One of the greatest themes ever written

The theme from Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, which Liszt characterized as “Hammerschlag,” is built from a small recurring idea that he transforms throughout the work. I counted over 100 occurrences of the theme in its various transformed forms throughout Liszt’s masterpiece. In this passage alone, we see how it’s introduced as a percussive knocking-in-the-middle-of-the-night texture, and a few moments later, reappears as a gorgeous cantabile melody. Performance by me (Lisztopher)