Franz Liszt: Works for Orchestra
Orchestre du Gewandhaus de Leipzig
Kurt Masur
EMI Classics 7243 5 74521 2 0
(5 Disc Set)

reviewed by Christopher Coleman
for RTHK Radio 4

CD 3 Track 3: Beginning to 3:36 (fade out)

We’ve just heard the opening of Franz Liszt’s eleventh symphonic poem, The Battle of the Huns. This collection of 5 CDs from EMI Classics contains all of Liszt’s orchestral music--his thirteen symphonic poems plus his two symphonies and Two Episodes from Faust. Although Liszt is often described as the father of the symphonic poem, only a few of his orchestral pieces have become part of the standard repertoire; most notably Les Preludes and the Faust Symphony. That EMI has brought together all of his orchestral work is good news for Liszt-ophiles; but the rest of us may want to pause before purchasing this collection. There is a reason that many of these pieces are not often performed, and that is that they don’t fully appeal to modern tastes. Although every piece has truly dramatic moments, they strike many listeners as far too long for rather basic material. Lets listen to the opening of Heroide funebre (A Hero’s Funeral), Liszt’s eighth symphonic poem, a piece which would make a very nice work at 9 minutes but which Liszt extends to seventeen, and consequentially reduces the material to the pedestrian and predictable. Richard Wagner worked with the same ideas earlier and so much more effectively in Siegfried’s Funeral Music from his Ring cycle. Fear not, though, we will hear only the first two and a half minutes.

CD 2 Track 4: beginning--2:26 (fade out quickly)

 Franz Liszt’s symphonic poem A Hero’s Funeral. These pieces, like Anton Bruckner’s symphonies, are definitely music from a time when attention spans were not shaped by television and live performance was the only way to hear music. Repetition was a necessary formal device to enable the audience member to know the themes, and Liszt embraced it fully. Today’s listeners may well find themselves thinking "Oh, no, not again!" and wishing that the composer had not missed so many good opportunities to end the piece well before its actual demise. And at over 6 hours, this CD set is probably more Liszt than most of us really need. It certainly exceeds the recommended daily allowance.

Most successful is Liszt’s Faust Symphony, which is superior not only in the development of its material, but in the very choice of the material itself. Here is the beginning of the first movement, a musical portrayal of Faust himself. The Faust theme, heard repeatedly at the beginning, contains all twelve notes of the chromatic scale in a series of descending augmented chords, and is clearly a more sophisticated idea than the simple elements of much of his other orchestral music.

CD 4 Track 4: beginning--2:46

 The Faust story was one that fascinated Liszt and he was at his most inspired in his many interpretations of it, including the Mephisto Waltzes. Also of great interest to him was Dante’s Divine Comedy, to which he turned for subject matter for his only other symphony. Both stories, of course, are about quests for meaning and redemption, and this metaphysical search brought out Liszt’s best work. (Notably it is also the subject of his most famous tone poem, Les Preludes.) Here is Liszt at his most transcendental, in the conclusion to the Purgatorio movement of his Dante Symphony, for orchestra and women’s chorus.

CD 5 Track 4: 18:30 (fade in)--22:49 (end)

 But as beautiful as that is, I must qualify my recommendation of this set. I doubt most listeners will find the majority of pieces completely to their taste, and one doesn’t need to purchase 5 CDs to hear Les Preludes and the Faust and Dante Symphonies. The Two Episodes from Faust is a rarely recorded gem, but not worth the purchase of the whole. Furthermore, some of the performances of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra led by Kurt Masur are not what they should be. Curiously, the entire first CD (the one containing Les Preludes, in fact) is indifferently played, and tempi are often too slow. A manufacturing or production flaw in my copy of this CD makes it stick in several places and is simply inexcusable. The other four CDs are performed beautifully and contain no playback problems. Finally, the program notes are very short (only two and a half pages for over 6 hours of music) and in French only. Having now questioned the quality of the package, let me end by balancing my remarks with Liszt’s music. Here is the very appealing opening of Hungaria, his 9th Symphonic Poem.

CD 3 Track 1: beginning to as long as necessary

Recorded for broadcast on RTHK Radio 4, Tuesday, January 15, 2002.

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