This essay explores Liszt’s late style in order to reconstruct the context in which the composer transcribed Verdi’s Réminiscences de Boccanegra. According to Straus, the common aesthetic theory on the late style does not fully grasp the characteristic features of a composer’s final output; this point of view is compared with Liszt’s idea about the stylistic development of a composer. By focusing on the last six years of Liszt’s life and works for piano solo, some distinguishing features are exemplified by means of two works: Tarantella de Cui and the symphonic poem Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe. Close reading of these works reveals the two complementary faces of Liszt’s late style – anachronistic and prophetic. This double nature allows us to identify Liszt’s late works as an expression of Spätstil, without excluding the indomitable will, in the composer’s autumn season, to impact on his own time.