The Liebesträume were published in 1850, with the subtitle "Drei Notturnos." Each is given a poetic epigraph; for no. 3, it's by Ferdinand Freiligrath, "O lieb', o lieb', so lang du lieben kannst."
I was alerted by Joel Love (his website: link) to the striking major dominant ninth in the main theme for this well-known piece. Here it is:
Despite the doubling, this is a "bona fide" dominant ninth chord, an independent sonority whose ninth only resolves in the following chord--and takes some time doing it, too: see the dotted lines that reconnect C4 from bar 4 with the one in bar 5. In other words, in one octave or the other, C is present through a bar and a half. Note also the instruction to hold the pedal down throughout bar 4.
When the theme reappears in its more intense form--and in B major--the situation is less clear. The upper ninth, D#5, still reconnects in the following bar, but the lower one, D#4, resolves internally and rather quickly to C#4: see the dotted line.
The third time around, in E major, the ninth is emphatically present—see the first box, with G#4, 5, and 6—and now Liszt adds a ninth to the following dominant as well; that's C#5 and 6 in the second box.
Liszt certainly understood the specifics of affect and topic associated with the major dominant ninth chord around mid-century.
