Liszt: Prometheus, symphonic poem No. 5, S99

Having made revolutionary changes, during the 1830s and 40s, in both piano performance and composition, Liszt was hardly less innovative in his relationship with the orchestra. He is generally credited with having created the genre of the symphonic poem, in which a narrative or extra-musical idea is depicted within a structural framework usually associated with an abstract symphonic movement. In 1974 and 1977 Sir Georg Solti recorded five of the composer’s Tone Poems as well as the Mephisto Waltz No. 1 with the London Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris. With fabled ‘Decca Sound’, these recordings have been much sought after by collectors. Recently reissued in the (limited) Liszt Edition, they are now made available generally as a 2CD set.

The coupling is a much-praised version of the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies, in orchestrations by both the composer as well as Doppler, by Iván Fischer, considered one of the most important conductors of our time. The interpretations were unforgettably described by Gramophone, on their first appearance, as ‘frisky as foals and as flavoursome as goulash’. Even though he grew up in a family in which German was spoken, and although he left Hungary at a young age, Liszt regarded himself as a Hungarian, and he took considerable pride in that fact. Nevertheless, Liszt and Hungary did not always understand each other. He promoted the idea that Hungary’s true national music was the music of the Gypsies, not realising that many of the melodies played by Gypsy bands were in fact composed (but not written down) by Hungarian landowners whose families did not appreciate Liszt’s misattributions – particularly because the Gypsies were not highly regarded in Hungary. This, however, does nothing to diminish the popularity of the Hungarian Rhapsodies, six of which were orchestrated in conjunction with Franz Doppler, a flute virtuoso and a composer in his own right who met Liszt in 1854 and began orchestrating several of his rhapsodies three years later.

“As a composer and thinker, Franz Liszt exerted decisive influence on musical developments in the nineteenth century and opened many new doors. Liszt committed his improvisations to paper, creating new forms that enabled him to give musical expression to his fertile imagination. In the process, he broke the constraining moulds of the symphony and sonata and developed Berlioz’s idea of the symphonic poem. He took inspiration from literature, from a heroic figure of classical antiquity in Prometheus, from Shakespeare in Hamlet and from Lamartine’s idea that life is a prelude to that unknown song of which death intones the first solemn notes in Les Preludes. In the works entitled Die Ideale after Schiller, Liszt passes comment on contemporary issues by lamenting the loss of humanistic values, but reaches a positive conclusion at the end.

In striving to express the complexity of emotion in music, he made unprecedented technical and tonal demands on the musicians. The ominous beginning of Prometheus and the long drawn out introduction to Hemlet point far into the future.

The four symphonic poems presented here may stimulate listeners to confront this brilliant composer and to recognise his unconditional commitment to truthfulness and his readiness to go the expremes” (Jun Markl)

Performed on original instruments from the time of their first performance, this is the fifth and final volume in the critically acclaimed series “Liszt: The Sound of Weimar” which was initiated by the NCA label to mark the 200th anniversary of the great Hungarian composer’s birth. This disc by the Vienna Academy Orchestra under its highly-regarded Austrian conductor Martin Haselböck features four symphonic poems “for large orchestra”: No. 5 ‘Prometheus’, No. 7 ‘Festklänge’, No. 10 ‘Hamlet, and No. 13 ‘Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe’ (‘From Cradle to Grave’).

The project ‘The Sound of Weimar’ includes all the orchestral works of Franz Liszt in the original orchestration of the live premieres in Weimar. Recorded at the Austrian Liszt Raiding Centre, they come from performances at seven concerts during 2011 and 2012 made by the Vienna Academy Orchestra under the direction of Martin Haselböck. The first of the five-disc series featured the Dante Symphony (60234), and was followed by a first disc of symphonic poems including Les Preludes, Orpheus, and the Berg-Symphonie (60246). The third volume (60250) included three more symphonic poems, Hunnenschlacht, Hungaria, and Mazzepa. Tasso - Lamento e trionfo, Le Triomphe funèbre du Tasse, Héroïde funèbre, and Die Ideale were the works on Volume 4 (60254), also released this summer.

The Austrian conductor Martin Haselböck is the musical director of Musica Angelica in Santa Monica, California. He is the founder and also musical director of the Vienna Academy Orchestra, and with this ensmeble he has established a year-round cycle of concerts for the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in the Great Hall of the Vienna Musikverein.

In addition Haselböck is a professor at the University of Vienna, where he teaches organ. “Compelling… Haselböck’s liberated textures open up new listening horizons that all lovers of this fine but still underrated music should investigate. I anticipate more revelations further along the way.” - Rob Cowan in Gramophone on ‘The Sound of Weimar Vol. 3

Dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Liszt’s birth, this release includes performances by some of the greatest musicians. The works include Mephisto Waltz, Tarantella, Sonata in B minor, Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos. 2 & 6 and Piano Concerto No. 1.

Zuzana Ferjenciková performs the organ works of Liszt on the organ of the Schottenstift in Vienna, a Benedictine monastery. Her recital includes Liszt’s arrangements of Chopin’s Preludes Op 28 Nos.4 & 9, as well as Liszt’s Mass for the Organ.

It was inevitable that Jean Guillou’s fascination for Liszt would be exercised through the virtuoso’s panache and his transcriptions for orchestral masterpieces are a delight to behold for fans of the organ . None of the works brought together on this disc escape Jean Guillou’s ‘signature’. Recently restored to its full glory in 2007, the organ of Naples Conservatory brings these sublime transcriptions to life in a way that Liszt would have surely admired.