Overview
Introduction
The posthumously published (1927, and 1985 with the variant) and entitled Galop in A minor is frustratingly dated Gand 20 et 21 janvier. Searle and others ascribed it to 1841. But Liszt was in Scotland then, so that cannot be right. (He was in Ghent in February 1841. Michael Short, who is working with the present writer on an updated version of the Liszt catalogue, has also prepared a remarkable day-by-day account of Liszt’s movements, as and when they become known, for every day of Liszt’s life—a life which is fortunately well documented, even if the source documents are widely spread about the world.) Liszt was in Belgium and in the vicinity, but it’s difficult to pin him down to the exact town, on the dates in question in 1846. As far as can be ascertained at present, Liszt was not in Ghent on those dates in any later year of his life. A pity, really, because this menacing piece has many traits of composition in common with the very late Mephisto music and with the three late Csárdás. Perhaps its very avant garde nature caused him not to release the work for publication. On this recording the alternative passage from bar 143 is played and then the main text is recapitulated from bar 34 so that all of Liszt’s text can be heard in a single performance.
