Album Leaves are minor compositions, often for Piano that composers originally used to dedicate to friends or admirers to be inserted into music albums or autograph books, not necessarily intended for publication. They tend to be short and not too demanding technically.
Ralph Sauer has arranged Wagner's two Leaves for Euphonum and Piano in bass clef.
Number 1 is a piano work from 1875 dedicated to Frau Betty Schott the wife of music publisher Franz Schott.
Number 2, also a piano work, is an early opus from 1840 and is dedicated to the Paris based German painter Ernst Benedikt Kietz, a big fan of Wagner, who helped support the young composer during his lean years in Paris.
Both "leaves" are lyrical, giving the performer a true taste of the master.
