Cambridge Music Handbooks- Liszt: Sonata in B Minor Sonata in B Minor

This Music Handbook examines Liszt's B minor Sonata - regarded as one of the pinnacles of Romantic piano music. It opens with a survey of Liszt's early attempts at sonata composition, and goes on to discuss different interpretative approaches. The book also contains details of performance practice and the performing history of the work.



Liszt's B minor Sonata is now regarded as his finest work for piano, and one of the pinnacles of Romantic piano music. This handbook opens with a survey of Liszt's early attempts at sonata composition - which include some well-known pieces that, hitherto, have been unrecognised as sonata forms - and clears away some of the persistent myths regarding programme music in Liszt's output. In the central chapters, built around an analysis of the B minor Sonata, Kenneth Hamilton discusses various interpretative approaches, arguing that the contradictory writings on the subject stem from the deliberate formal ambiguity of the piece itself - one reason for its perennial fascination, perhaps. The book concludes with a chapter on the performance practice and the performing history of the work, which should be of particular interest to pianists.