Liszt, Piano Concerto No 2, in A major / Khatia Buniatishvili

As with the First Concerto, the initial writing, the necessary revisions, and the final version of the Piano Concerto No. 2 took Liszt a long time. Almost twenty-five years. He started working on it in 1839 and finished a first version (let's say, a first draft that satisfied him) in 1857, that is, eighteen years later. After the necessary revisions, he considered it finally finished in 1861, but its publication would be delayed until 1863.

Franz Liszt, in 1866, at the age of 55
Engraving from a photography

The urgencies of the composers
If we talk about dynamism or fluency for the concertante composition, the distance from his predecessors, let's say the "classics", is wide. And if the comparison is made with Mozart, it is gigantic: let us remember that the genius of Salzburg in his Viennese years came to compose two concertos a month (in February and March 1785, no more and no less than Concertos Nos. 20 and 21). The circumstances of life, of course, are very different. Mozart composed with an eye to his subscription concertos, a vital income. Liszt, instead, would make ends meet, dying with laughter.

Liszt, the concert pianist

It was precisely in 1839 that Franz Liszt began a career as a piano virtuoso that has no parallel in the history of artistic performances in the 19th century. Between 1839 and 1847 his tours as a "concert pianist" ( let's remember that he is the inventor of the "recital", the first pianist to perform alone on stage) took him to - let's take a breath - Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Austria, England, Ireland, Romania, Turkey, and Russia.

Abandoning the stage

In 1849, however, his new companion, Carolyne de Sayn Wittgenstein, suggested his definitive abandonment of the stage and his exclusive dedication to composition. Thus, the concert he had given in Russia in September 1847 became his last paid concert. From then on, the 36-year-old maestro played the piano for charity, making known the compositions of his lesser-known colleagues. He also took time to work on the works he had envisioned ten years earlier.

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2, in A major

The concerto is dedicated to Hans von Bronsart, Liszt's pupil, who premiered it in Weimar on January 7, 1857. Like the first concerto, the work is built on a single movement, made up of numerous sections, all of them derived from the same initial melody. So much so that one prominent musicologist felt free to rename the work "Life and Wanderings of a Melody".

A bit disrespectful perhaps, but not so far from reality because throughout the twenty-odd minutes that the piece lasts, the initial melody comes and goes, undergoing variations, transformations, and diverse twists and turns. Very wide glissandos covering the entire keyboard announce a grand finale of breathtaking characteristics.

Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, accompanied by L'Orchestre de Paris, under the direction of Russian conductor Andrey Boreyko, perform this version.