Franz Liszt

Concerto sans orchestre

[An early draft for piano solo of the Concerto no. 2 in A major]

In the isolation of San Rossore in the summer of the 1839 Liszt composed the first drafts of his Concerto no. 2 for pianoforte and orchestra. The withdrawal with Marie d’Agoult to the estate of Gombo preceded the imminent resumption of his virtuoso concert activity, with its attendant demands for a repertoire of his own musical creations. Liszt completed a score for piano solo and a full orchestral score, but placed no title upon either manuscript. Both scores were rewritten many times before the first public performance, that Liszt directed in 1857 from the podium of the Weimar Theatre, with the solo part taken by Hans von Bronsart. The manuscript of 1839 for pianoforte solo is the subject of the present edition. Like the later drafts of 1849 it has never been published. The manuscript is held in the Goethe- und Schiller-Archiv in Weimar (shelf-mark GSA 60/H5d), where Leslie Howard has identified it and has prepared its transcription.

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