Grandes Etudes de Paganini
Encyclopedia
The Grandes études de Paganini are a series of six études for the piano by Franz Liszt
, revised in 1851 from an earlier version (published as Études d'exécution transcendante d'après Paganini, S.140, in 1838). It is almost exclusively in the final version that these pieces are played today.
The pieces are all based on the compositions of Niccolò Paganini
for violin, and are among the most technically demanding pieces in the piano literature (especially the original versions, before Liszt revised them, thinning the texures and removing the more outrageous technical difficulties). The pieces run the gamut of technical hurdles, and frequently require very large stretches by the performer of an eleventh (although all stretches greater than a tenth were removed from the revised versions).
Liszt and Schumann
(who both rated Paganini very highly as a composer) began the trend of writing pieces on Paganini’s themes in 1831/2: Schumann first with a sketched work for piano and orchestra, and then his first set of six Studies (opus 3) on Paganini’s Caprices, and then Liszt following with his Grande fantaisie de bravoure sur ‘La clochette’ (S.420) based upon the third movement of Paganini’s Second Violin Concerto
. Schumann later wrote a second set of six piano studies (opus 10), and then at the end of his creative life produced piano accompaniments to Paganini's Caprices (an accomplishment later echoed by Karol Szymanowski
). Liszt wrote a set of six studies in 1838 (S.140), sketched a further fantasy [combining the ‘Clochette’ theme with the Carnaval de Venise] in 1845 (S.700), and rewrote the six studies into their commonly-known final version in 1851 (S.141).
Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1
, were composed during the early years of the 19th century, and were published in 1820. They pay homage to a like-named work by Pietro Locatelli
, and were of incalculable influence upon whole generations of violinists, and —just as importantly— composers. They form the basis for all but one of Liszt’s Études d’exécution transcendante d’après Paganini, and Liszt remains very faithful to Paganini’s text. (It is interesting that, although these works are really transcriptions, they are always catalogued and published as original Liszt works. Certainly there is a wealth of original thinking in what Liszt wrote, but the basic material and structure remain Paganini’s.) Liszt dedicated the 1838 set of studies to Clara Schumann
and —typical of his generosity and magnanimity— went on happily to dedicate the 1851 set to her as well, in spite of her carping ingratitude (see note to Etude No. 1, below).
took offence, thinking that Liszt had wanted to show his superiority. In the later edition Schumann's text no longer appears, two hands are required rather sooner, the technical demands are somewhat moderated, and the spirit is generally more reflective.)
(transposed here into A flat major from the original E flat). The first version of this study turns out to be quite a boisterous affair, and could not be in greater contrast with its second version, now in G sharp minor (for ease of reading, no doubt) and with the theme from the First Concerto totally removed. La campanella has, over the years, often been used by unthinking players as some gigantic warhorse, whereas (as evinced in Josef Lhévinne
's recording – even on a piano-roll) it is clearly a study in quiet playing with a mystical quality. It is marked allegretto until the last pages, and only grows in volume towards the end. Forte never occurs, but fortissimo is indicated once – just for the last eleven bars.
on the violin.
Grandes Études de Paganini – 'Dedicated to Madame Clara Schumann – revised version (1851), S.141
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, revised in 1851 from an earlier version (published as Études d'exécution transcendante d'après Paganini, S.140, in 1838). It is almost exclusively in the final version that these pieces are played today.
The pieces are all based on the compositions of Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
for violin, and are among the most technically demanding pieces in the piano literature (especially the original versions, before Liszt revised them, thinning the texures and removing the more outrageous technical difficulties). The pieces run the gamut of technical hurdles, and frequently require very large stretches by the performer of an eleventh (although all stretches greater than a tenth were removed from the revised versions).
History
Liszt first heard Paganini in April 1831 and was so entranced by the unfettered expressiveness of his playing, and Paganini’s ability to use his legendary technical ability for purely musical ends, that the young Liszt immediately declared his intention of achieving upon the piano an equivalent new technical mastery in order to unleash musical thoughts which had remained hitherto inexpressible.Liszt and Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
(who both rated Paganini very highly as a composer) began the trend of writing pieces on Paganini’s themes in 1831/2: Schumann first with a sketched work for piano and orchestra, and then his first set of six Studies (opus 3) on Paganini’s Caprices, and then Liszt following with his Grande fantaisie de bravoure sur ‘La clochette’ (S.420) based upon the third movement of Paganini’s Second Violin Concerto
Violin Concerto No. 2 (Paganini)
The Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 7, was composed by Niccolò Paganini in Italy in 1826. In his Second Concerto, Paganini holds back on the demonstration of virtuosity in favour of greater individuality in the melodic style...
. Schumann later wrote a second set of six piano studies (opus 10), and then at the end of his creative life produced piano accompaniments to Paganini's Caprices (an accomplishment later echoed by Karol Szymanowski
Karol Szymanowski
Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist.-Life:Szymanowski was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish gentry family in Tymoszówka, then in the Russian Empire, now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus'...
). Liszt wrote a set of six studies in 1838 (S.140), sketched a further fantasy [combining the ‘Clochette’ theme with the Carnaval de Venise] in 1845 (S.700), and rewrote the six studies into their commonly-known final version in 1851 (S.141).
Paganini’s 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1
24 Caprices for Solo Violin (Paganini)
The 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1 was written by Niccolò Paganini between 1802 and 1817 and published in 1819. They are also designated as M.S. 25 in Maria Rosa Moretti and Anna Sorrento's Catalogo tematico delle musiche di Niccolò Paganini, which was published in 1982...
, were composed during the early years of the 19th century, and were published in 1820. They pay homage to a like-named work by Pietro Locatelli
Pietro Locatelli
Pietro Antonio Locatelli was an Italian composer and violinist.-Biography:Locatelli was born in Bergamo, Italy. A child prodigy on the violin, he was sent to study in Rome under the direction of Arcangelo Corelli...
, and were of incalculable influence upon whole generations of violinists, and —just as importantly— composers. They form the basis for all but one of Liszt’s Études d’exécution transcendante d’après Paganini, and Liszt remains very faithful to Paganini’s text. (It is interesting that, although these works are really transcriptions, they are always catalogued and published as original Liszt works. Certainly there is a wealth of original thinking in what Liszt wrote, but the basic material and structure remain Paganini’s.) Liszt dedicated the 1838 set of studies to Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
and —typical of his generosity and magnanimity— went on happily to dedicate the 1851 set to her as well, in spite of her carping ingratitude (see note to Etude No. 1, below).
Étude No. 1 (G minor)
For the first study Liszt employs the sixth of Paganini’s Caprices, but adds transpositions of the introduction and coda to No. 5 – grand arpeggios – in the equivalent places. Paganini’s work imitates two violinists at once, the one playing a lyrical melody, the other a tremolando accompaniment, mostly in thirds. In his first version, Liszt uses just the left hand to practise a similar feat, and the right hand joins in as his pianistic devices become more complicated. (In the first edition Liszt arranged for the text of Schumann’s study on the same work to be printed above his own, as an alternative text. Schumann makes almost no attempt to imitate the violin tremolos, providing instead a completely different solution in triplet chords. Liszt intended the parallel to be a homage to Schumann, whom he constantly admired, but Clara SchumannClara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
took offence, thinking that Liszt had wanted to show his superiority. In the later edition Schumann's text no longer appears, two hands are required rather sooner, the technical demands are somewhat moderated, and the spirit is generally more reflective.)
Étude No. 2 (E flat major)
Apart from the familiar thinning of textures, the second version sounds similar to the first, but the differences in the arrangements of the hands (to make the best musical solutions) are subtleties worthy of close observation. (For many years it was the fashion to ‘improve’ the little valedictory coda which Liszt composed for this work with a crass flourish ; this practice has almost entirely ceased.)Étude No. 3 (A flat minor) (La Campanella)
Uniquely in this study, Liszt does not preserve Paganini’s original tonality or structure. In his early ‘Clochette’ Fantasy, S.420 (1832), Liszt had transposed into A minor the main theme and a ritornello theme from Paganini's Second Concerto, in B minor. When returning to the theme to write the first version of the study, Liszt used A flat minor —putting all the nastier leaps between black notes, which are much easier to target— and incorporates a repeated-note elaboration of the first theme of the 3rd movement of Paganini’s First Violin ConcertoViolin Concerto No. 1 (Paganini)
The Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 6, was composed by Niccolò Paganini in Italy, probably between 1817 and 1818. The concerto reveals that Paganini's technical wizardry was fully developed...
(transposed here into A flat major from the original E flat). The first version of this study turns out to be quite a boisterous affair, and could not be in greater contrast with its second version, now in G sharp minor (for ease of reading, no doubt) and with the theme from the First Concerto totally removed. La campanella has, over the years, often been used by unthinking players as some gigantic warhorse, whereas (as evinced in Josef Lhévinne
Josef Lhévinne
Josef Lhévinne was a Russian pianist and piano teacher.Joseph Arkadievich Levin was born into a family of musicians in Oryol and studied at the Imperial Conservatory in Moscow under Vasily Safonov...
's recording – even on a piano-roll) it is clearly a study in quiet playing with a mystical quality. It is marked allegretto until the last pages, and only grows in volume towards the end. Forte never occurs, but fortissimo is indicated once – just for the last eleven bars.
Étude No. 4 (E major)
Paganini’s first caprice (which quotes Locatelli’s seventh) is the basis for Liszt’s fourth study. In the first edition it appears in two versions: the first as a single-note arpeggio in each hand, the second (and more difficult) with double-note arpeggios in both hands. Even though they are both marked andante quasi allegretto, they inhabit the very edge of the technically-possible with their stretches, leaps and hand-crossings. Liszt adds grand melodic lines in counterpoint to the straightforward broken chords of the original. In the 1851 version the piece is marked vivo and the music is printed, uncannily like Paganini’s original to the casual view, on one stave; the hands intricately alternate in a neatly-woven replica of the caprice, shorn of all added melodies.Étude No. 5 (La chasse) (E major)
La chasse is the nickname often given to Paganini’s ninth caprice —a study in double-stopping— as well as to Liszt’s fifth study which is based upon it. Both Paganini and Liszt mark the opening theme as imitando il flauto, and the lower repetition as imitando il corno. The spiccato phrases tossed from one register of the violin to another in the middle section are cleverly adapted by Liszt, right down to some rather violinistic fingering which produces just the right articulation. The first version is somewhat thicker in texture than the second, and Liszt’s staccato scales in octaves and chords in the first version become double glissandi in the second. (The first version also has a simpler alternative text for the majority of its length. This produces in effect a second earlier version of the work, whose character is quite different.)Étude No. 6 (Theme and Variations) (A minor)
Paganini's 24th caprice is certainly the best known, or at least its theme is, since it has been widely employed by so many other composers for variations of their own. Paganini wrote eleven variations and a coda, and Liszt sticks to this plan in both editions of his sixth study. The differences between the two Liszt pieces are too many to be enumerated here; the second version is not as monumentally treacherous as the first, and the textures vary enormously – especially in Variation IX with its different attempts to compensate for the wondrous effect of left-hand pizzicatoPizzicato
Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument....
on the violin.
Piece listing
Études d'exécution transcendante d'après Paganini – 'Dedicated to Madame Clara Schumann – original version (1838), S.140- Étude No. 2 in E-flat major (Andantino capricciosamente) –
- Étude No. 3 in A-flat minor (Allegro moderato) –
- Étude No. 4 in E major (Andante quasi allegretto) –
- Étude No. 5 in E major (
- Étude No. 6 in A minor (Theme and Variations) (Quasi presto, a capriccio) –
Grandes Études de Paganini – 'Dedicated to Madame Clara Schumann – revised version (1851), S.141
- Étude No. 1 in G minor (Preludio, Andante; Etude – Non troppo lento) ("Tremolo") – After Paganini's 24 Caprices for solo violin #6 (with the introduction and coda of #5)
- Étude No. 2 in E-flat major (Andante capriccioso) – After Paganini's 24 Caprices for solo violin #17
- Étude No. 3 in G-sharp minor (La campanellaLa CampanellaLa campanella is the nickname given to the third of six Grandes études de Paganini , S. 141 , composed by Franz Liszt. This piece is a revision of an earlier version from 1838, the Études d'exécution transcendente d'après Paganini, S. 140. Its melody comes from the final movement of Niccolò...
) (Allegretto) – After the final movement of Paganini's Violin Concerto #2 in B minor
- Étude No. 4 in E major (Vivo) ("Arpeggio") – After Paganini's 24 Caprices for solo violin #1
- Étude No. 5 in E major (La chasse) (Allegretto) – After Paganini's 24 Caprices for solo violin #9
- Étude No. 6 in A minor (Theme and Variations) (Quasi presto, a capriccio) – After Paganini's 24 Caprices for solo violin #24