New Liszt Edition: Supplement volumes for series 1-2

The New Liszt Edition (NLE) was launched in 1970 in order to provide a reliable edition of the complete works of Ferenc Liszt (1811-1886). Of the planned ten series of the complete edition, grouped by genre and performing apparatus, between 1970 and 2005 Series 1 and 2, containing the definitive version of all the works for solo piano, were completed.

During these 35 years, in accordance with changes in the requirements relating to critical complete editions, the principles followed by the NLE publishers also underwent modification. Zoltán Gárdonyi and István Szelényi, who initiated the complete edition, bore in mind principally the needs of performers when they concentrated exclusively on the final version of each of Liszt's works ("Fassung letzter Hand").

Though the primary purpose of the NLE is still the publication of the final form of each work, an earlier version of many of the works, where this differed significantly from the final form, has been included in the appendices to the volumes, especially in the second series.

The NLE Supplement volumes which have been published from 2005 are the successors of those appendices; in making available the earlier versions, their function is to enable the reader to look into Liszt's compositional workshop and to provide an opportunity for pianists and musicologists alike to form a closer acquaintance with Liszt the creative artist. Publication of the Supplement volumes is also justified and supported by the quantitatively and qualitatively significant achievements of Liszt philology in recent decades in the field of research into sources. These findings are, as always, fully taken into account and utilized by the NLE editors in preparing the Supplement volumes for publication.

The main aim of the editors, Adrienne Kaczmarczyk and Imre Mező in compiling the Supplement volumes has been - as befits the complete edition of an oeuvre - to make accessible here, in the case of every solo piano work, the earlier versions published at the time by the composer or others. In addition, they have included in them complete, fully worked out compositions and earlier versions surviving in manuscript form which are of indubitable musical value and thus may find a place in the concert repertoire.

Finally, the appendices to the planned volumes will also contain some fragments of interest chiefly to musicologists. Since some of these have been issued on recordings (e.g. Leslie Howard's complete set of recordings of Liszt's piano oeuvre), respect for the composer and the interest shown by pianists justify publication of Liszt's original. Though the magnitude of Liszt's piano oeuvre is such that it is impossible to publish every sketch and draft of each individual work, by publishing the compositions that have survived in manuscript the Supplement volumes make it easier for researchers also to survey and study his oeuvre.