This release is the 49th volume in the Naxos series of the complete works of Franz Liszt. Volume 49 features a wide-ranging selection of dance pieces. The Valses oubliées reveal a compound of wistful nostalgia and advanced harmonies while the remarkable Csárdás macabre, a characteristic Hungarian folk-dance, is full of innovative features. The effervescent Mazurka brillante is a very rare example of Liszt making original use of this Polish form, whilst simultaneously transforming it. The Grand Galop cromatique, heard here in two versions, is a bravura encore piece that the young Liszt often played in his virtuoso recitals. The works are presented on this release by Goran Filipec, recent laureate of the Granc Prix du Disque of the Ferenc Liszt Society of Budapest.

All of the pieces in this programme have a literary or artistic connection as the background to their creation. Heard here in their first version, the Consolations owe their title to a poem by Alphonse de Lamartine and include a melody that later became the first Hungarian Rhapsody. The meditative Sposalizio was inspired by a painting by Raphael, and the Ballade by Gottfried Burger’s haunting ‘Lenore.’ Victor Hugo’s Apres une lecture de Dante is used powerfully by Liszt to express damnation and hope, and the first Mephisto Waltz derived from Lenau’s ‘Faust’ depicts a dance both sinister and amorous. Born in Rijeka in 1981, Goran Filipec studied at the Ino Mirkovich Academy in Croatia, at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and the Conservatoire national superieur de musique et de danse de Paris. During his early career, he was a top prizewinner of several international piano competitions. He performs across Europe, the US, South America and Japan as a recitalist and as a soloist with leading orchestras.

Liszt's first meeting with Wagner in 1840 took place when the latter was struggling as a composer, and his transcriptions can be seen as part of a campaign to bring Wagner's work to the notice of a wider audience. These include many of Wagner's most famous dramatic moments, such as Isolde's Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde and the Wedding March from Lohengrin. The program concludes with the Solemn March to the Holy Grail from Wagner's last stage work Parsifal, Liszt's transcription of which was published in 1883, the year of Wagner's death.

This 48th release in the Naxos edition of Franz Liszt’s complete piano works complements the first two volumes of the Hungarian Rhapsodies played by Jeno Jandó (8.554480 and 8.554481) that contain Nos. 1-19, S244/R106. This recording offers the much less frequently heard original Hungarian Rhapsodies S242 from the Magyar Dalok collection, introducing themes that Liszt would re-use in the much more famous S244 volumes. Jen? Jandó is one of the most prolific artists in the history of classical music recording. He is also one of its most appreciated and admired. Jen? Jandó is a professor at the Liszt Academy Budapest.

On his debut album, the young pianist Corbyn Beisner indulges in the complexity, mysticism and passion of major piano works by Franz Liszt. Since his performing debut in 2006 playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, op. 37, Corbin Beisner (born 1988) has been active as a classical pianist throughout Europe and the United States. Notable performances have included recitals at the Conservatoire Liceu in Barcelona, Spain, the Liszt Saal at the Accademia d’Ungheria in Rome, Italy, All-Liszt recitals throughout Switzerland, including a recital in the famous “Le Troi Roi” hotel in Basel, numerous concerts in Budapest, Hungary, and performances at the Liszt Summer Piano Festival at Schloss Schillingsfürst in Schillingsfürst, Germany.In the United States, he has been invited to perform by Chopin societies in Connecticut, Texas, the Chopin Foundation in Florida, and the American Liszt Society.