Hungarian Fantasy
SKU: PR.510079380
Composed in 1834, Liszt's Grand duo is based on material from three pieces from the first book (op. 19b) of Mendelssohn's Songs without Words (no. 1 in E major, no. 6 in G minor, and no. 3 in A major). While Liszt made an almost literal transcription of the first piece, he gave the second and third pieces a much freer arrangement, in the style of concert paraphrases. The large-scale concert piece was premiered by Liszt and Chopin on Christmas Day 1834 in a salon in Paris. The Grand duo was not published in Liszt's lifetime, and has survived as a draft.Schubert's Fantasy in C major (also known as the Wanderer Fantasy) was a defining musical experience for the young Liszt. He arranged this masterpiece of Romantic piano literature for piano and orchestra in 1851, at the beginning of his Weimar period, and it was premiered by Julius Egghard in Vienna in December of that year. By 1855, Liszt had transcribed this arrangement for two pianos, because it was played on 22 October 1855 at a concert held in Weimar in honour of his birthday. With the version for piano and orchestra, Liszt attuned the fantasy to the requirements of the concert hall, reinforcing the orchestral effects inherent in Schubert's composition. His aim with the two-piano version was to achieve a similarly grand effect in spaces too small for an orchestra. The arrangement for piano and orchestra appeared in print in 1857, followed by the two-piano version in 1862.This volume comes complete with a detailed preface in English, German, and Hungarian containing new research findings, several manuscript facsimiles, and a critical report in English.
SKU: BT.EMBZ20004A
English-German-Hungarian.
Supplementary Volume 16 of the New Liszt Edition contains free arrangements and technical exercises. In the first section can be found early versions of three arrangements. The first consists of the first and intermediary versions of a transcription of Die Rose, a song Schubert composed to a poem by Schlegel. The arrangement of the second movement of Berlioz's Harold Symphony also draws on literary inspiration: Lord Byron's (1788-1824) narrative poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-18) was a literary experience Liszt shared with Berlioz. The fantasy on themes from Bellini's opera La sonnambula [The Sleepwalker] (here the first version of 1842, and the second version dating from the following decade are given) is important in music history because it was while he worked on this (and other operatic fantasies) that Liszt developed a new concept of the form, which took shape in more complex and more concentrated fantasies than before. Particularly interesting material can be found in the appendix. In addition to sketches and drafts for arrangements of Spanish themes, there are three sources published here for the first time, which shed light on technical aspects of Liszt's piano teaching. These are three sets of exercises: the first written by Liszt himself for Valérie Boissier in 1832; the second a copy in an unidentified hand from the same period or slightly later; and finally the third which was noted down in 1871 by Henri Maréchal in Rome based on the composer's dictation. This latest volume of the New Liszt Edition includes a detailed preface in German, English, and Hungarian containing new research findings, together with five manuscript facsimiles and critical notes. Simultaneously with the cloth-bound Complete Edition, a practical paperback version has been published, the contents of which are identical to those of the hardcover edition, minus the inclusion of critical notes.
