Complete Piano Music: The Waltzes (Incls Mephisto Waltzes)

GRAMOPHONE CRITICS' CHOICE -
MTA AWARD WINNER

Aside from juvenilia, a few album-leaves, early versions and works based upon other composers' music, these works represent the complete original concert waltzes for piano by Liszt. The Ländler and Albumblatt are given by way of encores. The third of the Trois Valses-Caprices, S214, is based on themes by Donizetti (Leslie Howard has recorded it for Hyperion on 'Rare Piano Encores', CDH55109). The Bagatelle without tonality was originally to have been the Fourth Mephisto Waltz. The Petite Valse favorite is omitted since it is merely an earlier version of the Valse-Impromptu. Two recently-published additions to the Mephisto Waltz No 1 are included here. Liszt left three pages of sketches for an Andantino he wished to add to the Mephisto Waltz No 4. Leslie Howard completed the piece in 1978 for the Liszt-Bartók cycle at La Scala, Milan, and this version, which is dedicated to Alfred Brendel, is published by Basil Ramsey.