Description
The piano studies, fully worked out in the summer of 1848 but presumably sketched earlier, were published in the German original edition at the beginning of 1849 with only the numbering 1-3. However, in the first French edition released later that year, they were given the new title "Trois Caprices poétiques" - possibly at the publisher's request - and also received the characteristic individual titles "Il lamento", "La leggierezza" and "Un sospiro", which have endured for these still-popular pieces. Compared to the early studies where the focus was on technical performance, these compositions place the idea of poetic sound at the forefront, clearly written for concert performance. For this revised version, the team had access to several newly-discovered or newly-available sources, including the autograph that served as the engraver's copy.
