Album insights
Six of Liszt's most significant contributions to piano etude literature form the core of these recordings. They are accompanied by two lesser-known works in their current form: piano solo versions of Les Préludes and The Nightly Train. These piano versions of well-known orchestral works are not typically found in Liszt catalogs, as Liszt generously allowed the names of two students to be listed as the transcribers on the published score.
In the case of Les Préludes, possibly one of Liszt's most beloved symphonic poems, Karl Klauser may have prepared a rough sketch before Liszt took over (Liszt published the piece as "Partition de piano par K. Klauser, avec des additions de F. Liszt"), yet the final creation is solely Liszt's responsibility. While the structure of the piece differs in minor points towards the end from the orchestral score (finalized around 1854), the work was originally intended as an introduction to a larger choral and orchestral composition, Les quatre éléments, based on a poem by Autran. Despite the decline in popularity of the piece post-war, exacerbated by Hitler's enthusiasm for it, Les Préludes remains a fitting introduction to Liszt's orchestral music due to its refined structure and attractive, primarily derived melodic ideas from its opening passage. Liszt also published versions for two pianos and piano duet of Les Préludes. The transcription to solo piano was done in the spirit of Liszt's transcriptions of Beethoven and Berlioz, aiming to faithfully recreate the texture and essence of the original rather than simply transcribing the notation.
The series has already released three versions of the most famous works under the title Liszt's Transcendental Studies (in recordings 26, 34, and 4), with another version of Mazeppa and all versions of the "Paganini Etude" set to follow soon. The Morceau de salon—Studies of Perfection has been already released (in edition 34). The remaining works, totaling six, include a revised version of the aforementioned study, now titled Ab Irato ("In Rage")—a joyous transcription of this concise piece despite the brief pause before the coda. Liszt, in his revision, removed some technical hindrances while introducing hand crossings to delineate the melody more clearly: the higher voice is now carried by the left thumb, while the rest of the hand plays accompanying chords. The right hand plays the melody simply one octave lower. The Trois Études de concert—or Trois Caprices poétiques as they were named in the second edition—are numbered I, II, and III in the manuscript. In a later French edition, these pieces each bear an Italian title, their origin remaining somewhat mysterious. These much-admired studies are commonly known under these Italian titles. Il Lamento is an extended piece with a capricious prelude that recurs at the end. The main passage of the work presents, extends, and varies a lyrical melody, continued in a sequential development that concludes with the passionate climax returning to the original key of A-flat major and a rather gentle set of final variations.
La Leggierezza ("Lightness") also starts as a capriccio, quickly transitioning to its main material in a straightforward line for each hand, featuring the unusual tempo instruction of "Quasi allegretto" (often somewhat disregarded towards a more spirited tempo in performances). Like the other pieces in this set, it is monothematic, with the contours of the original melody possibly felt more than observed beneath the delicate embellishments later applied to it. Liszt's quiet close seemed insufficiently grand to the illustrious Polish pedagogue Theodor Leschetizky (1830–1915), a significantly lesser composer. He furnished the piece with a new coda, regularly adopted in concerts at that time. With due respect, the author does not intend to become a hostage to those who already find Liszt vulgar (a conclusion that, when specifically applied to Liszt, without including many other very productive men of the Renaissance—such as Haydn, for example—poses its own quandary, although Liszt's music has often been interpreted vulgarly enough), thus retaining Liszt's gentle Picardian cadence here.
Un Sospiro ("A Sigh") is the most renowned piece in this series, often taught by Liszt in his later years. Liszt's ability to encapsulate in a single work the technical dexterity characteristic of Sigismund Thalberg (1812–1871)—the nimble fingerwork that surrounds the music with arpeggios, creating the illusion of three hands on the keyboard—and to elevate it with one of his finest melodic inspirations, has ensured the enduring demand for this piece. (For those hearing this piece directly for the first time, it should be noted that the notes of the melody are alternately played by the left and right hands while both hands sustain the flowing accompaniment.) In his masterclasses, Liszt added a fermata before the melody's return to the home key—where it is divided ever more brilliantly between the thumbs as the accompaniment navigates extensive elaborations of both hands, leading to a cadenza. The cadenza he penned for Auguste Rennebaum in 1875 is now included here, alongside the cadenzas he wrote for Henrik Gobbi (date unknown) and Lina Schmalhausen (1885), enclosed with an optional preamble. Lina Ramann preserved Liszt's later alternative coda in the Liszt Pädagogium, which is included here. Liszt maintains the median progressions in the transitional passages of the etude in the ascending right hand, while simultaneously introducing a descending whole-tone scale in the left.
Waldesrauschen and Gnomenreigen were dedicated to Liszt's student and fervent advocate Dionys Pruckner, offering musical poems of grand imagination where technical execution seems relatively secondary. The former is a study in the regularity of repeated patterns supporting a flowing melody (marked by Liszt as "Vivace" and often paradoxically interpreted as slow. The true test lies in playing them delicately at a pace that maintains liveliness and grace. The essence, however, is a poem of spirit and color, summoning a woodland on a near heavenly level—Liszt's favored sixth chord, resonating in many religious pieces: for example, in the "Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude," as opposed to Wagner’s Siegfried or the Woodbird. The abundance of instructions to play very quickly in Gnomenreigen, even faster, recall Schumann, where, like Schumann, the artist hesitates to follow these directives too literally. This enduringly popular study maneuvers between two themes—a "Presto Scherzando" in F-sharp minor with slightly raised clusters of notes, implying a hidden playfulness, and a brilliant toccata, "Un poco più animato," appearing in A major, as if unveiling hidden spirits. The initial theme returns unaltered, then the second is transposed half a step to B major, leading to a development of the first theme in G minor, where the melody remains locked in latent mystery. The music suddenly shifts over a C-sharp pedal into F-sharp minor, yielding to the final triumphant revelation of the second melody before the essential ethereality of the first melody calls for the coda. The spirit of the work is akin to the benevolent nature of a Mephisto waltz—these gnomes are benevolent spirits, evidenced by Liszt leading them home in a key usually reserved for depicting the joy of the coming life.
The Faust legend captivated Liszt throughout his life, inspiring his orchestral masterpiece, the Faust Symphony, based on Goethe's retelling of the tale. His other works on this theme mainly responded to Lenau's poem, though the later Mephisto Waltzes 2–4, the Bagatelle sans tonalité, and Mephisto Polka do not specify their particular poetic inspirations. The Two Episodes from Lenau’s Faust for orchestra were completed in 1861, while Liszt's piano version of Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke—[First Mephisto] Walzer für Klavier, which preceded the orchestral iteration, had already been published. When the orchestral works were published in 1866, the composer announced transcriptions of both pieces for solo piano and piano duet. It appears that a pupil of Liszt, Robert Freund, prepared the solo version of the first piece, The Nightly Train, under Liszt’s supervision, as evidenced by Freund’s annotations and numerous additions traced over in the manuscript. The piece was released under the title "Transcribed for the piano by the composer," with "transcribed by R. Freund" written over the first line of music, though the final version undoubtedly originates from Liszt. This piece reflects an air of solemn seriousness, depicting Faust's encounter with the dark mysteries of life and death and its outer passages, somber and nearly atonal. The two central passages provide a gentle contrast, the first infernal in its longing and tonal flow, the second quiet and ultimately mournful in the Easter gregorian chant "Pange, lingua, gloriosi corporis mysterium." As many Liszt scholars have noted, this indisputably stands as one of his finest works, its neglect in all its forms particularly perplexing in light of the phenomenal success of its accompanying piece. The First Mephisto Waltz needs no introduction and has already appeared in Volume 1 of this