Abstract

Franz Liszt’s contributions to nineteenth-century art song are often overlooked in light of his contemporaries’ works. As one of the most influential and widely discussed musicians of the romantic era, it is astonishing that his sizable body of 127 songs remains unknown. Several performers have worked to correct this unfortunate situation, producing admirable recordings in hopes of gaining Liszt recognition as a lieder composer. Despite their efforts, Liszt’s songs remain a tangent in musical activities of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. To mitigate this situation, I present the first discography of Liszt’s songs to call attention to their artistic merit and to highlight the opportunities they present musicians.

In this article, I present important information pertaining to Liszt’s song oeuvre to give readers some context for evaluating trends in recording. Awareness of the issues these works present for musicians is vital to understand the significance of a detailed discography. Moreover, musicians can benefit from this catalog since it addresses specific works that merit further attention. Lastly, I provide a summary of those recordings that are essential for any library or musician to obtain if they wish to own a near-complete audio collection of Liszt’s entire oeuvre.

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