Bache performed it again in the same hall in London in his next annual all-Liszt recital on
22 October 1883 (this was the date of Liszt’s birthday). The Musical Times expressed
the view that the work had no right to the title ‘sonata’ unless the works of the classical
masters be renamed.
Arthur Fiedheim, Liszt’s pupil, secretary and assistant for the last six years of Liszt’s life,
except when on concert tours, stated in his memoirs:
‘In later years von Bülow turned to the more complicated works such as, for instance, the
B minor Sonata, though he attained very little success with the public or the critics
because his objective style of playing did not lend itself to this kind of music.’
Friedheim took up the Sonata in the 1880s and studied it with Liszt. He played it for
Liszt in Vienna in April 1884, performed it there in April/May 1884 and performed it in
the presence of Liszt in Leipzig in May 1884. He performed it at the Weimar Musikfest
on 23 May 1884 in the presence of Liszt and of fellow pupils Hugo Mansfeldt (1884-
1932) and Emil von Sauer (1862-1942).
Friedheim, in his memoirs, quoted from a letter which he received from Mansfeldt years
later, in 1930:
‘My dear Friedheim, friend of olden days – It may interest you to hear of a remark Liszt
made about you many years ago. Perhaps it was never told you. In the year 1884 the
festival was held at Weimar, at that time Liszt’s home. I was in the audience on that
occasion. The next day Emil Sauer told me that he was with others near Liszt when you
were playing the Sonata, and when you finished Liszt turned to those around him and
said: “That is the way I thought the composition when I wrote it.” I can conceive of no
greater praise bestowed on anyone.’
Liszt’s official biographer Lina Ramann heard the same performance but was not so
enthusiastic, describing it as ‘clear in form, technically mature, but also technically cold.’
Liszt’s American pupil William Dayas (1863-1903) played the Sonata in Liszt’s presence
on 2 September 1885 at the festival of the Allgemeine Deutscher Musikverein which was
held that year in Leipzig.
The next year Liszt arranged to visit England, and his English pupil Walter Bache asked
the composer to play the piano in public during this visit. Liszt replied on 11 February
1886:
‘Bülow, Saint-Saëns, [Anton] Rubinstein, and you, dear Bache, play my compositions
much better than what is left of my humble self.’
Liszt did in fact visit England in April 1886. His visit was a great success and he did in
fact play one or two of his compositions at a reception.