Totentanz

Totentanz (Dance of Death), for piano and orchestra, is one of Liszt’s most extraordinary and radical works. Visiting Italy in 1838, he saw the 14th-century fresco The Triumph of Death in a church in Pisa; this depicts an angel of death wielding a scythe at her victims, with angels and devils fighting among each other to claim the bodies. Although Liszt drafted out some ideas for Totentanz a year later, the work took more than two decades to reach its final shape in 1859. The design consists of six variations on an opening theme, the Dies irae (Day of Wrath) plainchant from the Catholic Mass for the Dead. While the piano and timpani hammer out bass-register chords, the theme is announced by low brass, woodwind and strings, with the piano adding a wild cadenza-like flourish. Three short variations are then followed by three longer ones, leading to a final orchestral climax; here Liszt left the piano part blank, allowing the soloist to join in with an improvised conclusion.