Liszt’s complete musical works were first published by the Franz Liszt Foundation, created in 1887 at the instigation of Carl Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. With the 34 volumes of Musikalische Werke Franz Liszts published by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig between 1907 and 1936, one-third of the composer’s oeuvre became accessible in a quality edition.

The New Edition of the Complete Works of Ferenc Liszt (NLE) was launched in 1970 by Editio Musica Budapest. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences entrusted Zoltán Gárdonyi with the preparation of the new edition, and he proposed a critical edition encompassing the entire oeuvre, bearing in mind the requirements of musicology and musical practice. This made it necessary to republish works that had already appeared as part of the old complete edition. The New Liszt Edition comprises ten series according to genre and a series of supplementary volumes launched in 2005:

I          Works for piano solo

II         Free arrangements and transcriptions for piano solo

III        Works and arrangements for piano duet and two pianos

IV        Works and arrangements for several instruments

V         Works and arrangements for organ, and organ with other instruments

VI        Orchestral works

VII      Works for piano and orchestra

VIII     Vocal works with piano

IX        Vocal works with orchestra or with several instruments

X         A cappella choral works

Supplementary volumes

Series I was edited from 1970 to 1973 by Zoltán Gárdonyi and István Szelényi (volumes 1–4), and from 1973 to 1985 by Imre Mező and Imre Sulyok (volumes 6–18), and Antal Boronkay (volume 5). In this series, with a few exceptions, only the last authentic version of the works (‘Fassung letzer Hand’) was published. Thanks to research into the sources, the series did however bring to light 41 hitherto unknown piano pieces extant in manuscript, including original works and transcriptions or earlier versions of works already known. The definitive version of Liszt’s musical works does not give an authentic and comprehensive picture of his oeuvre, because one of the most salient traits of Liszt’s creative character was his predisposition to create different versions. Moreover, as research into the sources progressed, by the end of the twentieth century it became clear that the last version of a work does not necessarily invalidate an earlier version: any given work may have several valid versions. In other words, the various forms of a work do not always represent a straight line of its stages of development, but can be interpreted as alternative solutions.

Thus it is easy to see that the main difficulty in preparing an edition of Liszt’s complete oeuvre is the need to publish a large number of versions and the clarification of how they are interrelated. The first step towards a solution was Series II (24 volumes) published under the leadership of Imre Mező and Imre Sulyok in 1986–2005, which alongside the definitive version, gave at least one further version that was considerably different. The series of supplementary volumes (numbering 16 volumes to date, edited by Adrienne Kaczmarczyk, Imre Mező, Eszter Mikusi and Ágnes Sas; further volumes under preparation) was launched in 2005 in order to publish the versions not included in Series I and II.

Alongside the series of supplementary volumes, volume 2 of Series IX (Vocal works with orchestra or with several instruments) was published in 2019, and 2022 saw the launch of Series III (Works and arrangements for piano duet and two pianos; one volume to date, with further volumes underway) and also Series VII (Works for piano and orchestra; one volume to date, with further volumes under preparation).

The volumes of the New Liszt Edition are published in a blue cloth-bound edition, with a detailed preface (in Series I and II in English and German; in the remaining series, also in Hungarian), with a critical commentary (in English) and many facsimiles.

The volumes of Series I and II, and the supplementary volumes, are also published in a grey softcover edition in the series Works for Piano Solo, without critical commentary. In addition, separate Urtext editions of Liszt’s most popular piano works are also available. These contain the musical text of the complete edition, with a brief preface (in English and German), a critical commentary (in English) and facsimiles.

For more information, see the webpage of the New Liszt Edition.