LDV16

20 EXTASE MAXIMA After speaking about the genesis of your disc, let’s come back in more detail to each of its components, and first of all to Liszt’s fantasia on one of Wagner’s first works for the operatic stage, Rienzi . W. L.:What I liked about thiswork is that it isn’t really conceived as a virtuoso piece, even though certain passages obviously do require virtuosity; it’s very different from many other Liszt transcriptions. Its somewhat monumental character appealed to me. Now we come to the Fantasia in F sharp minor: what difficulties does this little-known work of Wagner’s youth present? W. L.: It’s a truly amazing piece: early signs of the composer’s future evolution coexist with rather clumsy things, as in the central part, Adagio molto e cantabile, which reminds me of Mozart. The Fantasia is by nomeans an unproblematic work: the textures are quite bare and there are few dynamic marks. The performer must find themeans to ‘transcend’ the work, to give it meaning.When I first sight-read it I sensed that it contained many interesting elements, but I needed time to bring it tomaturity, to determine the phrasing (there aren’t many indications there either), to work on the colouring. It’s very vividmusic, which takes on its full significance in this programme; it acquires its raison d’être in relation to the other pieces.