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VANESSAWAGNER 17 Why did you choosemore specifically to performthe Harmonies poétiques et religieuses ? I started playing some of the Harmonies in concert, to accompany Via Crucis . Every time I was struck by the recurrent alternation of two moods: grandiose, grandiloquent, sometimes even ecstatic exaltation on the one hand, and contemplation, an almost meditative form of intimacy on the other. It’s this intertwining of emotions that I find so magnificent. The beginning of Pensée des morts , for example, opens with a tortuous progression through the lowest notes of the piano, which leads to a religious, liturgy-like section, and the piece ends with a finale of absolutely incredible lyricism and eloquence! It’s a real initiatory journey, which runs the gamut fromextreme austerity to supreme ecstasy. I played these pieces a fair number of times before I recorded them. It’s music that requires a long period of maturation, because, over and above virtuosity, it demands an inner development on the part of the interpreter, an almost philosophical voyage of introspection. Did you feel the need to immerse yourself in the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses of Lamartine, which inspired Liszt? I read those poems when I was younger, and I adored them. I reread them when I beganwork on Liszt’s cycle, but I quickly distancedmyself from them. They seemed a little too lyrical, too ‘adolescent’ to me. In my eyes, Liszt’s music far surpassed the poetic source of his inspiration.