Liszt - Christmas Tree suite | The Shepherds at the Manger (In dulci jubilo) (1873)

Liszt's suite Weihnachtsbaum (Christmas Tree) was dedicated to his first granddaughter Daniela von Bulow, who happened to be born on Christmas Eve in 1860. After major revisions to the suite in 1881, it was first performed on Christmas Day 1881 in Daniela's Hotel room in Rome. He named the third piece of this set "Die Hirten an der Krippe" (The Shepherds at the Manger) and was a transcription of the traditional Christmas Carol "In dulci jubilo", a macaronic text and melody dating to the middle ages.
The Weihnachtsbaum and Die Hirten an der Krippe occupy a largely obscured and unusual portion of Liszt's music in comparison to the more well-known virtuosic showpieces. In my opinion, this piece is plainly one of the happiest pieces of Liszt's compositional output, quite an unusual mood for Liszt's music. His transcriptions were often so influenced by his own style and genius that they would stray far from the original material, becoming in some ways original pieces. Here, Liszt lingers on the original melody almost compulsively. The full melody is presented twice, in D flat major and E major, both key signatures that Liszt used heavily to allude to religious and spiritual contexts. Liszt had to have loved this melody very much.

[@JamesChurchCabaret]

Beautiful interpretation!

[@xxmeliozxx1160]

Really nice performance keep up the good work