Franz Liszt

Annees de Pelerinage Deuxieme annees, Italie

The content of this volume consists partly of works that have survived in the composer's manuscript and are now published for the first time, and partly of the original versions of pieces that were published during Liszt's lifetime but later reworked. Of the earlier versions connected with Years of Pilgrimage, 2nd Year, Italy, the most noteworthy are the two completed versions of the Dante sonata, which are now appearing in print for the first time. Further important compositions belonging to the Italy cycle are the Petrarch sonnets. The first versions of these that we are publishing were actually published by the composer, and he also included them in his concert repertoire. Another particularly significant piece being published for the first time is the Freischütz fantasia, a characteristic, fine example of the type of opera fantasia Liszt developed at the beginning of the 1840s. Of the waltzes that feature in this volume, in addition to the first version of the concert pieces - the Grande valse di bravura and the Valse mélancolique - we have also included three complete, technically less demanding little pieces that Liszt intended primarily as mementos.