It is to be regretted that Mason does not give us any more precise details of how Liszt
played his Sonata but we do know from Mason’s account that Liszt sought empathy from
his listeners. The ‘dolcissimo con intimo sentimento’ section in the slow movement
would fit Mason’s reference to the ‘very expressive part of the sonata.’ Dionys Pruckner
said that to understand the Sonata one had to have heard Liszt play it, which is not much
help to us.
The Sonata was still in manuscript at the time of Liszt’s early performances in 1853. It
was later published by Breitkopf & Härtel and printed copies became available in April
- The original edition shows that Liszt dedicated the Sonata to fellow composer and
pianist Robert Schumann, who had in 1839 dedicated his masterpiece for piano, the
Fantasy in C major, to Liszt. Liszt explained, in an 1857 letter to Schumann’s biographer
Wasielewski, that this was his means of expressing gratitude for Schumann’s dedication
to Liszt of the ‘marvellous and magnificent’ Fantasy. Liszt’s dedication to Schumann
was also designed to repair a personal breach between the two over fellow composer
Felix Mendelssohn, and to persuade the musically conservative Schumann to appreciate
Liszt’s more ‘modern’ music.
According to Liszt’s own annotation on the manuscript’s title page, he completed his
Sonata on 2 February 1853. One or two modifications were made to it in the weeks
following and on 12 May 1853 Liszt told Bülow. ‘As for music, I have finished my
Sonata, and a second Ballade.’
After its publication Liszt gave printed copies of his Sonata to those who might promote
it. He inscribed a copy dated April 1854 to his pupil Dionys Pruckner and sent a copy to
the twenty-four year old Bülow in Berlin, which he received in May 1854.
He also sent a copy to the Schumann house in Düsseldorf which arrived on 25 May 1854.
This was eleven months after the drowsiness incident and Brahms, who was staying at
the Schumann’s as a house guest, played the Sonata through for Robert’s wife Clara,
herself a concert pianist and composer.
Clara wrote in her diary
‘I received a friendly letter from Liszt today, enclosing a sonata dedicated to Robert and a
number of other things. But what dreadful things they are. Brahms played them to me
and I felt quite ill. It’s much ado about nothing – not a single sound idea, but altogether
confused, and not a clear harmonic expression to be found anywhere! And now I even
have to thank him for it [the dedication], it is truly appalling.’
To be fair to Clara, her husband had two months earlier, after an unsuccessful attempt to
drown himself, had been taken to a mental hosoital at Endenich, near Colditz Castle,
leaving her with seven children to support. Bear in mind, also, that Brahms was, and
always remained, a close friend of Clara’s.