Liszt’s Benediction of God in Solitude is a marvel: a tender, luminous testament to Liszt's underappreciated lyric abilities. For flatout beauty few things match it. It’s also a masterclass in textural writing – just count at all the ways the main theme is decorated: An innervoice arpeggio underneath a measured trill (right at the beginning); a semimeasured arpeggiated chord with emphasis on the lowest voice (m.86); a bigger semimeasured arpeggiation (m.105); crystalline 2voice chains (m.156 – and from m.158, the shape actually borrows from the dominanttonicsupertonicmediant pattern of the melody’s first 4 notes); a straighforward LH rising/falling arpeggio (m.253) that gradually expands (m.272); and long strings of rippling RH wavelets (m.308). It’s entirely possible to hear these textures as lushly spiritual, but in all honesty I hear waves – which places this work in my head alongside Liszt’s other waterrelated masterworks (St Francis, Au bord d'une source, The Fountains of the Villa d’Este).

Structurally the Benediction is a kindoofrondo, with the main theme (refrain) getting a fair bit of development. It also contains an inspired moment (which Liszt was to replicate in the B minor Sonata) when a completely new theme (Andante semplice) enters in the midst of extensive and recapitulatory coda. The tonal layout of the work is very precise – each section’s tonality drops by a major 3rd, while the opening section in F# anticipates much of what is to come by prominently featuring D and Bb. And in the coda of the work, the 2nd and 3rd themes are stated in F#, thus resolving the tonal tension between the sections much as the recap in a sonata would.

00:00 – A section, in F#. Theme 1. A long, lyrical melody in two parts. Prominently features the key of D in its second half, then modulating into A# minor before entering darker, almost improvisatory territory (m.43).
03:16 – A’ section. Theme 1 developed, and gets a new, exultant tail (4:47) in Bb. Modulates back into F#, and we get a codetta heavily borrowing from the shape of m.9 in the LH, and from the melody’s first four notes in the RH.
06:40 – B section, in D (a key anticipated in the earlier section). Theme 2. A simple melody based around chains of falling thirds, harmonised fauxbourdonstyle (note the preponderance on fourths in the RH). The only time the piece ventures into tragic territory comes at m.211 when we move into B min – before being gently steered back into D.
09:38 – C section, in Bb. Theme 3. The apparently new melody here subtly references the A section at m.4749 (similarly melodic shape). Theme 3 is diminuted, before slipping into Db (m. 234, 10:26), and modulating through several keys to reach G min. Theme 3’s first phrase in then canonically treated starting from m.244, rising in tension to lead back into the
11:39 – A’’ section. Remarkable how a return to a simple treatment of Theme 1 – simple arpeggiated chords over simple arpeggios – suddenly sounds so moving. Builds slowly and inexorably into a massive climax.
13:27 – The codetta returns, this time with the RH spinning out a single delicate line of arpeggios. The shift into 3/2 time is nearly unnoticeable, but gives the melody a lot more breath.
[Coda]
14:37 – C’ section, in F#. Now transformed into something almost like a chorale. Moves into E (as it did earlier) and pauses in a repeated B, which gives way to
15:45 – Theme 4, in F#. A magical moment. Hard to say what exactly gives this melody its consoling, tender quality. The newness is part of it, certainly. But also the fact that this melody contrasts Theme 3 in its shape – descending stepwise to the tonic, rather than ascending – and the simplicity of the accompaniment.
16:26 – Theme 2, in F#. An unexpected recollection.
16:58 – Theme 3 is stated in B (implied by the E natural) and D Lydian (same harmonic progression as in the codetta!), before we get the final cadential 6/4.