Transcendental Étude No. 12 "Chasse-neige"

About the work

The last of the twelve Transcendental Études, in its final 1852 version. The title means snow-plough, or the driving of snow. The whole piece is built on unbroken tremolo, imitating a blizzard progressively burying everything, with the melody kept underneath the tremolo texture throughout. Busoni called it one of the most sublime depictions of a natural scene ever written. Liszt had already published two earlier versions of the set, in 1826 and 1837, both harder to play than this final revision.

Upcoming performances