Reinbert de Leeuw - Franz Liszt The Final Years (Remastered) (1978/2025) [Official Digital Download]

“Franz Liszt - The Final Years” features pianist Reinbert de Leeuw in a program of the composer’s late works for piano solo, recorded in 1978.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was revered in his own time as a true devil's advocate, whose virtuoso piano playing set many a woman's heart racing. But above all, he was an innovator, whose ambition was to ‘hurl a spear into the infinite space of the future’. The Concertzender highlights Franz Liszt's life and work for two hours on Wednesday 2 December. At 20.00, Mathieu Heinrichs zooms in on his relationship with Clara and Robert Schumann, and from 21.00-22.00 in Panorama de Leeuw I focus on Liszt's late creative period.

Although Franz Liszt was born in Hungary, he spoke German. His father was steward at the court of the noble Esterházy family, where Joseph Haydn had been Kapellmeister for 30 years. Their castle was in western Hungary, in an area where German was mainly spoken, as was the case at Franz's primary school. After World War I, the area was assigned to Austria as ‘Burgenland’. But although Liszt would never learn to speak Hungarian, he was an ardent patriot, opposing Austrian rule and drawing inspiration from Hungarian folk music. Sometimes he even appeared on stage in Hungarian costume.

His father Adam was a deserving amateur pianist, who had attended Haydn's concerts and also got to know him personally. Once, when he played a piano concerto by Ferdinand Ries, little Franz sang the melodies flawlessly, upon which Adam decided to give him piano lessons. The boy took off like a rocket and from the age of nine performed for audiences, standing out not only for his amazing mastery of music by composers such as Bach and Mozart, but also for his talent for improvisation. Thus, the Pressburger Zeitung wrote in 1920: ‘His playing exceeds admiration and justifies the very highest expectations.’

TRACKLIST

1. Reinbert de Leeuw - Liszt: Vier Kleine Klavierstücke
2. Reinbert de Leeuw - Liszt: 5 Kleine Klavierstücke, S.192: No. 5, Sospiri. Andante
3. Reinbert de Leeuw - Liszt: Bagatelle sans tonalité, S. 216a
4. Reinbert de Leeuw - Liszt: Wiegenlied. Chant du berceau, S. 198
5. Reinbert de Leeuw - Liszt: Nuages gris, S. 199
6. Reinbert de Leeuw - Liszt: Abschied (Russisches Volkslied), S. 251
7. Reinbert de Leeuw - Liszt: La lugubre gondola I, S. 200 No. 1
8. Reinbert de Leeuw - Liszt: La lugubre gondola II, S. 200 No. 2
9. Reinbert de Leeuw - Liszt: R.W. – Venezia, S. 201 (Homage to Richard Wagner)
10. Reinbert de Leeuw - Liszt: Unstern! (Sinistre), S. 208



Thanks to the Original customer.