LDV100

26 LISZT | ONCE UPON A TIME Did you conceive of a common thread between the four Études d’exécution transcendante and Vallée d’Obermann , which accompany the Sonata in B minor? I didn’t want to create a common thread between the pieces. I chose Vallée d’Obermann because in my view it’s the most successful piece in the Première Année de Pèlerinage . Liszt concentrates into a quarter of an hour everything that he was later to develop in the B minor Sonata. It’s a narrative work, but it’s not of huge significance whether or not one has read Senancour’s novel Oberman or Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage , two works that inspired the composer. Even more than the Sonata, Vallée d’Obermann is an ideal entry point into Liszt’s world. According to his pupils, he always asked that while playing, one should give the impression of speaking, of telling a story, something I often require of my pupils.