Liszt - Réminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor, S397 (Hegedűs)

An exceptionally vibrant interpretation of Liszt's reminiscences on the closing sextet of Donizetti's ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’.

The sextet is one of the greatest pieces in the literature; when Caruso sang it in New York, such pandemonium broke loose that policemen stormed into the Met thinking that a riot had broken out. It is the pivotal point of the opera, with its conflicting and interwoven emotions of the enraged Edgar, the remorseful Enrico, the scarcely sane Lucia, and the sundry other rogues and varlets. Liszt's transcription commences in 3/4 time and, after its syncopated introduction, mirrors the orchestral and vocal parts before becoming airborne with a fluttering cadenza passage leading to a lovely arperggio throughout the upper half of the keyboard. The time signature then changes to 9/8, and the theme is developed in right-hand chords while the left is occupied by a series of arpeggios and intermittent trills, softly played, but which by their continuous presence and increasing dynamics serve to create a sense of considerable emotional pressure. Liszt then notches up the temperature by inverting the right-hand-left-hand treatment of melody and accompaniment; the climax is finally reached when that tensely repressed accompaniment bursts through the surface of the melody. The artistry involved in creating this cathartic result is astonishing in its uncanny preservation of the sense and feel of the original work as encased in a vivid, dreamlike state. At last, the piece then closes with a return in 3/4 to the original theme, which then fragments into booming left and right-hand chords before once again coalescing into a final rollercoaster arpeggio that brings the music to a close.