LISZT: The complete music for solo piano, Vol. 38 – Les Préludes – Leslie Howard Hyperion

1
Les préludes – Poème symphonique No 3 S511a[16’34]Trois Études de concert – Trois caprices poétiques S144[21’33]2
No 1 in A flat major: Il lamento[9’26]3
No 2 in F minor: La leggierezza[5’33]4
No 3bis in D flat major: [two short cadenzas][0’44]5
No 3 in D flat major: Un sospiro, with cadenza and revised coda[5’50]6
Ab irato – Étude de perfectionnement S143[2’34]Zwei Konzertetüden S145[7’57]7
Waldesrauschen[4’47]8
Gnomenreigen[3’10]Zwei Episoden aus Lenaus Faust S513a S514[24’28]9
Der nächtliche Zug, S513a[14’20]10
Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke – [Erster] Mephisto-Walzer, first version, S514[10’08]

Six of Liszt’s important contributions to the literature of the pianoforte étude occupy the centre of this programme. They are flanked by two works unfamiliar in their present guise: the solo piano versions of Les Préludes and Der nächtlige Zug (the first of the Episodes from Lenau’s Faust).

The Faust legend preoccupied Liszt for much of his life, Goethe’s rendering of it inspiring the orchestral masterpiece, the Faust Symphony. Among the works inspired by Lenau’s poem we find the Episodes here presented. Der nächtlige Zug is clearly one of his finest works and its neglect in all of its guises is inexplicable; the second of the episodes is an early version of the phenomenally successful First Mephisto Waltz.

All of the music on this album is also available as part of the specially priced box set Liszt: Complete Piano Music: ‘Almost any way you choose to look at it, this is a staggering achievement … the grand scope of this project gives us the chance, as listeners, to experience the almost incomprehensible breadth and depth of Liszt’s imagination’ (International Record Review).