Liszt’s incredible life and career divides quite neatly into two halves. First, he was superstar pianist and composer, touring Europe with swooning fans at his concerts – a phenomenon known as Lisztomania. Then, after several personal tragedies, he became reclusive and religious, preferring solitude and introspection to fame and adulation. This piece comes from the last decade of his life and is part of a set called Years of Pilgrimage. It was written in 1877 during a trip to Villa d’Este near Rome and it depicts the flowing water of the many fountains and water jets in the gardens. It is also one of the first pianistic depictions of water and inspired many that followed. But it is also symbolic of Liszt’s life of contemplation. He wrote on the score the biblical quote: ‘The water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life’.

_{Note by Rachel Leach}

Ravel was born in France close to the Spanish border. His Spanish mother was an amateur musician and his father was an inventor of engines and machines. The family moved to Paris when Maurice was only months old and he grew up to be one of the greatest French composers of all time. In 1901, however, he could hardly have imagined that this would be his future. He had just been expelled from the Paris Conservatoire for failing to win any composition prizes. He was 26 years old without a career or fame. His teacher, Gabriel Fauré, agreed to continue teaching him and in a blast of inspiration this piece emerged. Obviously inspired by Liszt, it also depicts water, but rather than being a description of a fountain it portrays the joyfulness, playfulness and beauty of water dancing in nature. Ravel also placed a quote on the manuscript, from a poem by his friend Henri de Regnier: ‘The river god is laughing at the water that tickles him.’

_{Note by Rachel Leach}

León is a ground-breaking Cuban-American composer. Born in Havana, her musical talent was spotted early by her grandmother who noticed how she reacted to music on the radio. Piano lessons followed from the age of four, and in 1963 she earned a BA in music. Soon after, León left Cuba as a refugee and made a new home in New York City. In 1969 she was a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem leading its music department, school and orchestra. Many of her early works were written for the company. Since then she has gained fame and many awards becoming the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in 2021. Homenatge, a Catalan word for homage or tribute, was written in 2011. It blends Cuban dance rhythms with bluesy harmonies. In a full circle moment, it was recently choreographed and performed by the Dance Theatre of Harlem, León's first professional home.

_{Note by Rachel Leach}

One of the most important Catalan musical figures of the last 50 years, Montsalvatge was born in Girona in 1912 and started his musical life with violin lessons. He then studied violin and composition at the Barcelona Conservatoire and later returned to the institution as lecturer and finally Professor of Composition in the 1970s. Alongside his composing and teaching he was an influential music critic, writing for many publications from the 1940s onwards. Montsalvatge’s music reflected many styles and influences including 12-tone serialism, Wagnerian Romanticism and polytonality (you can clearly hear the latter in this piece). He wrote music in all forms from small chamber pieces to large-scale opera. Ritmos is from 1942. It is inspired by a nostalgia for traditional social dances and features several Spanish dance hall rhythms.

_{Note by Rachel Leach}

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