MUSIClassical notes: Liszt Mephisto Polka S 217

The Mephisto Polka (S217) is a piece of program music written in folk-dance style for piano by Franz Liszt in 1882-83 and dedicated to Lina Schmalhausen, one of his students. She is remembered as one among the closest and most ardently devoted of Liszts followers, frequently attending to and assisting in the many needs of the aged master whose health was in rapid decline. The work's program is the same as that of the four Mephisto Waltzes, written between 1859 and 1885 and based on the legend of Faust, by Nikolaus Lenau. This work appears the simplest and technically least challenging of all the Mephisto dances. Tonally, it is also mildest. However, the simplicity in notation disguises the true character of the music. The most haunting touch is at the end, when the piece simply stops with a solitary F natural sounding, then dying out... Wikipedia