cover image An: Lettres D'Un Bachelier Es Musique, 1835-1841

An: Lettres D'Un Bachelier Es Musique, 1835-1841

Franz Liszt. University of Chicago Press, $42 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-226-48510-2

Previously unpublished in English, these 16 essays describe the places, people and intellectual life Franz Liszt encountered during his six years of wandering as a concert pianist in Western Europe. Addressed to George Sand, Heinrich Heine and Hector Berlioz, among others, and basically concerned with Liszt's own role as an artist, some of the pieces are confessional, a few are musical reports, others contain high-minded insights into the nature of art and genius. Like Liszt's musical compositions of that period, the letters are full of extravagance and hyperbole. Suttoni annotates each essay, includes the letters from Sand, Heine and Berlioz that elicited Liszt's replies and addresses the controversy attached to the authorship of these letters by concluding that the writing consists of Liszt's philosophy, substance and ideas expressed in the words of his mistress, Marie d'Agoult. Illustrations not seen by PW. (July)