Hyperion Records

Along with the early Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and the first book of the Album d’un voyageur, Apparitions stake Liszt’s earliest claim to be regarded as a mature and original musical thinker—he was 22 years old at the time of their composition. Although it is quite clear that only a very few of his contemporaries had the slightest understanding of his intentions, and generally preferred his early studies and transcriptions, it is these other extraordinarily avant garde works which forced the doubters to reconsider, and which, along with the re-examination of the late pieces, led to the re-appraisal of Liszt in the middle of the twentieth century. The first piece has a rhythmic flexibility which often suspends the perceived metre altogether, and the theme in thirds with tremolo accompaniment is one of Liszt’s most compelling. The second is uneasily torn between being carefree and poignant, again the character led by the unusual rhythm, and the third is almost like a composer under some hallucinogenic drug, dreaming of a Schubert waltz—a unique contribution to the literature, and quite unlike the later use of the same waltz in the Soirées de Vienne.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1994