It was said that Liszt had made a conscious effort in his etudes to showcase his skills in order to demonstrate he was the counterpart on the piano to Paganini on the violin. Certainly the difficulties in all three versions of the Transcendental Etudes would lend support to this view, as would that of the two Concert Etudes, Waldesrauchen (Forest murmurs) and Gnomenreigen (Dance of the gnomes). Liszt composed the latter pair in 1862-63 for the piano school of Lebert and Stark.

Waldesrauchen is full of color and pianistic hurdles, without ever sounding gimcrack or flashy. The catchy main theme has an air of nonchalance, capturing the image of the wind swaying the limbs and leaves of a forest of trees on a bright summer day. While Liszt would come much closer to Impressionism in his Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este (The Fountains of the Villa d'Este), from the Années de Pèlerinage, Third Year, this is nevertheless a significant example of movement in that futuristic direction. The scene he depicts here, while vivid and descriptive in its shimmering luminosity, is hardly free of virtuosity, however, and is as concerned with color and beauty as with images.

Gnomenreigen has been cited by many as being among Liszt's most difficult pieces, and thus among the most challenging in all piano literature. Here, again the composer paints images of impish creatures dancing in a swirl of mischief and fun. Or, in this case, is the title just an afterthought appended to a brilliant scherzo, rife with sonic effects and dazzling colors? In any event, the pieces evokes all kinds of menacing activity, with most of the writing in the upper register and dynamics rarely reaching forté or above. This piece is not unlike Feux Follets, from the composer's Transcendental Etudes, owing to a shared spirit of demonic mischief and mixture of ethereality and wit.

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Like parts of a forest illuminated by the shifting sunlight that peaks through a cloudy sky, this proto-Impressionist piece repeats its subdued yet enraptured melody, with variations in pitch and length to express the movement of ecstatic feeling, as it is re-colored by vacillating, incandescent harmonies.

The "murmur" appears as a constant triplet figure in sixteenths that maintains a constant presence throughout the majority of the composition. It opens the piece in a pianissimo, dolcissimo timbre in the right-hand treble. Beneath this enters the mid-range melody (which, if orchestrated would be given to a clarinet or a viola). In his late-Romantic style, Liszt, beginning the harmony on an A flat 6/7, does not establish the home key of the piece until the third measure of the melody after the line ascends from the nadir of the initially descending arc with its chromatic passing tones. This inversion of Classical practice further helps create the sensation of a floating, transparent atmosphere.

On the first repetition, vocal-like grace-note inflections are added to the melodic line. The melody then encounters a transitional chord that expresses a serious mystery, and is at first ambiguous as to key (this is a complex enharmonic modulation: D flat 7 = C sharp 7 to F sharp minor to C sharp minor).

After a chromatically winding passage, the previous key is re-discovered and the melody sings euphorically in octaves in the high treble above rolling triplets. The melody again twists around to match an odd modification of the harmony but this passage leads back to the peaceful mood of the beginning (rather than the previous romantic outburst). The key has again changed by a Wagnerian-type modulation to F major. The melody is heard in its original form in this new key, and then in A major, played delicately, the harmony being of a kind that typically depicts a gradual increase of physical and/or spiritual light in Romantic tone painting.

But this calm does not last for long. An extended poco a poco più agitato passage leads to an appassionato outpouring that re-contextualizes the original melody over diminished chords: the melody no longer expresses a certain peaceful joy but is now like the seer foreshadowing a dire eventuality. Roaring fortississimo arpeggios and bass octaves lead to a molto appassionato recapitulation in the original key (no longer a "murmuring"; the literal translation of the German title is "Forest Noises," so in fact the music is free to explore a wide range of expressions. In some editions the title is given as simply "In the Woods").

An improvisation on a melodic fragment leads to pure sound textures: there are tremolos between the hands on complex chords (diminished ninths, for example), and brilliant cascading triplets against duple figures. A sudden graceful statement brings all this agitated activity back to unruffled serenity.

The melody is fully stated for the last time. The murmuring sound dies away and two staccato arpeggios close the work.

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Even a person who doesn't happen to read music could look at the first page of this Round Dance of the Gnomes, the second of the Concert Etudes, and get a good idea of how the music sounds. The notation consists of (1) ascending and descending rows of short eighth notes each with a grace note and a spiky marcato marking, and (2) fleeting thirty-second-note pairs that skip up and down constantly like fireflies at dusk or perhaps tiny fairies. Like the music, the visual effect is fantastic and grotesque, as well as simultaneously charming and comic, but restrained at a pianissimo dynamic even while flying along at the presto scherzando tempo. The differentiation between the various kinds of short touches is very subtle, and that is where the étude aspect arises. In a footnote, Liszt even provides a little exercise "zum Studium" (for practice).

The next section is more animated with arpeggio-like figures in 9/8 in phrases separated by chromatic runs. The sharp articulations of the first section are translated as it were into the highest piano registers which of themselves have a more wooden attack and quicker decay time. The key changes to A major and a more tuneful melody emerges. Little chromatic runs cascade downward to re-introduce the first section material again (in F sharp minor). The più animato figures occur again but in the key of B flat major.

Cascading chromatic figures descend again, this time attached to the beginning of a third idea. A 6/8 melody in steady marcato eighth notes trips in a sneaky, quiet pianissimo through the bass with sporadic offbeat punctuations in the right hand. The bass melody devolves into a steady pulsing acting as a pedal point for demonic chromatic stabs. The pulse continues to throb with maniacal insistence as the right hand becomes more far-ranging and intensely chromatic. The curiously indicated pedaling further varies the resonances and timbres, and constitutes another "étude" aspect. An ascending series of eerie whole-tone chords terminates suddenly in a high sforzando. (Liszt provides another study exercise for this passage.)

The previous "più animato" music re-appears in full bloom, marked brilliante, vivacissimo, and at a fortissimo dynamic in the harmonically rich key of F sharp major. The music is now bright and celebratory with only a touch of the grotesque. Brilliant runs in sixths descend and then split into contrary motion. The runs turn into spiky, marcato octaves and suddenly stop.

The gnome-esque little tripping staccato feet return to drive an extended coda. The pianist is again challenged to play marcato articulations at a pianissimo dynamic. That texture evolves into its opposite extreme of resonant, rolling, legato triplets in the bass. Without a moment's pause, there is a discontinuous flip to ascending arpeggios played with the previous clipped, marcato articulation at a pianississimo dynamic, while the pedal is depressed, yielding a strange glassy texture.

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