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Description
Franz Liszt and the Creation of Années de pèlerinage — Deuxième année: Italie, S.161
Franz Liszt was born on October 22, 1811, in Raiding, Hungary, and became the most celebrated pianist of the nineteenth century — a performer whose technical command was so far beyond his contemporaries that he effectively redefined what the instrument was capable of. Where the first volume of the Années de pèlerinage drew its inspiration from the Swiss landscape, the second turns to Italy — its painting, sculpture, poetry, and cities — and the result is a collection of considerably greater cultural and literary depth. Liszt spent extended periods in Italy during the late 1830s, and the works gathered here reflect his deep engagement with the Italian artistic tradition, from the Renaissance masters to the sonnets of Petrarch.
The collection opens with Sposalizio, a piece of broad, luminous serenity inspired by Raphael's painting of the marriage of the Virgin, its sustained harmonies and gentle melodic arching evoking the painting's quality of calm devotional beauty. Il penseroso, drawn from Michelangelo's brooding sculpture of the same name, is one of the darkest and most harmonically austere pieces in the set — a slow, heavy-treading meditation of considerable emotional weight. The three Petrarch Sonnets — Nos. 47, 104, and 123 — originally composed as songs and later transcribed for piano, are among the most lyrical and vocally conceived pieces Liszt ever wrote, each one unfolding a long, ornately decorated melodic line over a richly harmonized accompaniment that captures the ardor and longing of Petrarch's verse. Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa offers a lighter and more song-like interlude, its tuneful simplicity a deliberate contrast to the weightier pieces surrounding it.
The supplementary volume Venezia e Napoli brings the Italian journey to a vivid and varied close. The Gondoliera opens with a gently rocking barcarolle rhythm that evokes the quiet movement of a gondola on the Venetian canals, while the Canzone is a more melancholy and inward piece built on a traditional Neapolitan melody. The collection concludes with the Tarantella, a brilliant and propulsive showpiece in the tradition of the southern Italian folk dance, its relentless rhythmic drive and cascading figurations bringing the entire Italian pilgrimage to an exhilarating and definitive close.
Track List:
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Années de pèlerinage II, S.161: I. Sposalizio - 7:34
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Années de pèlerinage II, S.161: II. Il penseroso - 4:16
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Années de pèlerinage II, S.161: III. Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa - 3:06
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Années de pèlerinage II, S.161: IV. Sonetto 47 del Petrarca - 5:42
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Années de pèlerinage II, S.161: V. Sonetto 104 del Petrarca - 6:58
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Années de pèlerinage II, S.161: VI. Sonetto 123 del Petrarca - 6:54
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Années de pèlerinage II, Supplément (Venezia e Napoli), S.162: I. Gondoliera - 4:58
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Années de pèlerinage II, Supplément (Venezia e Napoli), S.162: II. Canzone - 4:16
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Années de pèlerinage II, Supplément (Venezia e Napoli), S.162: III. Tarantella - 9:56
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- Total Runtime - 53:40
