Isoldens Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (Richard Wagner)

The epochal piano virtuoso Liszt made numerous transcriptions for his instrument of works by other composers – Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, a key nineteenth century work, naturally numbered amongst them. His congenial rendition of the famous closing scene (Mild und leise, wie er lächelt) for the piano is, incidentally, the source of the title that we are so familiar with today, Isoldens Liebestod (Isolde’s Love Death) – Wagner himself only spoke of Isolde’s transfiguration. Henle has now published Liszt’s sophisticated – but not impossibly difficult – piano setting in the finest Urtext quality, including the original fingerings by the master of the piano. The text of this final scene can be found in an appendix within the edition.