Liszt: The complete music for solo piano, Vol. 43 - Deuxième Année de Pèlerinage

This, the forty-third volume (and sixty-fifth disc) in Leslie Howard's Liszt encyclopaedia, includes the Second Book of the composer's Années de Pèlerinage, a work which derives its considerable inspiration from the art and literature of Italy. Here we find the final versions of the three Petrarch Sonnets and the famous Dante Sonata.

Alongside these works we have Venezia e Napoli, an ingenious set of encore pieces, and the intriguing coda to Au bord d'une source (from the Swiss volume of the Années) which Liszt penned for the young Italian composer/pianist Giovanni Sgambati in 1863.

All of the music on this album is also available as part of the specially priced box set Liszt: Complete Piano Music: 'Almost any way you choose to look at it, this is a staggering achievement … the grand scope of this project gives us the chance, as listeners, to experience the almost incomprehensible breadth and depth of Liszt's imagination' (International Record Review).

CDA67107  75 minutes 10 seconds
‘A familiar enough masterpiece yet typically spiced by Howard with some fascinating side-steps and discoveries’ (Gramophone)
‘This disc is studded with pleasures, even (especially in the Petrarch sonnets) with flashes of ecstasy. Fine sound too’ (Fanfare, USA)