Composed in 1834, Liszt's Grand duo is based on material from three pieces from the first book (op. 19b) of Mendelssohn's Songs without Words (no. 1 in E major, no. 6 in G minor, and no. 3 in A major).

While Liszt made an almost literal transcription of the first piece, he gave the second and third pieces a much freer arrangement, in the style of concert paraphrases. The large-scale concert piece was premiered by Liszt and Chopin on Christmas Day 1834 in a salon in Paris. The Grand duo was n...