Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B Minor: A Mysterious, Passionate Reverie
Cast in a single, monumental movement, Franz Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor unfolds as a mysterious, passionate reverie. Its blazing Romanticism encompasses the widest emotional spectrum—from ghostly terror and quiet melancholy to spiritual ecstasy, heroic virtuosity and soaring, grandiose triumph. This acute sense of drama has led listeners to search for programmatic associations. For some, the themes paint characters from the “Faust” legend. (Liszt was composing his epic “Faust” Symphony during …