Volume I of Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage, entitled Suisse, is based on impressions he gathered during an extended sojourn in Switzerland in 1835/36. The most important piece of the collection, first published in 1841, is undoubtedly Vallée d’Obermann, which offers a vast richness of melodic, harmonic and rhythmic variations on the basis of two contrasting themes.

The technically and artistically demanding composition owes its title not to a scenic valley in Switzerland, but to the epistolary ...