These six little piano pieces are among Liszt’s best-known works and are comparatively easy to play – a rarity amongst the composer’s often eccentric and virtuosic works. In 1844 Liszt had already begun work on the cycle that was only published in 1850. Although he had the pieces engraved, this version was never actually printed. He replaced no. 3, a precursor to the first Hungarian Rhapsody, with a piece in the style of a nocturne by Chopin (it can occasionally be heard as an encore at piano recitals), and he simplified the remaining numbers. In the second part of our edition we have reproduced the complete early version for the first time.
G. Henle Publishers stands for Urtext sheet music of the highest quality. The Urtext editions not only provide the undistorted and authoritative musical text but are also aesthetically pleasing, optimised for practical use and extremely durable. And then there is the strong, distinctive blue profile: (almost) all of the Urtext editions are bound in the characteristic blue cardboard.
Musicians trust Henle's blue Urtext editions because they:
- provide an undistorted, reliable and authoritative musical text
- offer superb, aesthetically appealing music engraving
- are optimised for practical use (page turns, fingerings)
- are of high quality and durable (cover, paper, binding)
- contain a short preface that introduces the work (particularly useful for AMEB exams) in German, English and French, as well as explanatory footnotes for particularly interesting passages in the score
- contain a description of the sources, an evaluation of the sources, readings and a documentation of the corrections made (= "Critical Report") in German and English, and often also in French