Grande fantasie sur des thèmes de Paganini – [Variations sur] La clochette et Le Carnaval de Venise

Grande fantasie sur des thèmes de Paganini – [Variations sur] La clochette et Le Carnaval de Venise, S700a/i

The two versions of a Grande Fantaisie sur des thèmes de Paganini are contained within one manuscript, which was completed in Lisbon in 1845, and is presently in Weimar. The work was published in 1989, edited by the excellent Imre Mezö. A few textual observations: 1 The MS is untitled, but the clear connection of the work with the Clochette fantasy seems to warrant a similar title rather than the “Variations” suggested by Editio Musica Budapest; 2 The first version of the ending can only be properly reconstructed if some pages of crossed-out material are included from the MS - the EMB solution of printing just what was not crossed out does not work, because it no longer connects at the point of its insertion; 3 EMB’s bar 139 should not be included - it is part of a partially crossed-out group of bars which have been replaced on the adjacent systems; 4 the “missing” bars 454-463 of the second version can be supplied by repeating bars 284-290 rather than by composing some other variant of the Clochette theme; 5 The second version’s final chords can be supplied from the undeleted ending of the first version.

The themes of the Paganini fantasy are the ubiquitous Clochette and Le carnaval de Venise. Liszt incorporates some music directly from the Clochette fantasy, but otherwise treats the material quite differently, in alternating variation and development of each theme. The two versions remain identical for quite some time: both begin with a hint of La clochette and continue with a lively introduction to that theme, partly taken from the published fantasy on that theme - all these pieces are in A minor. When the theme appears in full, it is in the left hand with semiquaver leaping accompaniment from the right. This is followed by a fragment of Paganini tutti from the original concerto not found in the earlier fantasy, and then comes a version of the familiar ritornello. The little bells return and are immediately adapted into a suitable accompaniment for Le carnaval. [All the treatment in this work of this theme has nothing whatever to do with the separate variations, S700.] After a number of variations La clochette returns briefly in F sharp minor, to prepare for another variation on Le carnaval - in F sharp major. La clochette appears in E flat minor; Le carnaval in B flat major, leading to E major, which portends the return of the little bell and a variant of La clochette in A minor. Here the first version completed a lengthy variation on La clochette, then the little bells return in grand octaves for the coda proper, which is in A major, and contains both themes, and again the earlier fantasy is recalled in the closing bars. The second version also continues with a lengthy variation on La clochette, but then leads to a long group of variations in A major on Le carnaval. The little bells return to a short variant of La clochette, which also engenders the coda.

(Leslie Howard)