Those growing accustomed to the works of Liszt will know he had a propensity for second thoughts, often turning out revised versions of earlier works. Many of his compositions exist in four or more renditions. He first transcribed the Fantasie and Fugue in G minor around 1861 and published it in 1863. In 1872, he made revisions that only affected the Fantasie section, where he added embellishments. It is this final version that is the most commonly played and recorded, though the differences between the two renditions, as suggested above, are not great. Timings of the two versions, as may be expected, are virtually identical, either having a duration of about 11 minutes and with each of their two sections of roughly equal length. The work begins with the somber Fantasie, a piece whose greatness in the Bach original for organ could hardly be surpassed. But Liszt manages to harness its profound and unsettling character, miraculously making it sound like Bach while suggesting his own unique voice. In the livelier Fugue that follows, the theme, at first, is rendered with delicate grace. Gradually, it accrues tension as the contrapuntal writing grows more complex, voices sprouting voices with ultimate triumph arriving at the end. Liszt's realization here must be assessed as a masterwork on its own, a brilliant and imaginative realization of Bach's music on modern piano.

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