Franz Liszt

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Années de Pèlerinage, Première Année – Suisse
Les Jeux d’Eau à la Villa d’Este (aus Années de Pèlerinage – Troisième Année)
Performed on Richard Wagner‘s 1876 Steinway in Haus Wahnfried, Bayreuth
Tomas Dratva, piano

I miss the piano like I miss a beloved woman; I miss it profoundly; I have not been able to make music since it is gone. These were Wagner’s words in March 1879, when he had to do without the instrument with the serial number 34304 that had been given to him by the New York piano builders. This instrument is maintained to this very day in mint condition in Haus Wahnfried in Bayreuth. Franz Liszt was among the signifi cant pianists who regularly played on this instrument during visits and private concert recitals.
For his new CD, Tomas Dratva searched through original source material in the double sense of the word: In the St. Petersburg Siloti Archive, he studied the autograph of Liszt’s “Années de Pèlerinage”, which shows distinct departures from later printed editions. To make this textual authenticity resound, he decided to record the work on the Wagner Steinway in the Haus Wahnfried. The mutual interplay between instrument and interpretation is elucidated in detail in the CD booklet.