Franz Liszt,Album d'un voyageur, S 156 Book 1 - no 4, Vallee d'Obermann,Setrak Setrakian Piano

No.2, Au bord d'une source
No.3, Les cloches de Genève
No.4, Vallee d'Obermann

Another very good recording which I am, until now, unfamiliar with. It seems to have been composed 1835-36 when Liszt was about 24 years and consists of 6 composition and an introduction. Is there anyone else who can drop a few words about this work? Also, please listen to a splendid piano performance.

Vallee d'Obermann
Franz Liszt

Liszt was the only contemporary whose music Richard Wagner gratefully acknowledged as a influence upon his own. His lasting fame was an alchemy of extraordinary digital ability — the greatest in the history of keyboard playing — an unmatched instinct for showmanship, and one of the most progressive musical imaginations of his time. Hailed by some as a visionary, reviled by others as a symbol of empty Romantic excess, Franz Liszt wrote his name across music history in a truly inimitable manner.

This is the first set in Franz Liszt's triology, Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage, or Years of Travel). Suisse is comprised of nine pieces, each inspired by scenes or moods associated with Liszt's Swiss travels. He and his one-time lover, Marie d'Agoult (a brilliant and popular writer whose pen name was Daniel Stern), had journeyed throughout Switzerland and Italy during the period, 1835-39. Eight of the items here date from that time, but Orage, placed fifth in order, was composed in 1855, the year the set was published. All pieces, except for Orage and the seventh, Eglogue, are based on pieces in the composer's earlier Album d'un voyageur.

La Valée d'Obermann (The Valley of Obermann) may be the most profound work in the collection. A melancholy theme establishes the mood here to depict not just a locale, but the eponymous character in an 1804 novel by Etiene Jeane Senancour, Obermann, who, disheartened by his misfortunes, withdraws to the country to seek solace. Cast in three sections, the piece contains themes that are beautiful, transforming from sadness and gloomy pensiveness at the outset to a brighter, if not quite radiant mood in the last section. It is a philosophical not emotional triumph that Liszt arrives at in the end. This piece usually runs close to fifteen minutes and is the longest in the set.

Thanks for the text.

Hi Robert,

I hope you received Liszt, Les Cloches de Genève mp3 file that I post it two days ago

Thanks--this is an EXCELLENT recording! I'd like to be able to play this piece. Have you recorded any of the other pieces from the Annees? I am not a tremendous fan of Liszt (well, except for the B minor sonata, the Annees, the Liebestraume and a few other things). But the Annees (particularly the Petrarch sonnets from Italy) are among my favorites.

I'd like to hear more about the difference between this version of Obermann and the one in the Annees. I didn't realize there was an earlier cycle, Album d'un voyageur. If I remember correctly, the later version tends more to the virtuosity for its own sake that characterizes much of Liszt.

From Album d'un voyageur, Book 1 I record only 3 Pieces

Vallée d'Oberman, recorded in 2000

Les Cloches de Genève, recorded 1999

Au bord d'une source, recorded in 1959

For me Franz Liszt's all works are in high place as a pianistic technique.

No actually, I have not received these recordings. Did you post them on the forum?

Liszt,Les Cloches de Genève, recorded 1999

liszt,Au bord d'une source ,recorded 1959, Contains audio distortion

[Admin Edit]Linked from the initial post[Admin Edit]

Another 2 really great recordings! Both are up on the site.