A set of three piano studies written in 1848. Like Chopin's Etudes, they address some basic problem of piano technique within a poetic context. The three pieces were given titles in Italian The first, "Il lamento"(The Lament) is a melody elaborated and transfigured in changing moods and shapes although there is no recognizable lament. The second, "La leggierezza"(The Lightness), a slightly melancholic theme chromatically ornamented in a whirlwind of notes. The third, "Un sospiro" (A Sigh), a wonderful melody floating over dreamy arpeggios, is probably one of the most wonderful of Liszt's piano works.

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2.In F- ('La leggierezza')

The brilliance and flashy aspects of this piece, one of the Drei Konzertetüden, gradually develop as it unfolds. The work is a study, as the title suggests, of "nimbleness" and "lightness" (the word also means "fickleness" and "thoughtlessness" but these qualities cannot be convincingly said to lie in the lyrical music).

The work opens with a ten-measure introduction, marked a capriccio. This section has a meditative, semi-rubato spirit with several curious harmonic progressions. At first, a single unaccompanied line is heard mid-bass, recitative-like, and that line continues to ascend into the higher octaves. The introduction ends with a gentle, glistening cascade of unusual semi-cadences formed from chromatic inner voices, an upper line also chromatic but slightly delayed, and a lower voice in a series of cadential half-step "sighs." This is a foreshadowing of the advanced harmonic sensibility evinced throughout this étude. (Many of these harmonic possibilities may have been discovered, and then appreciated, by the composer, as a result of inevitable finger patterns that he had set into motion rather than something he had, so-to-speak, pre-heard).

Following the cascade, the solo line is heard in one more measure, gently anticipating the entrance of the main theme. The appealingly nostalgic, tarantella-like theme in 9/8 begins in a "quasi Allegretto" tempo, and is marked dolce (sweetly) and pianissimo. The bass moves downward in constant triplet arpeggios while the melody resists this motion and continues its lyrical exposition. Midway through it is interrupted by a wide skip of a minor seventh upward, played with a sharp marcato. The melody then seems to momentarily get tied up in a repeating psychological "knot" from which it escapes by climbing to the upper octave and beginning again.

The smooth line is again interrupted by an accented skip, but this time the music resolves into beautifully flowing (and a challenge to play) major sixths. The first measure of the melody then becomes the material for a series of quick modulations (A flat major to B flat minor to B minor to E major). The previous major sixth idea then becomes "locked," ascends as before to the upper ranges from which a swift chromatic scale played rinforzando tears through all the previous rich timbres like a lightning bolt that finally settles into a fast spin in the middle register.

The spinning figure, written in small un-measured quick grace notes, turns into into running chromatic sextuplets and septuplets that fly above the original theme's bass part. The passage ends with a 7/4 measure in which the running line creates a large arc "con grazia" that seems like it is going to settle down but instead soars higher. The previous passage is then repeated an octave higher.

A passage with fast broken sixths and trills is followed by beautiful Wagnerian-like modulations like the gradual brightening of light at sunrise. Even more spectacular and swift chromatically based figurations follow up to the simple Picardy third (F major) concluding cadence.

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3.In Db ('Un sospiro')

This composition is one of the composer's best-known and treasured piano pieces. It features many of Liszt's flashier keyboard gestures as well as exquisite Wagnerian-like harmonic modulations, but its most appealing aspect occurs at the opening with its pastoral melody stated in little evenly spaced staccato droplets alternately played by both hands. Each whole phrase of the melody constitutes "one sigh" made up of short "ahs" referred to by the title. The underlying arpeggios are built on the simplest of chords, the tonic (D flat) and subdominant (G flat over a pedal D flat), which lend a light romantic atmosphere to the engaging tune. Simple modulations follow and the theme is stated once more in uninvolved triplet figures.

Replacing the previous basic midway modulation, the music glides effortlessly through a splendid Wagnerian modulation, like a musical depiction of sun rising upon a landscape, from the initial D flat major to A major. The melody is not stated in a somewhat more impassioned tone, and in "sighs" with slightly longer "ahs" (staccato quarter notes instead of staccato eighth notes on each beat). The harmonization is also slightly changed so that the subdominant chord is replaced by a diminished chord, making certain melody tones have a more biting edge. The diminished-chord seriousness quickly transforms by another extended chromatic (Wagnerian) modulation, marked agitato con passionato and con forza, into a symphonic, full statement of the theme in sonorous octaves surrounded by cascading arpeggios and daring, passionate dissonances (F major to B half-diminished seventh to B flat minor diminished with a major seventh and an F pedal point). This variations ends with a descending chromatic flurry of major sixths that gradually slows and becomes calmed.

The next variation employs only the ascending part of the main theme in ascending thirds played in a "languishing" manner. The harp-like arpeggio accompaniment becomes transformed into gestures that "fly" (leggierissimo volante) toward the upper regions of the keyboard. These rotating crystalline figures hang in that area until again descending, quietly but very quickly, and re-ascending in an artificial scale made from tonal and chromatic models.

After a short pause, the next variation reiterates the melody in sustained tones surrounded by arpeggios of a different type from all the previous. These arpeggios are built not of full chords but "open" fifths and fourths which generate a kind of spreading vista feeling, like observing the vastness of the ocean.

After an angular, ascending arpeggio, the initial harmonic richness returns in harp-like figures. Instead of a recapitulation of the melody, Liszt begins an extended coda on arpeggios that slowly modulate through several keys by a specific kind of chromatic modulation that utilizes roots a minor third apart: the tonal centers proceed from D flat major to B flat major to G major to E major and back to D flat major. In later life, Liszt suggested a more Wagnerian progression (in descending major thirds) for the concluding chords.

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