IDAGIO | Liszt: Années de pèlerinage, première année

Featuring

Stephen Hough
Franz Liszt

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Liszt's Années de pèlerinage embody central features of Romanticism, capturing the desire to wander, the search for beautiful landscapes, and the fusion of music with literary and cultural associations.

Composition History

The first book of Années de pèlerinage (Suisse) is largely a revision of earlier material from Liszt's Album d'un voyageur, composed during his 1835-1836 sojourn in Switzerland with Marie d'Agoult.

Compositional Technique

Liszt composed opera paraphrases throughout his creative life, evolving from dazzling displays of popular tunes to psychological character studies and later to focused treatments of single scenes.

Performer Biography

Stephen Hough, the pianist on this recording, was honored in 2001 with a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for his original and creative contributions to knowledge and society.

Composer Biography

Liszt's relationship with Countess Marie d'Agoult, a married woman six years his senior, began in 1833, and they eloped to Switzerland in 1835 after her eldest daughter's tragic death and her subsequent pregnancy.

Performer Biography

Stephen Hough has won Gramophone's 'Record of the Year' award twice for his recordings of concertos by Scharwenka and Sauer, and the complete works for piano and orchestra by Saint-Saëns.