Schubert, Franz / orch. by Franz Liszt

Franz Schubert /orch. by Franz Liszt – Three Marches for Four-Handed Piano

(b. Himmelpfortgrund/Wien, 31 January 1797 – d. Wieden/Wien, 19 November 1828)

orchestrated in 1859/60 by Franz Liszt (b. Raiding, 22 Oktober 1811 – d. Bayreuth, 31 July 1886)

«Grande Marche Héroïque» in B minor from ‘Six grandes marches’ Op. 40 piano four hands D 819/3 (ca. 1818-24)
Vivace – Un poco meno allegro – Animato. A tempo

«Marche funèbre» in E-flat minor from ‚Six grandes marches‘ Op. 40 for piano four hands D 819/5 (ca. 1818-24)
Andante mesto

»Reiter-Marsch« [Riders’ March] in C major from ‚Deux marches caractéristique‘ Op. 121 for piano four hands D 886/1 [D 968b] (ca. 1826)
Allegro vivace con brio – Trio. Allegretto – Marcia da capo al fine

Preface
At the height of his Weimar period, Franz Liszt arranged four marches for piano four hands by Franz Schubert for orchestra in 1859-60 for his eminent Viennese colleague Johann Herbeck (1831-77). Among these, the march from Opus 121 was subsequently incorporated as the middle movement in the orchestration of Franz Schubert’s “Divertissement à la hongroise,” the corner movements of which were orchestrated by Max Erdmannsdörfer (1848-1905). The edition presented here unites the three remaining Schubertian marches in Liszt’s orchestration in one volume.

Johann Herbeck, as a conductor in Vienna, was not only the most important discoverer of Franz Schubert, but also an unabashed champion of Franz Liszt’s music in an extremely reactionary environment. Given these preferences, as well as the high esteem in which Liszt held Schubert’s work, reflected especially in piano transcriptions of songs, but also in the orchestration of Schubert’s piano songs (and, of course, in the problematic arrangement of the Wanderer Fantasy for piano and orchestra), it was natural for Herbeck to ask Liszt to orchestrate other works by Schubert, and apparently it was agreed that these should be some of the marches for piano four hands that were already popular at the time. …

Read full preface / Das ganze Vorwort lesen> HERE