Liszt transcribed no less than 58 of Schubert’s incomparable songs for the piano, organizing them in a number of cycles, extraordinary both for their formal coherence and their melodic beauty. The songs are arranged in sequences and follow a psychological progression. This suggests that Liszt intended them to be played as cycles, as in the case of a Sonata or ordered series of pieces. On the CD, which contains two of the most compelling cycles, Bresciani shows how much this arrangement adds to the meaning and intensity of the pieces.

In 1847 Liszt finally gave up his career as a concert pianist in order to dedicate himself to composition and to the realization his own idea of a new musical language. In the following year he settled down in Weimar as Kapellmeister of the Court Theatre and began to compose his most important symphonic works and piano compositions, which became known as works ‘of the Weimar period’. While the Sonata is the most well-known piano work of this period, it was accompanied by other equally noteworthy pieces, which help us to understand what Liszt achieved during this period in his work on sonata form. These works, which form a group of four titles, are recorded on Bresciani’s third CD devoted to Liszt’s works.

Among the symphonic compositions of Liszt’s maturity, the gigantic Faust-symphonie stands out. It is an impressive musical synthesis of Goethe’s version of the Faust legend. Of this, as of all his other orchestral works, Liszt made a splendid two piano version, which Vittorio Bresciani and Tiziano Poli have recorded on a rare CD for the label Nuova Era. This version is illuminating for anyone who would like to get to grips with the dense formal structure of one of the most complex of romantic symphonies.