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.