LDV90

16 LYAPUNOV • 12 ÉTUDES D’EXÉCUTION TRANSCENDANTE Lyapunov revered Liszt; he dedicated his Études to him ‘in spirit’, designating them as ‘d’exécution transcendante’ like the equivalent collection of his prestigious elder. Some of these études seem to be veritable reproductions of specific pieces by Liszt, sometimes to the point of pastiche: Carillon (inspired by Liszt’s Harmonies du soir ), Harpes éoliennes ( Chasse-Neige ), Rondes des sylphes ( Feux-Follets ), Nuit d’été ( Ricordanza ); not to mention the concluding Élégie , ‘en mémoire de François Liszt’, consciously composed in the Hungarian style! In what sense do you think they are genuinely ‘transcendental’? Is it, as with Liszt, because of they way they rise, poetically and almost spiritually, above the element of technique? Lyapunov’s cycle is in fact more than a tribute – it is an extension of Liszt’s cycle. We know that the latter had originally planned a set of twenty-four études, covering all the major and minor keys. In the end he wrote only twelve. It was this unfinished edifice that Lyapunov sought to complete, taking possession of the missing keys and picking up where Liszt had left off.