Années de pèlerinage, for piano

In 1835, the 24-year-old Franz Liszt was living in Switzerland. While there, he was joined by the Countess Marie d'Agoult, who left her husband and family to be with the young pianist. During the next four years the couple traveled in Switzerland and Italy, having three children along the way. Books I and II of Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) are a chronicle of these travels.

Liszt first published his travelogue pieces in three separate books, Impressions et poésies (Paris, 1840), Fleur mélodiques des Alpes (Paris, 1840), and Paraphrases (Paris, 1836). In 1842, these were assembled into one great volume and printed in Berlin and Vienna with the title, Album d'un Voyageur (Album of a Traveler). In the 1850s, Liszt revised the pieces and published them as two of the three books of Années de pèlerinage, the first "documenting" a year in Switzerland, the second, a year in Italy. The third and final volume was composed later.

Composition of the first volume of Années de pèlerinage, "Suisse," took place in 1848 - 1854. It was published in Mainz in 1855 with drawings by Kretschmer. To the works published in Impressions et poésies Liszt added "Pastorale" and "Le mal du pays," taken from Fleur mélodiques, and he wrote two new works, "Orage" and "Eglogue," for a total of nine pieces. In "Chapelle de Guillaume Tell," there are fanfares celebrating the Swiss national hero, while "Orage" depicts a high-mountain storm. "Au lac de Wallenstadt" (By Wallenstadt Lake) and "Au bord d'une source" (By the side of a spring) are prefaced with quotes from Byron and Schiller, respectively. "Vallée d'Obermann" (Valley of the Obermann) is the most complex work, in which thematic transformation is the principal driving force. A descending line first played in the bass appears in two transformed versions separated by a developmental episode.

Liszt actually composed the pieces in the second volume of Années de pèlerinage, "Italie," in 1838 - 1849, before those of the first volume. The book was published in 1858, in Mainz. Its seven pieces are more concerned with art and literature than with natural splendor. "Sposalizio," inspired by Raphael's "The Marriage of the Virgin," in Milan, is a quiet piece notable for its unusual harmonic progressions. "Il pensieroso" contemplates Michelangelo's statue for the tomb of Lorenzo di Medici in Florence and is prefaced by one of Michelangelo's poems. Brooding and melancholy, "Il pensieroso" boasts some remarkably forward-looking chromatic harmony. The "Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa" is based on one of Rosa's poems about the "fire of love" and borrows a melody by Giovanni Bononcini. Liszt set the three Petrarch sonnets as songs in 1838 - 1839, transcribing them for piano later and retaining their lyric character. Liszt's passionate reaction to Dante's {-Inferno} is the longest piece of the set.

The third volume of Années de pèlerinage, was not written until 1877 - 1882 and was printed in Mainz in 1883. In "Angelus" are the Angelus bells that sounded in the evening while Liszt was living in Rome. Two "Threnodies" describe the immense cypresses surrounding the Villa d'Este and venture into a more advanced harmonic style than the works of the first two volumes. "Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este" (The Fountains of the Villa d'Eeste) is the best known piece of the book and depicts the very intricate waterworks in the Villa garden through active and intertwining lines. "Marche funèbre" is a lament on the death of Maximillian of Mexico while the closing "Sursum Corda" is notable for its whole-tone scales. ~ John Palmer, All Music Guide