Hyperion Records

Although Die Rose later appeared in various assortments of Schubert/Liszt song transcriptions (and this is an absolutely labyrinthine nightmare for the researcher), it was first published as a single number. The present writer had the good fortune to study this piece from a copy of the first edition signed and inscribed by Liszt ‘à son ami F. Chopin’. Schubert’s song, Op 73/D745a (nothing to do with Heidenröslein despite various catalogues’ erroneous suggestions) sets Schlegel’s poem which is the brief autobiography of a rose which regrets the brevity of its life once in bloom. Liszt turns this simple piece into something of a symphonic poem in which he captures both the fragility and the underlying passion of the song.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1995