Franz Liszt

Études d'exécution transcendante d'après Paganini

The main part of Supplement Volume 12 features the predecessor of the Grandes Études de Paganini, a series of six études written after Paganini between 1838 and 1840, and referred to by Liszt as transcendent performance (Études d'exécution transcendante d'apres Paganini). The series was inspired not only by the virtuoso violinist and composer's Caprices and Violin Concerto in B minor but also by Schumann's Paganini Études, which Liszt presumably encountered thanks to Clara Wieck at the beginning of 1838. The volume also includes the first and second solo piano versions of Die Zelle in Nonnenwerth (1840 and 1841), which Liszt composed a number of times in several versions, as well as two Wagner transcriptions and the first versions of adaptations of two works by Russian composers. A detailed preface in Hungarian, English and German, including new research results, numerous manuscript facsimiles and critical notes make this volume of the New Liszt Edition a specially important publication of scholarly value. Simultaneously with the Complete Edition volume in cloth-bound, its paperback for practical purposes is also published, the contents of which, except for the critical notes, is identical with the Complete Edition volume.