Tristan und Isolde (1857-1859)

Prelude arranged by Zoltán Kocsis (1980?)

Isoldens Liebestod arranged by Franz Liszt (1867)

Zoltán Kocsis has remarked that one reason why Liszt failed to make an arrangement of the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde could be that he “thought the piano would not be able to create the effect of the strings’ or woodwinds’ long sustained notes.” That may well be but the pianist’s own arrangement is remarkably successful while remaining entirely faithful to the original and, apart from a few necessarily spread chords and the occasional tremolando, applying no pianistic devices.

As presented here, the Liebestod follows the Prelude without a break and, since they are now linked in the same way as in the familiar orchestral version, without the four bars Liszt took from the second-act love duet as an introduction. Whatever his thoughts on translating such a legato flux of vocal and orchestral sound to an essentially percussive instrument, his transcription - at least until the elaborated ending - is modestly straightforward and highly effective at the same time.