In 1826, when Franz Liszt was still only fifteen years old, he published a first draft, already full of promise, under the title Étude en douze exercices. In 1837, he took up this material again, “extending it in all directions, reworking it, adding here, removing there, twisting the themes, rhythms, and harmonies, increasing the complexity to the limits of his own powers; and above all, he infused them with the poetic grace they lacked. They were merely pedagogical studies; now they are (under the title Grandes études) symphonic poems for the piano, in which all technical means are required.

These means were in fact so superhuman that Liszt had to rework them again in 1851, taking care to eliminate a number of difficulties deemed superfluous and, through a better balance between form and content, to give this collection a musical clarity that it had previously lacked.

Published the following year under the title Études d’exécution transcendante, the definitive version—“more elegant, more transparent, more economical, more accurate in its aim—succeeds in eliciting an even greater effect from smoothed-out difficulties.” And the titles given to nine of the twelve pieces (“Paysage,” “Mazeppa,” “Feux follets,” “Vision,” “Eroica,” “Wilde Jagd,” “Ricordanza,” “Harmonies du soir,” and “Chasse-neige”) appropriately highlight the Romantic spirit that animates this collection, written by a musician nourished by literature and poetry.

After Emil Gilels and Sviatoslav Richter, Lazar Berman was one of the very few pianists from the U.S.S.R. permitted to perform in the West. There he became a true star in the 1970s. In 1977, his interpretation of Liszt’s Transcendental Études earned him the Franz Liszt Prize awarded in Budapest. Here we present the 1963 recording in which his technical means are, so to speak, without limit.

Enjoy your listening