Liszt: Csárdás obstinée

Informatie

The arranger of this work, the well-known Hungarian composer living in Romania writes: 'This piece has always excited my imagination, from several points of view. First of all, its name. The German title, the obstinate one, may refer to its ostinato character, this is close to Liszt's programme concept, but the French word 'obstiné' is closer in meaning to stubborn. There is just a shade of difference, but to me it is important, because the latter suggests the description of a type of behaviour, the emotional state of a dancer's inner frame of mind abstracted into movements, expressed in dance movements, and this is a fascinating interpretation. The demonstration of stubborn resistance , defiance to the point of exhaustion, was not a frequently occurring phenomenon with Liszt. Secondly, at the beginning of the seventies Zoltán Kocsis played the piece here in Transylvania. At that time (as I have done since) I asked the composer: is the character of the staccato in the left hand that continues throughout sharp, short, or an accompanying background like a constant shadow, or is it a weighty Brahmsian staccato, an ominous knocking? - and so on. Then there are the Bartókian false relations that keep recurring in the work, the B-E flat-G etc. that foreshadow Debussy, creating harmonic thrills that when I hear the work keep alive my continuing interest in it. Finally, my immediate reason for arranging the work was of a family nature: in connection with Liszt's jubilee year my daughter, who is a cellist, wanted a 'more energetic' piece to play at a bicentenary concert, besides the available slow, lyrical or sombre works written by Liszt for the cello”'