Hyperion Records

This is the only Liszt work for piano and viola, apart from the Harold transcription, and the broken chords which inform the coda to the Romance oubliée are quite clearly an act of homage to the marvellous viola writing at the end of the Pilgrims’ March in Harold. Indeed, the whole final section is a later addition to the Romance oubliée, which was a reworking of an earlier piano Romance of 1848, itself derived from the song O pourquoi donc of 1843. The Romance oubliée was Liszt’s response in 1880 to a request to reprint the earlier piano piece. He prepared it for the viola virtuoso Hermann Ritter, but also made versions (with different piano parts) for violin and for cello, as well as a new piano transcription.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1993