The two years spent with the Countess Marie d'Agoult in the quiet peace around Geneva, and the work carried out there, made Franz Liszt the composer and brilliant pianist who would later dazzle entire Europe. In 1838, at the age of twenty-seven, he decided that it was time to embark on the proverbial pilgrimage to Italy and set out there with his inseparable Marie. In Milan he performed at La Scala with a repertoire made up entirely of Beethoven's sonatas, thus inaugurating the monographic recitals, dedicated to a single composer. But the Milanese public was not prepared. They would have listened delightfully to fantasies about Bellini or Donizetti, but not to the Bonn maestro yet. He had died eleven years ago but his music still did not arise admiration of a common audience.
Settled in Rome
So on this first visit to Italy, Liszt was far from provoking the enthusiasm in the audience that would soon be the norm. However, the trip in the company of Marie bore fruit in another sense: Italy, its landscapes and its culture exerted a great attraction on the couple, and at the beginning of 1839, with their two little daughters, Blandine and Cosima, they settled in Rome. They stayed there for ten months, soaking up Italian art and receiving the birth of their third child, a boy.
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| Marie d'Agoult (1805 - 1876) |
Rome became the center of the musician's operations and from there he undertook tours to practically all European cities. When she was not traveling with him, Marie, a faithful lover, would wait for him longingly and upon his return she would lavish her love without measure, until she learned that there was no tour in which her beloved did not run into a love affair. Franz's indefatigable conduct, sustained for years, eventually led to the couple's breakup in 1844.
Years of pilgrimage
Années de Pelerinage is a set of three piano suites composed by Franz Liszt over a long period, approximately between 1837 and 1877. Franz captured in them the fascination that the landscapes and personal stories experienced in his continuous travels aroused in him. The second suite, entitled "Italia", incorporates revisions of the Tri sonetti del Petrarca, composed around 1839-1846, this time not inspired by landscapes but by reading the sonnets of the Italian poet.
The piece inspired by Sonnet 104 is presented here, performed by pianist Anna Fedorova, born in Kiev, Ukraine, just 23 years ago. (The quality of the video allows you to enjoy it in full screen.)
