Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No.2

A classical representative of the Hungarian National School of Composers, FERENC LISZT spent most of his life away from his native land. He was a vivid presence in Paris musical life during the 1830s, then went on to travel and performed concerts in Switzerland, Italy, Bohemia, England, Belgium, Denmark, Russia, and for more than a decade was a leading artistic figure in Weimar, only to withdraw later into seclusion in Rome. The Weimar period (1848-1861) is central to Liszt's creative activity. It was there the genius pianist, composer and conductor wrote his most innovative artworks and invented the new romantic genre "symphonic poem" (comprising such exemplars as Preludes, Tasso, Lament and Triumph, Prometheus, Mazeppa, Hamlet, among others), radically transformed the perception of the piano in his concertos and more than 500 piano works, enriching and symphonizing the piano genres. The SECOND PIANO CONCERTO was conceived as early as 1839-1840, but Liszt was not to complete it until a decade later, essentially updating its concept. Some further revisions ensued, with the last one made in 1861. Liszt dedicated the work to his student Hans von Bronsart, who gave the first performance, with Liszt conducting, in Weimar on January 7, 1857. Further performances were given by another disciple of Liszt's – then seventeen-year-old Carl Tausig played the work in Prague on 11 March 1858. Tausig repeated it in Weimar on August 8, 1860 to general acclaim, not long before Liszt would resign his position as music director there. This single-movement concerto is divided into six distinct sections (Adagio sostenuto assai; Allegro agitato assai; Allegro moderato; Allegro deciso; Marziale un poco allegro; Allegro animato), connected by diverse transformations of several themes. Liszt styled the work Concerto Symphonique to distinguish it from the virtuosity of the First Concerto and to reveal its closer proximity to his symphonic poems and programmatic symphonies with the idea of a one-movement form and thematic transformation.