Free Arrangements I

Series II of the New Liszt Edition gives Liszt's free arrangements and transcriptions for the piano. The volume 1 of series II contains works by the young Liszt, of which the earliest, the Variation über einen Walzer von Diabelli, is probably from 1822. The variation was written to a request by Diabelli, and 49 other composers already famous at the time took part in it. For the 11-year-old Liszt it was a great honour that his name should feature in a collection alongside musicians such as Schubert, Czerny, and Moscheles. The Zwei ungarische Werbungstänze are based on works by László Fáy and János Bihari respectively. This piece, completed in 1828, can be considered Liszt's first Hungarian piece. In addition, the volume contains works based on opera themes (Rossini, Spontini, Auber, Halévy, and Méhul), and fantasies based on themes from Rossini's song cycle Soirées musicales, Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and the third movement of Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 ('La Campanella').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.