Franz Liszt: "Funerailles", for piano

Martha Argerich, 1977 recording

In 1849, the slender and handsome Franz Liszt was 38 years old. A year earlier he had abandoned his career as a concert pianist at the suggestion of his life companion, Princess Carolyne, who urged him to compose, after their union. Gone were the years when he toured Europe reaping applause, the affection of his audience, and something more. The ladies attending his "recitals" (a soloist presentation, invented by himself in 1840) fainted, the most demure ones. The others pulled each other's hair out to get hold of the handkerchief that the maestro had carelessly forgotten on the piano cover.
But none of that occupied now the master's days.

The maestro was in Weimar, teaching, conducting court concerts, and composing, besides his princess. He led a peaceful life, but in Europe, the winds of revolution were blowing, which would eventually be crushed, of course. One of these uprisings affected him personally. Two of his friends were killed and another went into exile for ten years, after the crushing of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, one of the many European revolutions of that year and the next.

Funerailles, one of the fourteen pieces that make up the Poetic and Religious Harmonies collection, was written in homage to these unfortunate friends. It is the most famous of the series.

Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886), in 1847

A tribute to Chopin?
The work has a subtitle: "October 1849".
For some time, some commentators saw in it a tribute by Liszt to his friend Chopin, who died on the 17th of that month and year.
But Liszt himself denied this assertion. He assured that he did not think of Chopin at all, although, for any moderately educated listener, the work contains a couple of pieces that recall the central part of the Polonaise Heroique, including the frenetic octaves of the left hand... How could it not be?

Funerailles, for piano - Poetic Harmonies No 7
The piece lasts about ten minutes. It is made up of four sections, with three main themes that are repeated throughout the work.

00:00  Introduction
02:02  After a pause, a funeral march, which modulates into an unexpected section marked "lagrimoso" at 04:04.
06:14  Heroic war march that grows in intensity (with a diabolical left hand in octaves), until reaching the conclusion.
07:30  Conclusion. The three themes are reintroduced, with greater emphasis. But now the war march will be abruptly interrupted by some piano chords, in very marked staccato, with which the piece ends.

The rendition is by the remarkable Argentine pianist Martha Argerich, in a 1977 recording.