Liebestraum (Dream of Love)

The Anacrouse collection offers pianists, beginners and advanced alike, a wide choice of classical works from the Renaissance to the present day. It brings together major works of the repertoire as well as rarer pieces, and also offers transcriptions for piano solo or four hands, selected for their musical and educational interest. Each score, available individually, benefits from careful editorial work: a rigorously established musical text, clear and legible engraving, accompanied by a short biography of the composer and a note on the work.

“Liebestraum” No. 3 (in A flat major) is a work of maturity that demands great mastery of the balance of sound from the pianist. The main difficulty lies in the shaping of the melody, which travels between the two hands amid enveloping arpeggios. The technical work focuses on wrist suppleness and finger independence, in order to bring out the melody without heaviness. The pianistic cadenzas, typical of Liszt’s virtuoso style, must be approached with fluidity and elegance, like light poetic flights, so as never to break the unity of the discourse.

Composed around 1850, this third Nocturne is the most famous of the Liebesträume collection. Originally, these pieces were songs for voice and piano, based on poems by Ferdinand Freiligrath. For this nocturne, Liszt drew on a text celebrating unconditional, eternal love: “Love as long as you can love!”. By transcribing his songs for solo piano himself, Liszt transcended the text to create a work of universal emotional intensity, blending religious fervour with Romantic passion.