The link between the two-hundredth anniversaries of their birth, in 2010 und 2011 respectively, is only therefore a superficial framework for the much closer connections that were key to the decision to make this new recording. In the booklet interview,
Lars Vogt comments: "Two geniuses are at work here who, particularly in these works, fit into absolutely no pigeonholes and obviously go beyond everything there ever has been and ever will be. The way Schumann's Fantasie positively pounces on the listener with incredible emotionality and contrasts in quick succession, and the way Liszt entirely reinvents sonata form and says things in it which actually go beyond any piece of music, because in principle they truly shake the soul to its core: I believe they have a certain kinship in their visionary quality."
A pianist of the calibre of Lars Vogt is able to put such words into action and so, with his emphatic and transparent style of playing, he reveals the composers' multi-faceted emotional lives and the structure of their music, explaining the works without making a meal of the task, and leading the listener through unique heights and depths of Romantic style.
