Franz Listz wrote his orchestral work La Notte between the years 1860 and 1864, conceiving it as an extended version of Il Penseroso from the Annés de Pelerinage suites. Liszt indubitably held La Notte in his steem, as he indicated at the end of the autograph score that it should be played at his funeral. The work upon which it was based, Il Penseroso (meaning 'the thoughtful'), might be considered a work about Liszt himself, given that thoughtful was the nickname he employed when he wrote letters to Marie d'Agoult. Thus it follows that La Notte (The night) is a sort of description of Liszt's death. The work is in the key of C minor, and it is usually catalogued as S. 112/2. Even though La Notte was written for orchestra, the original version did not see the light until 1916, when it was published by Breitkopf & Härtel. The first version to be actually published was the solo piano version (S. 516a), arranged in 1866 and edited in 1883 by Schott. Further versions exist, for piano 4 hands and piano and violin duos (S. 602 and 377a respectively).
