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Liszt - Elegia for cello and piano. You can download the sheet music Liszt - Elegia for cello and piano on this page.
In March 1883, Liszt's biographer, Lina Ramann, noted down in her diary a phrase according to which Liszt declared that he could have written elegies as far as the eye can see, given that his existence was now no more than a vast elegy. The version for cello, piano, harp and harmonium presented on this disc is the original version of the first composition bearing this title (Liszt subsequently made adaptations for cello and piano, violin and piano and again solo piano). The work was inspired in 1874 by the death of an old friend, Madame Marie Mukhanova, née Countess Nesselrode, who had been Chopin's pupil and Inpolitical circles was nicknamed 'the tsar's spy in crinoline'. Liszt wanted to create a sort of musical portrait of this picturesque character, and the work was given for the first time the following year at a party in her memory, in Weimar. 'Originally, It was supposed to be entitled Berceuse dans la tombe,' wrote Liszt to Lina Ramann, 'but later on, I found that a bit artificial and simply entitled it Elegie: The second elegy (Zweite Elegie), written at the Villa d'Este in 1877, is dedicated to Lina Ramann and was originally scored for cello and piano. In three parts, like the previous one, it is however more contrasted. In the first, the cello develops a melody with a thin texture, richly chromatic and punctuated with a few pious piano chords. In the central section, closer to the style of the young Liszt, it is the piano that dominates with impassioned arpeggiated chords. The piece ends on a resigned variant of the thematic elements of the introduction.
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