Liszt: Schubert Song Transcriptions

Liszt had a particular affection for the music of Schubert whom he considered to be “the most poetic musician who ever lived”. Ordered according to key relationships rather than the narrative content of the verse, his transcriptions of Schubert’s two great song cycles, Winterreise and Schwanengesang are outstanding examples of the genre and formed a popular part of his concert programmes during his years as a travelling virtuoso. Avan Yu, one of Canada’s most exciting pianists, won the Gold Medal at the Canadian Chopin Competition at the age of seventeen.

"…this anthology represents the celebrated pianist at his most humanly sympathetic. There is a feeling that he has captured the essence of what Liszt wished to convey in these, the most faithful of all of his reworkings. Der Muller und der Bach is unparalleled in its transcendant beauty; the langour of Bolet's approach, unfettered by any hint of mannerism is magical. He tends to understate the emotional content behind the melodies, but this heightens their dignity. The recorded sound captures even the most ethereal touches with sensitivity, the roulades of accompanying figures coming off the pianist's fingers in great washes of colour."

I spend part of every summer at the Aspen Music Festival, at least partly because it's where one can easily hear a lot of young musicians, some of them still students, who are the cream of the crop. It's there that I heard, when they were very young, musicians like Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Sarah Chang, Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Joseph Kalichstein, Ian Hobson and many others. I've been amazed, repeatedly, at the quality of youngsters coming up. An embarrassment of riches, one would have to say. And it's hard to keep track of them.

The concept of “Der Wanderer” (the wanderer) had a lifelong fascination for Franz Schubert. The idea of an eternal journey towards happiness or a better life, albeit unattainable, was close to his romantic heart. The same may be said of Franz Liszt, who, mutatis mutandis, shared Schubert’s wanderings and quest for an ideal. No wonder that Liszt was one of the first to recognize Schubert’s genius, playing his works in his concerts and transcribing songs for piano solo.