In the second volume, Italie, published in 1858, of the three-part Années de pèlerinage the great names of Italian art and poetry occupy centre stage. Among these was also Petrarch and his collection of sonnets to the beloved Laura, who was however unattainable for the poet. Liszt selected three poems as ideal models for numbers 4–6 in his Italian volume. The second of his three Petrarch sonnets alternates in musical expression between enthusiasm and melancholy, between passion and gloom. It thu...