The jury is still out on the question of whether the influence of the Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein upon Liszt was, as Sellars and Yeatman would put it, a ‘Good or a Bad Thing’. She was at any rate the dominant woman in the last forty years of Liszt’s life, and whilst being responsible for almost all his social and domestic difficulties over that time, her recognition that Liszt's genius as a composer was retarded by his career as a touring virtuoso was well-founded. While Liszt had contemplated abandoning his career for several years, his meeting with Carolyne was the spur that prompted him to do so. In October 1847, Liszt stayed with her at her estate in Ukraine, Woronince, celebrating his 36th birthday there; the three pieces of the Glanes de Woronince (Gleanings from Woronince) are souvenirs of his sojourn, based on folk ballads sung by the peasants there. Ballade d'Ukraine, a dumka, is the song of a jealous lover; Mélodies polonaises incorporates two melodies, one familiar from Chopin’s song Życzenie-usually known as Mädchens Wünsch (‘The Maiden's Wish’)-well known in Liszt’s piano transcription (to be honest with you, I don't know why local Ukrainian peasants would be singing foreign songs, but they are included in this collection-perhaps it may not be too wide of the mark to suggest that Liszt first heard either of these tunes at Woronince somehow!); and Complainte, another dumka, is the song of a blind girl Liszt heard on the street in Kiev. One of Liszt’s most charming and unaccountably neglected collections.
00:00 -- Ballade d'Ukraïne
08:43 -- Mélodies polonaises
13:13 -- Complainte (Dumka)