Franz Liszt
Concertos

About Franz Liszt's Concertos

Liszt wrote three piano concertos, of which the third was long lost and not re-discovered until 1989. Previously catalogued as surplus material from the first concerto, it was probably written just before that one, at the end of the 1830s.
All Liszt’s piano concertos had long compositional processes. The main theme of the 1st concerto was written down by the composer in 1830, but a final version of the work did not appear until 1849; Liszt then made further adjustments in 1853.
The second concerto shows great originality in form. In this concerto, composed in one single long movement, Liszt uses the concept called thematic metamorphosis – creating highly diverse themes from a single melodic source. This was a compositional device to which he would turn time and again, for instance in the symphonic poems, the Faust and Dante Symphonies, and the B minor Piano Sonata.