Années de pèlerinage

Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) (S.160, S.161, S.163) is a set of three suites by Franz Liszt for solo piano. Liszt's complete musical style is evident in this masterwork, which ranges from virtuosic fireworks to sincerely moving emotional statements. His musical maturity can be seen evolving through his experience and travel. The third volume is especially notable as an example of his later style. It was composed well after the first two volumes and displays less showy virtuosity and more harmonic experimentation.

The title Années de pèlerinage refers to Goethe's famous novel of self-realization, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. Liszt clearly places the work in line with the Romantic literature of his time, prefacing most pieces with a literary passage from writers such as Schiller, Byron or Senancour, and, in an introduction to the entire work, writing, "Having recently travelled to many new countries, through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry; having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights did not pass before my eyes as pointless images but stirred deep emotions in my soul, and that between us a vague but immediate relationship had established itself, an undefined but real rapport, an inexplicable but undeniable communication, I have tried to portray in music a few of my strongest sensations and most lively impressions."[1]

Contents

The suites

Première année: Suisse

"Première année: Suisse" ("First Year: Switzerland") was published in 1855. Composed between 1848 and 1854, most of the first volume (Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 9) are revisions of his earlier cycle Album d'un voyageur, which was composed between 1835 and 1836 and published in 1842.[2] No. 7 (Églogue) was published separately, and No. 5 (Orage) was included as part of the definitive version of the cycle.[3]

  1. Chapelle de Guillaume Tell (William Tell's Chapel) - Liszt's caption: "All for one - one for all."
  2. Au lac de Wallenstadt (At Lake Wallenstadt) - Liszt's caption is from Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Canto 3 LXVIII - CV): "Thy contrasted lake / With the wild world I dwell in is a thing / Which warns me, with its stillness, to forsake / Earth's troubled waters for a purer spring."
  3. Pastorale -
  4. Au bord d'une source (Beside a Spring) - Liszt's caption is from Schiller: “In the whispering coolness begins young nature’s play.”
  5. Orage (Storm) - Liszt's caption is from Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Canto 3 LXVIII - CV): “But where of ye, O tempests! is the goal? / Are ye like those within the human breast? / Or do ye find, at length, like eagles, some high nest?”
  6. Vallée d'Obermann (Obermann's Valley) - 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?"
  7. Eglogue (Eclogue) - Liszt's caption is from 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Canto 3 LXVIII): "The morn is up again, the dewy morn, / With breath all incense, and with cheek all bloom, / Laughing the clouds away with playful scorn, / And living as if earth contained no tomb!"
  8. Le mal du pays (Homesickness) -
  9. Les cloches de Genève: Nocturne (The Bells of Geneva: Nocturne) - Liszt's caption is from Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: “I live not in myself, but I become / Portion of that around me”

Deuxième année: Italie

"Deuxième année: Italie" ("Second Year: Italy") was published 1858 (Schott); composed 1837–1849; nos. 4–6 are revisions of Tre sonetti del Petrarca (Three sonnets of Petrarch) composed ca. 1839–1846 and published 1846.

  1. Sposalizio (Marriage of the Virgin, a painting by Raphael))
  2. Il penseroso (The Thinker, a statue by Michelangelo)
  3. Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa (Canzonetta of Salvator Rosa)
  4. Sonetto 47 del Petrarca (Petrarch's Sonnet 47)
  5. Sonetto 104 del Petrarca (Petrarch's Sonnet 104)
  6. Sonetto 123 del Petrarca (Petrarch's Sonnet 123)
  7. Après une lecture de Dante: Fantasia Quasi Sonata (After Reading Dante: Fantasia Quasi Sonata)
  1. Gondoliera (Gondolier's Song (based on the song "La biondina in gondoletta" Giovanni Battista Peruchini))
  2. Canzone (Canzone (based on the gondolier's song "Nessun maggior dolore" from Rossini's Otello))
  3. Tarantella (Tarantella (using themes by Guillaume-Louis Cottrau, 1797–1847))

Troisième année

"Troisième année" ("Third Year") was published 1883; nos 1–4 and 7 composed in 1877; no 5, 1872; no 6, 1867.

  1. Angélus! Prière aux anges gardiens (Angelus! Prayer to the Guardian angels (dedicated to Daniela von Bulow, Liszt's grand-daughter, first daughter of Hans von Bülow and Cosima Liszt and wife of art historian Henry Thode.)) It was written for both melodeon, piano, or an instrument that combines both, for Liszt wrote "piano-melodium" on his manuscript.[4]
  2. Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este I: Thrénodie (To the Cypresses of the Villa d'Este I: Threnody)
  3. Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este II: Thrénodie (To the Cypresses of the Villa d'Este II: Threnody) The Villa d'Este in these two threnodies were describing a park in a Tivoli near Rome. It is famous for its beautiful cypresses and fountains.
  4. Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este (The Fountains of the Villa d'Este)
  5. Sunt lacrymae rerum/En mode hongrois (There are Tears for Things/In the Hungarian Mode (dedicated to Hans von Bülow))
  6. Marche funèbre (Funeral March) (In memory of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico)
  7. Sursum corda (Lift Up Your Hearts)

Recordings

There have been numerous recordings made of the suites, in both complete and incomplete form.

Year Pianist Section Label and number
1928 Claudio Arrau 1ere année: Suisse
1928 Claudio Arrau 3e année: Italie
1937 Claudio Arrau 2e année: Italie
1947 Vladimir Horowitz Au bord d'une source - 1ere année RCA
1947 Dinu Lipatti Sonetto 104 del Petrarca - 2e année EMI CZS 767163 2
 ???? Béla Bartók Sursum Corda - 3e année
1950s Wilhelm Kempff complete, with Deux Légendes Decca
1951 Vladimir Horowitz Sonetto 104 del Petrarca - 2e année RCA
1969 Claudio Arrau 1ere année: Suisse
1969 Claudio Arrau 2e année: Italie
1969 Claudio Arrau 3e année: Italie
1973 Jerome Rose complete
1975 Vladimir Horowitz Au bord d'une source - 1ere année RCA Victor Red Seal 82876 50754 2
1977 Lazar Berman complete Deutsche Grammophon DGG 4372062
1982 Claudio Arrau 2e année: Italie
1983 Claudio Arrau 3e année: Italie
1984 Claudio Arrau 2e année: Italie
1986 Zoltán Kocsis 3e année: Italie Philips Classics 462312-2
1986 Alfred Brendel 1ere année: Suisse Philips Classics 462312-2
1986 Alfred Brendel 2e année: Suisse Philips Classics 462312-2
1986[5] Tamás Vásáry 2e année: Italie BBC music Magazine
1989 Claudio Arrau 1ere année: Suisse
1989 Jeffrey Swann complete akademia
1998[6] Roberto Poli 2e année: Italie OnClassical
1991 Louis Lortie 2e année: Italie Chandos
1995, 1996, 1990 Leslie Howard complete Hyperion Records
2001 Frederic Chiu Italie, Venezia e Napoli Harmonia Mundi
2001, 2003, 2005 Ksenia Nosikova complete Centaur Records, Inc.
2003 Aldo Ciccolini complete EMI Classics 5851772
2003 Yoram Ish-Hurwitz 2e année: Italie Turtle Records
2004 Yoram Ish-Hurwitz 1ere année: Suisse Turtle Records
2004 Yoram Ish-Hurwitz 3e année: Italie Turtle Records
2005 Stephen Hough 1ere année: Suisse Hyperion Records
2011 Alexander Krichel 2e année: Italie telos music
2011 Steffen Fahl complete klassik-resampled[7]

Video

Alfred Brendel (Deutsche Grammophon) DVD

Score

Dover Publications has issued a complete edition in one bound volume. Also included is an appendix of related works including Lyon (from the first book of Album d'un voyageur), Apparitions, Tre sonetti del Petrarca, and the original version of Venezia e Napoli.

References

  1. ^ Lucie Renaud, Lucie, translated by Peter Christensen, Notes for the Analekta album Années de pèlerinage - Suisse (Years of Pilgrimage - Switzerland), André Laplante, https://www.analekta.com/en/album/Liszt-Annees-De-Pelerinage-Suisse.591.html, accessed Sept. 8, 2010
  2. ^ Années De Pèlerinage, Complete. Franz Liszt, J. Milstein. (ed.) (Dover Publications, 1987) ISBN 0486256278
  3. ^ Lucie Renaud, Lucie, translated by Peter Christensen, Notes for the Analekta album Années de pèlerinage - Suisse (Years of Pilgrimage - Switzerland), André Laplante, https://www.analekta.com/en/album/Liszt-Annees-De-Pelerinage-Suisse.591.html, accessed Sept. 8, 2010
  4. ^ "Années de pèlerinage" Ferenc Liszt, Edited by Imre Sulyok, Imre Mezo. (Shanghai Music Publishing House, 2007) ISBN 9787807510291
  5. ^ published May 1997
  6. ^ published 2008
  7. ^ http://klassik.s-fahl.de

External links