Liszt - Années de pélerinage for piano

Années de pèlerinage by Franz Liszt for piano in three books

Edited by Ernst Herttrich.
Fingering by Hans-Martin Theopold

First year - Swiss

Titles :

• Chapelle de Guillaume Tell
• Au lac de Wallenstadt
• Pastorale
• Au bord d'une source
• Orage
• Vallée d'Obermann
• Eglogue
• Le mal du pays
• Les cloches de Genève

Appendice

• Vallée d'Obermann (première version d'après l'édition Haslinger en 1842)

In 1835/1836 Liszt was staying in Switzerland with his mistress Marie Comtesse d’Agoult. He published his bold, avant-garde musical portrayal of his travels in the Swiss mountains in 1842 under the title Album d’un Voyageur. Around 1850 the one-time enfant terrible had become a mature composer. Liszt reworked his early compositions and published them in 1855 as Années de Pèlerinage, Erstes Jahr, Schweiz. The showpiece in the collection is the naturalistic and poetic Vallée d’Obermann after the novel by Senancourt; the early version is also reproduced in the appendix to this edition.

Second year - Italy

Titles :

• Sposalizio
• Il penseroso
• Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa
• Sonetto 47 del Petrarca
• Sonetto 104 del Petrarca
• Sonetto 123 del Petrarca
• Après une lecture de Dante
• Fantasia quasi sonata

Between 1837–39 Liszt was travelling through Italy with Marie d’Agoult. As was the case with the first volume of the Années de Pèlerinage, Schweiz (1835/36) he once again recorded his travel impressions in musical form. He devoted himself to subjects from literature (Petrarca, Dante) and the visual arts (Raffael, Michelangelo). Many years later Liszt reworked the pieces, publishing them in 1858 as Années de Pèlerinage, Zweites Jahr, Italien. The central work in this volume is the large-scale so-called Dante Sonata (Après une Lecture de Dante). The Sonetto 104 del Petrarca is just as popular. In 1861 Liszt published an appendix to Volume II, Venezia e Napoli.

Third year

Titles :

• Angelus ! Prière aux anges gardiens
• Aux cyprès de la villa d'Este
• Aux cyprès de la villa d'Este
• Les jeux d'eau à la villa d'Este
• "Sunt lacrymae rerum" en mode hongrois
• Marche funèbre
• "Sursum corda"

In 1883 the third volume of Années de Pèlerinage was published. Whereas the pieces in Volumes I and II were recollections of early travels in Switzerland and Italy, the new works, composed between 1867 and 1877, were more of a religious pilgrimage. Some parts already reflect Liszt’s austere later compositional style. With the visionary Jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este, on the other hand, he almost enters the world of Impressionist sounds (it inspired Ravel to write his Jeux d’eau). The Bible quotation about the “water of life”, contained in a footnote, leaves no doubt as to the spiritual dimension of the piece.