Années de pèlerinage (‘Years of Pilgrimage’) is without parallel in the Romantic piano literature. Begun when Liszt was 22 years old, the last of this mighty series of 26 pieces, close to three hours of music, was published when he was 72. Its interpretative challenges are as varied as they are formidable and, not surprisingly, relatively few pianists have recorded the cycle in its entirety. The latest to do so is the French pianist Roger Muraro. Those unfamiliar with his 2010 recording of the Berlioz-Liszt Symphonie fantastique (Decca) will likely be astonished.

The Swiss année fairly breathes poetry. Pieces such as ‘Chapelle de Guillaume Tell’ or ‘Orage’, with its legato octaves and bar-long crescendos, almost palpably conjure the Alpine landscape with its resounding echoes among snow-capped peaks. Muraro creates a sense of sparkling sunlight on dancing waters in ‘Au bord d’une source’ by exquisite voice-leading and sparing use of the pedal. Elsewhere, ‘Pastorale’ and ‘Eglogue’ suggest rustic simplicity and naive humour. The gnawing nostalgia of ‘Le mal du pays’ blossoms into full-blown tragedy in ‘Vallée d’Obermann’, where the mournful melody is held aloft by chords, always subdued, yet heart-rending in their poignancy. The concluding nocturne, ‘Les cloches de Genève’, seems more dreamed than played, its suggestive sounds scarcely perceived before gradually evaporating into memory.

If the Swiss year focuses on landscapes, the first Italian année evokes works of art: painting, sculpture, song and poetry. In concept and execution, Muraro’s realisation of these pieces is perhaps even more strikingly beautiful than those of the Swiss année. In the three Petrarch Sonnets – transcriptions of Liszt’s own songs for tenor and piano – the phrases are so vividly contoured and expertly articulated that one can easily imagine them spoken. Earlier, ‘Sposalizio’ and ‘Il penseroso’ are perfectly counterpoised opposites, the first intimating sweet freshness and the second implacably stern. The ‘Dante Sonata’, as ‘Après une lecture du Dante’ is commonly known, here receives a gripping performance of infinitely variegated colours, rhetorical eloquence, perfectly gauged proportion and sheer musical imagination that seems to define the parameters of what may be expressed on the piano. Venice and Naples, the supplement to the Italian année, displays further chambers of Muraro’s technical and expressive arsenal, concluding with a dazzling ‘Tarantella’ where repeated-note pyrotechnics vie with the Trio’s melting legato.

Though the Troisième année is sometimes referred to as the Second Italian Year, no doubt due to its four Villa d’Este-related pieces, it is the most abstract of the cycle’s four volumes. Interestingly, Muraro chooses to play the first piece, ‘Angelus! Prayer to the Guardian Angels’, on the harmonium rather than the piano, an option Liszt suggests in the score. The solutions Muraro poses to the conundrum presented by the paired threnodies ‘Aux cyprès de la Villa d’Este’ I and II are as plausible as they are inherently satisfying musically. The terror and excruciating anguish embedded in ‘Sunt lacrymae rerum’ and the Funeral March for the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico are nakedly portrayed with unflinching honesty. These dark affects are mitigated by one of the most beautiful and intimate performances of ‘Les jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este’ imaginable.

This realisation of Années de pèlerinage can only be described as a career-crowning achievement. Muraro accomplishes it through his unflagging attention to the most minute details of Liszt’s score and, above all, by the disarming sincerity of his readings. Heartily recommended without reservation to all those interested in Liszt, as well as to lovers of fine, richly imaginative piano-playing.