Liszt – Les Jeux d’Eau à la Villa d’Este – Grimaud, Piano
Les Jeux d’Eau à la Villa d’Este (The Fountains of the Villa d’Este) is the fourth piece from Franz Liszt‘s Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) troisième année (third year). Written in F-Sharp Major, it was composed in 1877. Over the music, Liszt placed the inscription, “Sed aqua quam ego dabo ei, fiet in eo fons aquae salientis in vitam aeternam” (“But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life,” from the Gospel of John). The Villa d’Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. – Hélène Grimaud
