The King Lear Overture is a special case: although we have some correspondence between Liszt and Berlioz on the subject, it remains unclear why the transcription remained unpublished and, as far as we know, unperformed. The British Liszt Society published the work in 1987, and the present writer gave the first performance in modern times at the Wigmore Hall in the same year. It is clear that Berlioz made a few changes to the score before it was published—but after Liszt’s transcription had been made—and these have been incorporated in this performance.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1989