Hyperion Records

The exoticism of Heine’s ‘The Asra’ inspired perhaps Rubinstein’s best song, and certainly one of his simplest, and Liszt carries the simplicity into his transcription with a further tinge of the hopeless lack of a comforting resolution so often encountered in his later music: ‘The youthful captive’ has grown paler by the day from watching the Sultan’s beautiful daughter on her daily walks to the fountain. When she finally demands to know his name, he tells her that he is called Mahomet, that he comes from Yemen, and is of that race of Asra who, should they love, die.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1991