Liszt: Transcriptions of Wagner

Featuring

William Wolfram
Franz Liszt

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Performer Biography

William Wolfram is a devoted supporter of contemporary music, having close ties with many composers and completing a recording project of Edward Collins' piano concertos.

Composer Biography

Liszt settled in Weimar in 1848 with Polish heiress Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, putting aside his career as a virtuoso to focus on developing the symphonic poem.

Performer Biography

William Wolfram, the American pianist on this recording, won the Silver Medal in both the William Kapell and Naumberg International Piano Competitions.

Composition History

Liszt supported Richard Wagner, staging Wagner's opera Tannhäuser in Weimar in 1849 and helping Wagner escape Dresden after his involvement in a republican rising.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Liszt believed it would take at least a dozen years for Richard Wagner's ideas to be digested and for the seeds he had sown to produce their harvests.

Composer Biography

Liszt's interest in virtuoso performance was renewed after hearing the great violinist Paganini, whose technical accomplishments he then sought to emulate.

Composer Biography

Franz Liszt, the composer, received early encouragement from Hungarian nobility, allowing him to study with Czerny and meet Beethoven in Vienna in 1822.