Tristan Pfaff, piano - Franz Liszt, La Danza (live) video

In the nineteenth century with its fierce struggles for the independence of nations, Liszt was projected as a European, aspiring to "represent in Europe an element of intelligence, honour and talent". He wanted in fact to be the child of every nation, loving and singing of France, Italy, Germany, Hungary, not to mention Russia and Poland. The virtuoso had played all the keyboard literature and travelled the roads and seas; the thinker had nourished his intellect through his readings of Lamennais, Lamartine and Hugo, Shakespeare and Byron, Dante and Petrarch, Goethe and Schiller; the composer of songs, indebted to Italian bel canto, the French romance and the German chorale, set texts written in six languages, not counting Latin. Hesitating between pure creation and transcription, which called upon his gifts as a wizard of the keyboard throughout his lifetime, he thus paid tribute to every facet of Western art, as may be seen from this recital — or "soliloquy", to use his own expression. Recording producer: Nicolas Bartholomée. Film director: Guillaume L'Hôte. Filmed at Salle Cortot - Paris www.littletribeca.com http eboutique.harmoniamundi.com