Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 11/09/2016, uploaded on 05/18/2017

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Années de pèlerinage is widely considered a masterwork and summation of Franz Liszt's musical style. Vallée d'Obermann (“Obermann's Valley”) is inspired by Senancour's novel of the same title, set in Switzerland, with a hero overwhelmed and confused by nature, suffering from ennui and longing and finally concluding that only our feelings are true. The captions include one from Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage ("Could I embody and unbosom now / That which is most within me,--could I wreak / My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw / Soul--heart--mind--passions--feelings-- strong or weak-- / All that I would have sought, and all I seek, / Bear, know, feel--and yet breathe--into one word, / And that one word were Lightning, I would speak; / But as it is, I live and die unheard, / With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword.") and two from Senancour's Obermann, which include the crucial questions, “What do I want? Who am I? What do I ask of nature?"       Régulo Martínez-Antón

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.