Literature was perhaps the most important of the many sources of inspiration that Liszt drew on for his symphonic poems. The first in a series of concerts by Edit Klukon and Dezső Ránki presents some of Liszt’s individual and characteristic musical reflections on centuries of European literature, from Tasso through Goethe and Byron to Victor Hugo.
“We always felt close to Liszt’s music and personality, his works have been one of the cornerstones of our joint music-making, which we began almost four decades ago. We kept four-handed arrangements of some of the symphonic poems on our repertoire from the start, but it was only recently that we decided to learn all of them. When composing the orchestral versions, Liszt always created extracts for two pianos. The four-handed versions, however, were made years later, often 15 to 20 years later, with lots of changes, and they’re wonderful piano pieces. It is very challenging, uplifting and gratifying to play these versions, which the public are mostly unfamiliar with.” (Edit Klukon, Dezső Ránki)