For a long time Liszt’s Sonata in B minor has kept its secret about its formal structure and possible program. It was like a sphinx riddle in the Lisztian repertoire. The structure of the Sonata – in the classical meaning of the word – was the first purpose of our research. However, as a result of strict comparisons between the first and the third parts of this sonata, we discovered the presence of two Sonatas with supporting evidence, and not the form of only one. This hidden evidence now gives rise to a question: why is the title of the score in the singular? Moreover, how does this new clarity about the Sonata’s structure allow better inferences on the presence of an underlying and symbolic program? All this is analysed and resolved in this study.
Concerning the precise literary program, the professor and pianist Tibor Szász has drawn an irrefutable conclusion about the Sonata as a symbolic score on divine and satanic concepts; to illustrate these concepts a literary reference used by Liszt is disclosed: Paradise Lost, the biblical epic by John Milton. Our work takes the enlightening conclusions of Szász rigorously into consideration. In the Sonata in B minor, expressive persuasion is indeed taken to its extreme to the point that the composer most likely felt that a programmatic explanation was useless. At the same time the discovery of an underlying program paradoxically offers a rare opportunity to explore more closely the treasures of a complex and sophisticated music.