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The Introduction des Variations sur une marche du Siège de Corinthe is a problem piece: the manuscript is signed and dedicated, but there is no trace of the actual March or the Variations, and we do not know if they were only improvised, or that they were ever composed, or even if the young Liszt's introduction was intended to precede someone else's variations. (There is also a missing fantasy on Rossini's Maometto, the earlier version of the same opera, but this may have nothing to do with the present work. We are indebted to the painstaking labours of Nancy Reich for our knowledge of this work.) Since the introduction ends on the dominant seventh of F major, it was thought best that the next piece in this recital should be in that key, even if there be no other reason to connect the two works.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1999