Sonata in B minor, for the piano

Completed in 1853 and dedicated to Robert Schumann, the B minor Sonata is generally held to be Liszt's supreme achievement and one of the summits of the piano literature. It runs about half an hour without a break, yet contains within that single span the equivalent of a full four-movement structure. Almost everything in it grows from a handful of short motifs, continuously transformed in character, a technique that influenced composers for the rest of the century. Its early reception was hostile: Clara Schumann called it merely a blind noise, and Brahms is reported to have fallen asleep while Liszt played it to him.