LISZT Songs, Vol. III: Un cycle imaginaire / Daniel Heide, Katharina Konradi | Deutsche Grammophon

Soprano Katharina Konradi and pianist Daniel Heide release their new album, the third volume of their complete recordings of Liszt’s art songs. 

Since Liszt was one of the few Central European composers of his time who had mastered the French language in addition to German, the project is exclusively devoted to vocal settings of poems in French. 

Heide says: “Liszt’s songs have been handed down to us in several variants and versions. Thus, in this third volume, we once more had to decide whether to select one ‘definitive’ version or offer our listeners the enriching occasion to hear several alternatives. We decided to create an imaginary song cycle of Victor Hugo settings. Admittedly, Liszt never wrote concept-oriented song cycles like those of Schubert or Schumann, but we chose to combine all of his Hugo settings (excepting Gastibelza) in a collage-like succession.”