Hyperion Records

The prolific Anton Rubinstein (1829–1894) wrote more than two hundred songs in a variety of languages, but the two which Liszt transcribed are among the few to retain a place in the repertoire. ‘O, that it should ever be thus’ (15)—sometimes known by its first line and mysteriously given a second catalogue number as a ‘missing’ Liszt work on that account: ‘Gelb rollt mir zu füssen …’ (‘The mighty river Kura flows golden at my feet’) is a translation by Bodenstedt of the Persian poet Mirza Schaffy: a hymn of joy to love and nature, once recorded in Rubinstein’s setting by Fyodor Chaliapin, and here given the most elaborate plumage in Liszt’s concert transcription.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1991