Mephisto Waltz No.4

Liszt wrote some delightful waltzes when he was in his twenties and early thirties - the Valse de bravoure , the Valse mélancolique, the Valse-Impromptu - and then more or less abandoned dance forms for forty years. So it has long been assumed that the four Valse oubliées which he produced in his seventies were inspired by some kind of nostalgia for his carefree youth. Although the title (“Forgotten Waltzes”) seems to confirm that assumption and although there is the occasional sentimental episode, the Valses oubliées are actually not so much nostalgic as demonic. Obviously, they do not display the malevolent attitude of the Mephisto Waltzes but they all have mephistophelian qualities - driven rhythms, grotesque figurations, distorted harmonies, harsh keyboard colouring - in one combination or another. It is curious too how they tend not to come to an end but to fade away as if, literally, forgotten. The last of them, written in 1884, is a short but particularly dynamic example - until, that is, it quietly disappears.

It is surely no coincidence that at much the same time as he wrote his first Valse oubliée, Liszt was moved to revisit the Mephisto Waltz. He had composed one sensational, full-scale demonic example(originally for orchestra) in 1859. Now, in his seventies, he was to write three more or four more - the Bagatelle sans tonalité also bears a Mephisto Waltz title- and a Mephisto Polka. The Fourth Mephisto Waltz, which he started only sixteen months before his death was never actually finished: sketches exist for “about 60 bars Andantino” to be inserted near the end of what, for the most part, is a characteristically forceful Allegro vivace in 6/8 time. Although attempts have been made to reconstruct this late lyrical contrast, the work will be performed here as the composer left it.