive ideas that provide the basis for nearly all that follows, with the ideas being transformed throughout.
The first theme is a descending scale marked Lento assai; full of ominous undertow. It reappears at crucial points in the work’s structure, especially in the coda. After the first theme, the time signature changes from 44 to Alla breve, and the second theme marked Allegro energico, consisting of a jagged, forceful motif in octaves, is introduced. This is quickly followed by the third theme, which Liszt characterized as Hammerschlag (‘hammer-blow’) to describe the single note repetition in the theme. A dialogue ensues, with mounting energy, until reaching the noble Grandioso material in D major. Liszt transforms the “hammer-blow” motif into a grand melodic gesture marked cantando espressivo. The slow movement, an Andante sostenuto in F-sharp major, is the centrepiece of the Sonata. This fully-fledged movement, in compound ternary form, features, in quick succession, a number of themes heard earlier in the Sonata in a tour de force of thematic economy.
The recapitulation opens with a fugue in B-flat minor, that can also function as a scherzo. Each of the sections are examples of Classical forms, which means that this piece is one of the first instances of Double-function form, a musical piece which has two classical forms happening at the same time; one containing the other. Already in 1851 Liszt experimented with a non-programmatic “four-movements-in-one” form in an extended work for piano solo called Grosses Concert-Solo. This piece, which in 1865 was published as a two-piano version under the title Concerto pathétique, shows a thematic relationship to both the Sonata and the later Faust Symphony.] Walker claims the quiet ending of the Sonata was an afterthought; the original manuscript contains a crossed-out ending section which would have ended the work in a loud flourish instead.
