! Liszt rubato: lengthening of particular notes;! Tempo variation: multiple tempos within one movement or piece! Luftpausen: air pauses between phrases and before chords (Bülow);! Acceleration during a crescendo; and! Freedom of style generally.There is a tendency nowadays to regard these devices which were not specifically marked
in the scores, as mannerisms, bad taste, bad habits, or just plain faulty technique. The
first three largely disappeared in the 1930s although in recent years some pianists have
given a limited revival to melody delaying and arpeggiata.
A project which analysed the use of the first three devices in piano roll recordings of
Chopin’s Nocturne in F sharp major opus 15 no. 2 by ten pianists born in the nineteenth
century is discussed in ‘Mannerisms’.
‘Arpeggiation in cantilena is seldom used.’ This comment was made by the famous
pianist, pedagogue and Liszt pupil, Hans von Bülow, after a performance of the first
movement of the Beethoven Sonata in A flat major opus 110 at one of Bülow’s
masterclasses held during 1884 to 1886. Bülow seems to have been disapproving of
melody delaying, melody anticipation and arpeggiata, or any one or more of these, while
acknowledging their occasional appropriateness. In relation to Bülow’s possible
disapproval we must bear in mind that his playing was often criticised in his day for
being exact and scholarly but lacking in spontaneity and warmth.
Liszt himself was fond of arpeggiated chords as he marks them often in his piano music.
Liszt pupil Eugen d’Albert discussed Liszt’s E flat piano concerto with the composer and
performed it as soloist in the composer’s presence in Weimar. D’Albert’s annotations to
his edition of the concerto show that Liszt requested arpeggiata, at least sometimes, in his
own music even where not marked. Liszt marks numerous chordal arpeggiations in his
piano realisation of Wagner’s Liebestod even in many places where the average pianist
would have a wide enough stretch to strike the chords because they do not exceed the
octave.
Claudio Arrau, who was Liszt pupil Martin Krause’s most celebrated pupil, once told an
interviewer:
‘There is a Liszt way of playing. The foremost ingredient is a free way of playing, with
the ability to encompass great muscular endurance, large stretches and the use of the
whole arm from the shoulder. Perfect bel canto playing is also required in melodic
passages, and great chordal command. Krause told me the myriad ways Liszt had of
breaking a chord. It was never played with all the notes the same, but rolled either