Liszt: Années de pèlerinage, 3ème année & Other Late Piano Works

Featuring

Cédric Tiberghien
Franz Liszt

Did you know?

1/7

Composition History

Liszt's La lugubre gondola II was inspired by silent funeral processions in Venice and written shortly after he had a premonition of his son-in-law Richard Wagner's death.

Composer Biography

Liszt dedicated his Wiegenlied ('Cradle song') to his pupil Arthur Friedheim, who would become his amanuensis, or literary assistant, the following year.

Composer's Artistic Vision

According to British pianist John Ogdon, Liszt was responsible for breaking the German dominance over 19th-century composers and scattering the seeds of modern music.

Composer Biography

The pieces in the Années de pèlerinage, troisième année were composed after Liszt received the tonsure and minor orders of the Catholic Church, beginning his life as 'the Abbé Liszt'.

Compositional Technique

In Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este, Liszt quotes a passage from the Gospel According to St John about 'living water', foreshadowing 20th-century 'water pieces' by composers like Ravel.

Historical Context

Liszt's Marche funèbre commemorates the execution of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, a Habsburg and younger brother of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, in 1867.

Compositional Technique

Liszt's Bagatelle sans tonalité, originally titled Mephisto Waltz No. 4, concludes with an unsettling upward rush of twenty-five diminished seventh chords that do not resolve the tonality.