Gretchen am Spinnrade

In Liszt’s arrangement Gretchen am Spinnrade by Schubert, we hear the evocative story of a young girl overwhelmed by the anguish and despair of the love she feels for Faust. Gretchen, alone in her grief, is harrowed by the remembrance of her lost love. The melody, evocatively beautiful and looming, portrays Gretchen’s soul in an accelerating state of torment and despair. Two motives in the left hand of the pianist set the dramaturgy of the story, the first: the perpetual motion imitating a spinning wheel and the latter: representing Gretchen’s beating heart.