Maestro Michael Laus is exploring the relationship between the music of composers Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt with a piano recital at the Manoel Theatre on Saturday.

The two composers had more than their first name in common. Liszt was a fervent admirer of Schubert’s music, and Schubert’s melodic gift and adventurous sense of tonality left a deep mark on the younger composer.

Liszt performed many of Schubert’s compositions in their original versions but also, and more often, in his own concert transcriptions.

The recital will open with Schubert’s Four Impromptus, D.899. Schubert’s impromptus and the Wanderer Fantasie were his only piano works that were regularly performed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, before his piano sonatas became part of the canonic repertoire.

These will be followed by three Schubert lieder transcribed by Liszt: Der Müller und der Bach, Ständchen and Auf dem Wasser zu singen (Barcarolle). Liszt arranged a large number of Schubert’s songs for piano solo.

The programme will conclude with one of Liszt’s great tone poems for the piano, Vallée d’Oberman.

Based on a novel by Étienne Pivert de Sénancour which had become very fashionable in Paris in the 1830s, and which was set in an imaginary valley in Switzerland, the novel tells the story of a young man overwhelmed and confused by his encounters with nature.

The music follows closely the development of the young man’s journey, through the use of a descending scale motif which opens the works and, through its various guises, dominates the whole composition. 

The recital is taking place at the Manoel Theatre in Valletta on Saturday at 8pm. For tickets, log on to www.kreattivita.org, send an e-mail to bookings.mt@teatumanoel.mt or call on 2124 6389.