Liszt: Russian Transcriptions

Liszt first visited Russia in April 1842 when he travelled to St. Petersburg and was so rapturously received that he returned the following year. His last tour came in 1847, the year of his retirement as a concert artist. During these visits he wrote transcriptions of Russian music. There is a stunning transcription derived from a march from Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila, as well as from the Polonaise from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. But he ranged widely, from a César Cui Tarantelle, and Anton Rubinstein's lovely songs to a tender and beautiful folk song called Abschied.