Beautiful Music: Liszt’s Pilgrimages

Lots of Wagner, Liszt, and Strauss listening of late–for some reason summer is prompting an appetite for overheated romantic music. But here are two non-excessive bits of Liszt from his set Années de pèlerinage Years of Pilgrimage. This was a musical travel diary for him, with sketches evoking sights, landscapes, artworks headed by bits of related poetry (often overheated bits of Byron).

Here are two from the first volume, Switzerland, “Au lac de Wallenstadt” and “Au bord d’une source,” beautifully illuminated by the gentle artistry of Wilhelm Kempff.

 

Wallensee
Lake Walenstadt, Switzerland. Perhaps Liszt had this very view. Wonderful photo from Martin Fisch’s flickr stream. https://www.flickr.com/photos/marfis75/ CC 2.0

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