Franz Liszt

Pieces for Violoncello

Not many people know that Franz Liszt arranged some of his piano pieces for the cello, with piano accompaniment, and that these versions of the works appeared in print during the maestro's lifetime. Árpád Pejtsik selected two of these for this volume compiled to mark Liszt's jubilee: Elegies I and II. The other compositions by Liszt that appear in the collection were likewise originally works for piano: the Ave Maria and Cantique d'amour (pieces from the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses cycle) were transcribed by a pupil of Liszt, Robert Pflughaupt the cello version, transposed into G major, of the E Major Consolation is by Jules de Swert, solo cellist in the Weimar orchestraof those days that of the Angelus (the opening piece in Volume 3 of the cycle entitled Years of Pilgrimage) is by Lothar Windsperger, a German composer who lived at the turn of the 19th-20th century. The Valse oubliée No. 1 was transcribed by Liszt s virtuoso piano pupil Ferruccio Busoni Notturno, which became famous as the third piece in the Liebesträume series, is a transposed version of the original song ( O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst) made by the editor of this volume.