The Variations on "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" is
another Bach-inspired work. Liszt took the chromatic
bass line from the opening chorus of Bach's Cantata No.
12 and the very similar part from the Crucifixus of
Bach's B-minor Mass as the basis for the work, which
began life as a relatively simple prelude for solo
piano in 1859. The text for the chorus begins "Tears,
complaints, care, fear, anguish, and stress are the
bitter bread of Christians," and when Liszt's daughter
Blondine died in 1862...(+)
The Variations on "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" is
another Bach-inspired work. Liszt took the chromatic
bass line from the opening chorus of Bach's Cantata No.
12 and the very similar part from the Crucifixus of
Bach's B-minor Mass as the basis for the work, which
began life as a relatively simple prelude for solo
piano in 1859. The text for the chorus begins "Tears,
complaints, care, fear, anguish, and stress are the
bitter bread of Christians," and when Liszt's daughter
Blondine died in 1862 he expanded the prelude into an
extended elegy, a set of 30 variations using the
sinking chromatic line much as Bach would have in a
passacaglia, a Baroque form of continuous
variation.
Liszt transcribed the work for organ in 1863, after he
had moved to Rome in the final, fruitless throes of the
long quest to have Carolyne's marriage annulled. He
incorporates some of the soprano part of Bach's chorus
in a syncopated form in the sixth variation, after
which he begins a very free elaboration, leading to a
central section of more extroverted technical display.
After the demonstrative 30th variation, a wayward
recitative ushers in the chorale tune from the final
movement of the cantata, "Was Gott tut, das ist wohl
getan" (What God Does, Is Done Well). So, like the
cantata, Liszt's variations reverse the sighing sorrow
of its beginning, ending with hopeful affirmation.
( source:
https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/4462/variations-o
n-a-basso-continuo-from-the-cantata-weinen-klagen-sorge
n-zagen )
MACHELLA, MAURIZIO (1960 - )
SHEET MUSIC