The Consolations are a set of six solo piano works composed by Franz Liszt. Similar to the nocturne style, these pieces were written in they keys of E major (usually reserved by Liszt for religious themes) and Eb major. There exist two versions of the Consolations: the first (S.171a) was composed by Liszt between 1844-9, and the second version (S.172) was composed between 1849-50. The first version was published in 1992 by G. Henle Verlag. The second version was first published in 1850 by Breitkopf & Härtel, this being the most popular. The source of the title Consolations may have been Lamartine’s poem Une larme, ou Consolation (Liszt had already written music titled after Lamartine's work); another possible inspiration for the title are the Consolations of the French literary historian Charles Saint Beuve. The Consolations are also referred to by the title Six Pensées poétiques (Six poetic thoughts). This title was used in a 1850 version published in Paris.
