La campanella

The third piece from Liszt's Grandes Études de Paganini presents an especially formidable technical challenge to performers. Based on the finale movement of Paganini's Violin Concerto in B minor, La campanella was dedicated to Clara Schumann. Liszt first had the opportunity to witness the famous violin virtuoso's playing at a concert in Paris in 1832, and it inspired the young Liszt to obsessively pursue his own music through practice and intensive study of literature and arts. As a result, Liszt composed his six ''transcendent'' études that made up the piano cycle Études d'exécution transcendante d'aprés Paganini; for a time, Liszt himself was the only one capable of performing them. In addition to the final version of the third étude, the present edition includes its earlier version in the appendix. This publication contains not only musical scores of excellent quality, but also a detailed preface in English and German as well as critical notes in English.