Album insights
Although Liszt's piano music from stage productions constitutes a smaller portion of his works compared to his array of opera works, his approach to composition, elaboration, and transcriptions generally follows similar patterns. Current Liszt research, where possible to make such categorical statements, includes all of Liszt's works in this genre.
The extensive scores for stage productions written in the nineteenth century ultimately overwhelmed not just the accompanying play but also the audience's attention span. Nowadays, few would eagerly anticipate an uncut performance of Ibsen's "Peer Gynt" with Grieg's entire score, knowing it would last at least an hour longer than "Götterdämmerung." Mendelssohn's Shakespeare adaptations are also seldom performed alongside the entire play. Much of this incidental music, in the form of overtures, dances, songs, intermezzi, choral or melodramatic pieces, along with shorter fanfares, opening and closing fragments, has always led an independent existence in the concert hall. Liszt, who considered the evolution of all musical genres a sacred duty, selected numerous works that he transformed into recitative pieces.
The piano transcription of the perennially popular "Turkish March" from "The Ruins of Athens" by Beethoven has mysteriously faded from view, overshadowed in pianists' favor by Anton Rubinstein's well-known transcription. Liszt's equally intriguing version represents one of his rarest pieces. These very pages commence the score of "Capriccio alla turca," a much more expansive piece in Liszt's virtuosic style. Here, the march (No. 4 in Beethoven's score) appears in a section labeled "Andante fantastico," complete with devilish trills, followed by the chorus of dervishes (Beethoven's No. 3; also recognized from a piano transcription by Saint-Saëns). The march reappears towards the end, significantly transformed, with both themes culminating in a triumphant coda. Due to its difficulty, this Capriccio was eventually superseded by Liszt's last work derived from similar material, the "Fantasy." The Fantasy initially began as a piece for piano and orchestra but was later revised extensively, subsequently released with versions for solo piano, piano duet, and two pianos. Liszt's Fantasy commences with a transcription of the orchestral parts for march and chorus (No. 6 in Beethoven's original, later revised as Opus 124 with minor changes for the music for "The Consecration of the House"), leading to a more fantastical arrangement of the material, eventually fading into the dervish chorus. From this point, many similarities with the Capriccio are apparent, yet the mood is more subdued, with the fireworks suspended until the coda. The closing sections of the march and chorus culminate in a summarizing discourse on the other two themes.
Liszt's contribution to incidental music literature consists of only two works. The first is "Vor hundert Jahren," an overture-cum-melodrama for spoken voice and orchestra for a play by Halm (S347, still unpublished to this day). The second comprises an overture and choruses for Herder's "Prometheus Unbound," one of the works that, similar to the accompanying play's length, was too substantial for an evening's performance. Liszt eventually subjected this work to a complete revision, transforming the overture into the symphonic poem known today as "Prometheus." The symphonic poem served as an overture for the choruses, now interspersed solely with a poetic recitation by Richard Pohl to convey Herder's meaning swiftly and allow ample space for over an hour of music. Among the choral sections of the work, the pastoral Reapers' Chorus quickly gained popularity, leading Liszt to write piano and piano duet versions of it. Considering the composer's productivity, it is regrettable, albeit perhaps inevitable, that this piece has fallen into obscurity.
Liszt's notably witty interpretation of Mendelssohn's famous "Wedding March" was once a concert warhorse. Yet, it was likely the familiarity with Mendelssohn's original and the countless versions and excerpts featuring in hundreds of churches and Hollywood films that stifled interest in it. However, the thought of performing this piece alongside Liszt's diabolical rendition of the Introduction to Act III and Wedding March from "Lohengrin" at a wedding still fills the author with great joy. Initially giving Mendelssohn's work a ghostly, almost satirical introduction, followed by a lighter version of the main theme before delving deeply into the piece, Liszt varied the main section upon each recurrence. While Mendelssohn's first intermezzo is faithfully adapted, the F major section with its flowing theme eventually ventures into very strange harmonic waters, paving the way for the interpolation of the Elfin Dance. Reluctant to part with the elfin music, Liszt allows it to infiltrate the return of the march before the triumphant coda treats the transcription as a triumphal procession.
Liszt's execution of three works by the Danish composer Edouard Lassen deserves special attention. Lassen (1830–1904) assumed the position of Kapellmeister at the Weimar court from Liszt in 1858 and held this post until 1895. In addition to the works presented here, Liszt penned transcriptions of two of Lassen's songs. Lassen greatly admired Liszt and Wagner (a fact evident in his music), responsible for several chamber music versions of Liszt's later works that have come down to us as Liszt's own works because he utilized Lassen's versions as the basis for his own revisions. Sadly, Lassen now represents a mere footnote in music history, with his works rarely printed or recorded outside of Liszt's transcriptions.
Titled "Meckie Hellary," the Symphonic Intermezzo is a grand orchestral work. Its prolonged melodies are constructed as smaller cells, occasionally expanded in a manner characteristic of Liszt's later works. The solemn entrance music evolves into an "Andante amoroso" and an absolutely magnificent and memorable melody that undergoes extensive elaboration. The piece concludes in a "Feierlich ruhig" manner, starting with a series of chords and arpeggios reminiscent of the introduction to "Parsifal." This passage appears four times in different keys, alternating with fragments of the Andante and culminating in a bell-like coda that establishes a connection with the opening melody as well as the bell motif from "Parsifal."
Liszt employed numbers five and eight of Lassen's eleven pieces in his music for Hebbel's drama "The Nibelungen," whose content mirrors that of Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung." In both instances, Liszt's adaptation expands upon the original. Kriemhild, altered to Gutrune in Wagner's opera, is renowned in the Nibelungenlied for slaying the villain Hagen after her husband Siegfried's death. Bechlarn (Pöchlarn in the Nibelungenlied) is where the noble minstrel Volker sings his homage to Gotelind. In Liszt's hands, Lassen's Serenade possesses a touching and naïve simplicity.
Goethe's masterpiece has always been a significant inspiration for many composers, and Lassen's contribution is substantial. His setting of Faust consists of 64 individual numbers. The "Easter Hymn" (Lassen's Part 1, No. 2), interrupting Faust's suicidal intentions, is a direct transcription, while the Court Festival is Liszt's amalgamation of two pieces (2 and 3) from the second part of Lassen's work. Here, Liszt transforms and elaborates on Lassen's themes into an entrance march and an elegant, embellished Polonaise.