Piano Versions of His Own Works I (I/15)

Volumes I/15-17 of the New Liszt Edition contain versions for piano of works by Liszt written for other instruments or for voices. The piano transcription was often written at the same time as the version for different performance forces. Several of the pieces in volume 15 were here published in print for the first time: the Marche héroique pour piano, the Notturno No. 2 (version 1) and the supplements to the Mephisto Waltz No. 1. The basis for many piano versions is a song or choral movement that Liszt composed to poems by contemporary poets (e.g. Rückert, Heine, Ludwig Uhland, Ferdinand Freiligrath). Most often, Liszt would write the entire text or certain verses of the poems into the piano music too.

As far as possible, the pieces are given in chronological order. In footnotes, as well as editorial comments we give the performance indications Liszt wrote for August Göllerich in 1884-86, when he took piano lessons from the composer.

As customary, there are two versions of the publication: a blue clothbound edition and a grey softcover edition. The preface, which gives the most important information on the contents and technical details, is identical in both versions, but only the former includes an English description of the sources and a critical commentary. Both versions include facsimiles of pages from Liszt's original autograph manuscript.

Works marked by an asterisk in the Contents are published here for the first time in print.