Hupfeld's 1921 Solophonola/Animatic catalogue lists the complete set
of Liszt's "Annees de Pelerinage", the three 'years' having 9, 10 and 7
pieces respectively (counting "Venezia e Napoli" into the second year).
There are even alternative performances of a couple of the pieces.

Twelve of the rolls are played by Gottfried Galston, these being
sequentially numbered in the 73-note Solophonola version.  Number 53773
isn't listed in the June 1925 catalogue as having a Triphonola version.

In some 15 years of looking for any make of roll of these pieces, I've
turned up two of the first year, seven of the second year, and none
whatsoever of the last year, so they can't have been that hot a seller!

That probably explains why no other company bothered issuing more than
a handful of titles, all the more reason to respect Hupfeld and their
determination to offer such a definitive catalogue.  Perhaps their
addiction to heavy music came from that linguistically-close encounter
with an 80-ton recording device in 1904?

As for the inspiration behind the music:  Humphrey Searle's standard
reference book, "The music of Liszt" (available from Dover), tells us
that Etienne Pivert de Senancour, the author of "Obermann" (two n's)
was the dedicatee of "Vallee d'Obermann", the original music carrying
a long quotation from the book.

The inspiration for the whole of "Annees de Pelerinage" is generally
said to be Comtesse Marie d'Agoult, because she thought Liszt should
dedicate himself to composition and the study of nature, and was the
reason he'd eloped to Geneva in the first place.  As the Naxos CD notes
say, labelling the years spent with her as a pilgrimage was hardly
a flattering action by Liszt!

So, put me next on the lis(z)t for those spare copies of "Vallee
d'Obermann", and "Les jeux d'eau a la Villa d'Este".

Julian Dyer

 [ That explains the program notes by Ksenia Nosikova, the Russian
 [ lady pianist.  Comtesse d'Agoult was omitted from the full story
 [ and all that remained was Obermann.  The countess might be upset
 [ over the omission but, if his motivation wasn't the fun of retracing
 [ Obermann's travels through the Alps, I surely can't imagine Franz
 [ Liszt being towed around by a girlfriend, unless she was paying
 [ all the expenses of the "pilgrimage"!  ;-)  -- Robbie