{"id":5581,"date":"2026-09-12T16:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/?p=5581"},"modified":"2026-09-12T16:02:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T14:02:05","slug":"franz-liszt-and-marie-dagoult-two-years-of-love-from-which-the-second-volume-of-the-years-of-pilgrimage-was-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/franz-liszt-and-marie-dagoult-two-years-of-love-from-which-the-second-volume-of-the-years-of-pilgrimage-was-born\/","title":{"rendered":"Franz Liszt and Marie d\u2019Agoult. Two years of love&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sunny Italy became home to two lovers \u2013 <strong>Franz Liszt and Marie d\u2019Agoult <\/strong>\u2013 between 1837 and 1839. Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, Milan \u2013 it was in all these places that Liszt found inspiration during that time for the second volume of his piano cycle <em>Years of Pilgrimage<\/em>. Whilst the final part <em>Fantasia quasi sonata \u201cApr\u00e8s une lecture du Dante\u201d<\/em> was loosely inspired by <em>The Divine Comedy<\/em>, the opening two movements draw on the art of Raffael Santi and Michelangelo Buonarroti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"text-image text-image--right\">\n    <div class=\"container\">\n        <div class=\"text-image__wrapper text-image__wrapper--right\">\n                            <div class=\"text-image__content\">\n                    <p>The mood of the first movement<em>, Sposalizio<\/em> (The Wedding), was inspired by the soft light in Raffael Santi\u2019s painting <em>The Marriage of the Virgin<\/em>. All the elements in this painting are arranged in mathematically precise proportions to one another, organised according to a clear hierarchy, and with such precision that experts speculate as to the existence of a wooden model.<\/p>\n                                    <\/div>\n                                        <div class=\"text-image__image-wrapper\">\n                                            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Raffaello_Spozalizio.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"text-image__image\">\n                                        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"text-image text-image--left\">\n    <div class=\"container\">\n        <div class=\"text-image__wrapper text-image__wrapper--left\">\n                            <div class=\"text-image__content\">\n                    <p>The second part, <em>Il Penseroso<\/em> (The Thinker), is inspired by Michelangelo Buonarroti\u2019s sculpture <em>La Notte<\/em> (The Night), which adorns the Medici tomb in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence. The statue that looks as if it is sleeping, gained fame not only for its beauty but also thanks to an ode by the Florentine nobleman Giovanbattista Strozzi (1504\u20131571), in which he urges it to awaken:<\/p>\n<p>Night in so sweet an attitude beheld<br \/>\nAsleep, was by an angel sculptured<br \/>\nIn this stone; and sleeping, is alive;<br \/>\nWaken her, doubter; she will speak to thee.<\/p>\n<p>Michelangelo accepted this \u201cliterary challenge\u201d and replied to Strozzi in verse as well:<\/p>\n<p>Sweet is my sleep, but more to be mere stone,<br \/>\nSo long as ruin and dishonour reign;<br \/>\nTo bear nought, to feel nought, is my great gain;<br \/>\nThen wake me not, speak in an undertone!<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t miss the captivating <em>Years of Pilgrimage<\/em>, performed by the outstanding young Austrian pianist Lukas Sternath! <a href=\"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/programme\/lukas-sternath-5-11-2026\/\">5 November at the Rudolfinum<\/a>.<\/p>\n                                    <\/div>\n                                        <div class=\"text-image__image-wrapper\">\n                                            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Michelangelo_La-notte.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"text-image__image\">\n                                        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sunny Italy became home to two lovers \u2013 Franz Liszt and Marie d\u2019Agoult \u2013 between 1837 and 1839. Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples, Milan \u2013 it was in all these places&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5581"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5587,"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5581\/revisions\/5587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firkusny.cz\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}