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Liszt's Mazeppa

S. 138 (the transcendental etudes) is generally held to be an easier and more refined version of S. 137 (the douze grandes etudes), but Mazeppa (No. 4) seems to be an exception. (Any chance the two versions of Mazeppa were miscategorized?) The earlier version is more taut, restrained, and noble, whereas the newer version is scattershot and almost incoherent by contrast: over-the-top transitions between themes that serve no other purpose than to separate the pianist's digits from his hands, an artificial division of the piece into episodes that does not befit such a small-scale work, and the bombastic and thematically unrelated coda appended without transition at the end of the earlier ending. Some things Liszt did well, though that isn't to say that they're necessarily for that reason better than the S. 137. The harmonies in general show greater variety in the S. 138. The chromaticism adds an entirely new dimension to the piece that seems to have a mind of its own: sometimes interacting with the principal themes, sometimes running independently in the backdrop. All I can say at the end is that both versions exist, and both have their merits.

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