MUSIClassical notes: LISZT Annees de Pelerinage (Years of Pilgrimage)

A suite for solo piano by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886), which is in part a revision of his earlier work "Album d'un voyageur". The title "Années de pèlerinage" refers to the Bildungsroman "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and there are numerous other literary allusions throughout the suite. Liszt wrote the following introduction to all three "Années de pèlerinage" suites: Années de pèlerinage (French for Years of Pilgrimage) (S.160, S.161, S.163) is a set of three suites for solo piano by Franz Liszt. Much of it derives from his earlier work, Album d'un voyageur, his first major published piano cycle, which was composed between 1835 and 1838 and published in 1842. Années de pèlerinage is widely considered a masterwork and summation of Liszt's musical style. The third volume is notable as an example of his later style. Composed well after the first two volumes, it 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, and especially its sequel Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (whose original title Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre meant Years of Wandering or Years of Pilgrimage, the latter being used for its first French translation). 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. WIKIPEDIA