Liszt’s “Transcendental Studies” of 1852 are without doubt among the triumphs of virtuoso piano music, and their visionary language and poetic expression make them a milestone of the romantic age. This set of twelve études represents the results of the composer’s own revision of a collection already published in 1827 and 1839. Accordingly, the principal source for our edition was a printed copy of the earlier version with myriad changes in the composer’s hand. Each of these pieces, including the famous “Harmonies du soir” and “Mazeppa”, bears its own title and has entered the concert repertoire less as an étude than as a tone-poem with its own distinctive flavour.
Content/Details
- Level of difficulty (Explanation)
- Other titles with this level of difficulty
- Transcendental Studies
- Molto vivace
- Piano 8 difficult
ABRSM: Piano LRSM
- Paysage
- Piano 6 medium
ABRSM: Piano LRSM
- Mazeppa
- Piano 9 difficult
ABRSM: Piano LRSM
ABRSM: Piano FRSM
- Feux Follets
- Piano 9 difficult
ABRSM: Piano LRSM
ABRSM: Piano FRSM
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Preface
In 1855, while preparing the first thematic catalogue of his music, Franz Liszt summarized the complex gestation of his Études d’exécution transcendante as follows: “The Hofmeister edition of the twelve études (with a lithographed cradle and the publisher’s addendum ‘travail de jeunesse’!) is nothing but a reprint of the volume of studies I published in France when … more
Critical Commentary
About the composer
Franz Liszt
The most famous piano virtuoso of the nineteenth century is regarded as the most influential artist and composer (with Berlioz, Wagner) of the so-called New German School. His immense musical oeuvre comprises, above all else, works for solo piano, including numerous transcriptions; he also devised the symphonic poem. Important, too, are his sacred and secular choral works and songs.
| 1811 | Born in Doborján/Raiding (Sopron) on October 22, son of an official in the service of Prince Esterházy. First piano lessons from his father, early first attempts at composition, first public performance at age nine. |
| 1822 | Relocation of the family to Vienna, studies with Carl Czerny and Antonio Salieri. |
| 1823 | Relocation of the family to Paris. Composition studies with Ferdinando Paër and Antonín Reicha (1826). Performances in salons, concerts. |
| 1824–27 | Concert tours through France, to England and Switzerland. Composition of opera paraphrases for piano. |
| 1830 | Acquaintance with Berlioz, self-study by reading. He becomes Parisian society’sfavourite pianist and piano teacher. |
| 1835 | He moves to Switzerland with Countess Marie d’Agoult: their first child together, Blandine-Rachel, is born here. He continues concertizing in Paris. |
| from 1839 | Continuous concert tours throughout Europe. |
| from 1847 | Symphonic poems, including No. 2, “Tasso: lamento e trionfo”; No. 1, “Ce qu‘on entend sur la montagne” (‘Bergsymphonie,’ ‘Mountain Symphony’); “A Faust Symphony in Three Character Pictures”; “A Symphony to Dante’s Divine Comedy” (‘Dante Symphony’); as well as [No. 11], “Hunnenschlacht” (“Battle of the Huns”). |
| 1848–61 | Kapellmeister in Weimar; he advocates for progressive music (Wagner, Schumann, Berlioz). |
| 1857–62 | Oratorio, “The Legend of St. Elisabeth.” |
| 1861–68 | Resident in Rome. |
| 1865 | Takes minor holy orders. |
| 1866–72 | Oratorio, “Christus.” |
| 1871 | Appointed Hungarian court councilor; he lives in Rome, Weimar, and Budapest. |
| 1886 | Death in Bayreuth on July 31. |
About the authors
Ernst-Günter Heinemann (Editor)
Dr. Ernst-Günter Heinemann, born in 1945 in Bad Marienberg (Westerwald), completed his schooling in Gießen and read musicology, philosophy and German in Marburg and Frankfurt/Main and also for some time Protestant church music. He did his doctorate on “Franz Liszts geistliche Musik. Zum Konflikt von Kunst und Engagement”.
From 1978–2010 Heinemann worked as an editor at G. Henle Publishers (in 1978 in Duisburg, from 1979 onwards in Munich). He edited a great many Urtext editions for the publishing house, including “Das Wohltemperierte Klavier”, Volume 1 by Bach and all of Debussy’s piano works. In addition, he wrote essays on Debussy, Grieg, Liszt, Mendelssohn and questions concerning general editing, as well as giving seminars on editorial practice for musicology students in Munich.
Mária Eckhardt (Preface)
Mária Eckhardt, born in 1943 in Budapest, studied at the Budapest Academy of Music (Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, today University of Music), and in 1966 she graduated with a diploma in choral conducting and teaching music. After holding different posts at the Hungarian National Library Széchényi and at the Institute for Musicology at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences she worked at the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Centre of the Liszt Academy of Music, of which she was Head between 1986 and 2009.
Eckhardt has been awarded numerous prizes for her Liszt research, in Hungary, and also in Europe and the US. Alongside Franz Liszt, her main research interests include the musical life of the 19th century and Hungary’s musical history.
The print is large and easy to read, although the music is difficult to play. Liszt had specific ideas for the performance of these etudes, which are presented here with greater clarity than other editions.
La Henle propone questi formidabili pilastri tecnici in una nuova pubblicazione, dove sono collazionate ben cinque fonti, fra cui le edizioni del 1852 e del 1871-3, uniche riconosciute dall’autore, e quella del 1839.
[Suonare, 2005)
Por ello, esta pulcra edición crítica de Henle vale su peso en oro.