Goran Filipec - Franz Liszt: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 51

All of the pieces in this programme have a literary or artistic connection as the background to their creation. Heard here in their first version, the Consolations owe their title to a poem by Alphonse de Lamartine and include a melody that later became the first Hungarian Rhapsody. The meditative Sposalizio was inspired by a painting by Raphael, and the Ballade by Gottfried B�rger�s haunting �Lenore�. Victor Hugo�s Apr�s une lecture de Dante is used powerfully by Liszt to express damnation and hope, and the first Mephisto Waltz derived from Lenau�s �Faust� depicts a dance both sinister and amorous.