Among Franz Liszt's many brilliant compositions for piano, few have been so admired and performed as the Sonata in B Minor, long considered one of the greatest piano compositions of the 19th century. A work of consummate structural ingenuity, it combines and transforms four distinctive themes in one long movement, in the free, rhapsodic development characteristic of the symphonic poem.
A great favorite of pianists and their audiences, this piano masterpiece is reprinted here from the authoritative Franz Liszt-Stiftung edition published by Breitkopf & Härtel. Included with it are a number of other well-known Liszt compositions. Among these are the six beautiful pieces entitled Consolations; all ten works in the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, including the popular "Funérailles"; the two Ballades, larger-scale works which require considerable technical prowess; and the two Légendes, "The Sermon to the Birds of St. Francis of Assisi" and "St. Francis of Paola Walking on the Waves."