Mephisto Waltzes

The most popular of the series and, along with the third Waltz, most praised musically, the Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke: Erster Mephisto-Walzer ("The Dance in the Village Inn: First Mephisto-Waltz"), or the First Mephisto Waltz, is the second of two short works he wrote for orchestra under the title Zwei Episoden aus Lenaus Faust.

James Huneker described the work's "langourous syncopated melody" as "one of the most voluptuous episodes outside of the Tristan score".

The following program note, which Liszt took from Lenau, appears in the printed score: There is a wedding feast in progress in the village inn, with music, dancing, carousing.

Mephistopheles snatches the fiddle from the hands of a lethargic fiddler and draws from it indescribably seductive and intoxicating strains.

The amorous Faust whirls about with a full-blooded village beauty in a wild dance; they waltz in mad, abandon out of the room, into the open, away into the woods.

[3]Liszt intended to publish the Waltz simultaneously with the Night Procession: "...The publication of the two Lenau's Faust episodes...

The orchestral version also has an alternate, softer ending which, while not as rousing as the usual coda, some critics argue is closer to the intent of Lenau's tale.

[citation needed] While this ending is not often heard in the concert hall, both Fritz Reiner and James Conlon have recorded it.

It is not known when Liszt wrote these extra passages, but it was a habit of his later years to make alterations while teaching his works to his pupils.

[8] Composed in 1883, the Third Mephisto Waltz, S.216, takes the harmonic language even further, featuring chords built up by fourths with numerous passages of descending minor triads whose roots are a semitone apart.

[14] Some critics do not consider this waltz as original as its predecessors and surmise that, had Liszt lived to complete it, he might have made considerable improvements.

[18] Critics point out the similarity in tonal center between these two pieces (D major) as confirmation of their composition shortly after one other in 1885 as well as Liszt's initial intent with the "Bagatelle".

[19] The pieces are referenced as the title of the 1969 novel, The Mephisto Waltz by American author and Juilliard-trained pianist Fred Mustard Stewart.