Franz Liszt's Soirées de Vienne are not wholly original; he based them on waltzes of Franz Schubert that originally appeared in an 1821 publication -- one of only a few to appear in Schubert's lifetime -- entitled 36 Original Dances, published as Schubert's Opus 9. All 36 had been written in the five or so years leading up to 1821; eight of the waltzes included are known to have been written by Schubert in a single day. Their style is relatively simple technically, idiomatic, and, all except for Schubert's special melodic ...
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Franz Liszt's Soirées de Vienne are not wholly original; he based them on waltzes of Franz Schubert that originally appeared in an 1821 publication -- one of only a few to appear in Schubert's lifetime -- entitled 36 Original Dances, published as Schubert's Opus 9. All 36 had been written in the five or so years leading up to 1821; eight of the waltzes included are known to have been written by Schubert in a single day. Their style is relatively simple technically, idiomatic, and, all except for Schubert's special melodic and harmonic gifts, indistinguishable from countless other Viennese waltzes and ländler produced in Biedermeier Vienna. From this source, Franz Liszt fashioned nine pieces of his own and dressed them up in his signature style; while it only takes about 25 minutes -- minus repeats -- to perform Schubert's original Opus 9 in its entirety, in her Connoisseur Society recording of this Liszt cycle, pianist Gabriela Imreh requires a bit more than 75 minutes, almost the length of a CD....
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