Franz Liszt and Marie d'Agoult
Liszt's great love, or let us say, his most stable relationship, was called Marie de Flavigny as a single girl. A liberal woman, a renowned writer and historian, adopted the pseudonym of Daniel Stern when she began to collaborate with the French opposition press in the early 1840s. At the time of meeting Liszt, in 1833, Marie had become Countess Marie d'Agoult, for she had been married for six years in a holy but arranged marriage with Count Charles d'Agoult, whom she left without further ado when she realized that true love had knocked at her door.
Intense and passionate, the relationship lasted for 11 years and three children were born from the union.
This is the stage during which the famous and acclaimed pianist toured Europe, giving recitals in large cities, performing his own works, or making known the maestros not yet appreciated by the general public. Liszt was the first musician to program concerts devoted entirely to Bach, Beethoven or his contemporaries Chopin or Schumann.
His tours, always triumphant, were an event. Transformed into a celebrity of his time, Franz Liszt was awaited and received with great enthusiasm by what today we would call "his audience", or his "fans". For this reason, the chance of an affair was always at hand. Without thinking twice, Franz simply used to move in that direction. At the same time, at home, Marie was beginning to get tired of such long absences. And she sighed.
Étude de Concert No 3 - "Un sospiro"
Four years after the end of the relationship, Marie worked in 1848 as a prominent contributor to the liberal newspaper La Presse. Franz, in turn, finished composing his Three Études de Concert, aimed at improving the technical skills of the advanced student. The Étude No 3 in D-flat takes the Italian name "Un sospiro" (a sigh) and is intended to achieve skills on crossing hands effects at great speed.
When, years ago, I heard this piece for the first time, I could not explain how it was possible that the performer could carry that melody and, simultaneously, be accompanied by such a trapeze of arpeggios which were only possible with the participation of both hands. Time later, I was able to access the score and managed to see that such magic was due to the "simple" contraption of crossing hands.
As can be seen, the melody is being conducted by both hands, once on the left taking advantage of a silence and the next on the right in parallel with the bass. To facilitate the reading, the piano score presents, uncharacteristically, two treble clefs.
Marc-André Hamelin, French-Canadian pianist and composer, at a recital in Tokyo, 1997.
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