Thursday, June 16, 2011

Liszt - Années de pèlerinage - Vallee d'Obermann

This is the fourth piece played in a house concert for friends at my home on Twin Valley Road in Middleton WI, on May 22, 2011. This recording was made on June 13. The piece is from one of Liszt's three suites titled 'Years of Pilgrimage.' Obermann's Valley is from the Swiss suite which contains nine pieces written in 1848-1854. It has several romantic captions, 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-- …etc., ) and two captions from the French romantic writer Senancour's book Obermann, which includes questions like , “What do I want? Who am I? What do I ask of nature?" … This is a very histrionic and emotional piece.


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