During his Weimar period, in 1849, Liszt wrote a big showpiece for a piano competition in the Paris Conservatoire. He entitled it Grosses Konzertsolo (i.e. Great Concert Solo). Being big is not the same as being great, and the work is not one of his most interesting pieces except as an antecedent of the Sonata, with which it shares more than one of the main themes and the basic structure of a single movement that concentrates the three movements of the traditional Sonata. According to some sources, the original piece did not have the central slow section and Liszt added it later. According to others, it was included in the original version, and Liszt first dropped it and then put it back. In any case, the form had a great influence in the future of music. The opening section is intense and stormy, and the main theme is certainly compelling. The middle section, Andante Sostenuto, is calm and pensive, until its closing pages restate the main theme in a grandiose manner. The last section brings back the stormy elements of the beginning.

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