Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Der fliegende Holländer, Das Liebesmahl
der Apostel, and Eine Faust Overtüre, Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini,
the Symphonie Fantastique, Harold en Italie, Roméo et Juliette,
La Damnation de Faust, and L’Enfance du Christ—the last two
conducted by the composer—Schumann’s Genoveva, Paradise and
the Peri, the music to Manfred and to Faust, Weber’s Euryanthe,
Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella, Raff’s König Alfred, Cornelius’s
Der Barbier von Baghdad and many more. It was Liszt’s habit
to recommend novelties to the public by explanatory articles
or essays, which were written in French (some for the Journal
des débats and the Gazette musicale of Paris) and translated for
the journals of Weimar and Leipzig—thus his two masterpieces
of sympathetic criticism, the essays Lohengrin et Tannhäuser à
Weimar and Harold en Italie, found many readers and proved
very effective. They are now included, together with articles
on Schumann and Schubert, and the elaborate and rather high-flown
essays on Chopin and Des Bohémiens et de leur musique en
Hongrie (the latter certainly, and the former probably, written
in collaboration with Madame de Wittgenstein), in his Gesammelte
Schriften (6 vols., Leipzig). The compositions belonging
to the period of his residence at Weimar comprise two pianoforte
concertos, in E flat and in A, the “Todtentanz,” the “Concerto
pathétique” for two pianos, the solo sonata “An Robert
Schumann,” sundry “Études,” fifteen “Rhapsodies Hongroises,”
twelve orchestral “Poèmes symphoniques,” “Eine Faust
Symphonie,” and “Eine Symphonie zu Dante’s ‘Divina Commedia,’ ”
the “13th Psalm” for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra,
the choruses to Herder’s dramatic scenes “Prometheus,” and
the “Missa solennis” known as the “Graner Fest Messe.”
Liszt retired to Rome in 1861, and joined the Franciscan order
in 1865.[1] From 1869 onwards Abbé Liszt divided his time
between Rome and Weimar, where during the summer months
he received pupils—gratis as formerly—and, from 1876 up to his
death at Bayreuth on the 31st of July 1886, he also taught for
several months every year at the Hungarian Conservatoire of
Budapest.
About Liszt’s pianoforte technique in general it may be said that it derives its efficiency from the teaching of Czerny, who brought up his pupil on Mozart, a little Bach and Beethoven, a good deal of Clementi and Hummel, and a good deal of his (Czerny’s) own work. Classicism in the shape of solid, respectable Hummel on the one hand, and Carl Czerny, a trifle flippant, perhaps, and inclined to appeal to the gallery, on the other, these gave the musical parentage of young Liszt. Then appears the Parisian Incroyable and grand seigneur—“Monsieur Lits,” as the Parisians called him. Later, we find him imitating Paganini and Chopin, and at the same time making a really passionate and deep study of Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Berlioz. Thus gradually was formed the master of style—whose command of the instrument was supreme, and who played like an inspired poet. Liszt’s strange musical nature was long in maturing its fruits. At the pianoforte his achievements culminate in the two books of studies, twice rewritten, and finally published in 1852 as Études d’exécution transcendante, the Études de concert and the Paganini Studies; the two concertos and the Todtentanz, the Sonata in B minor, the Hungarian Rhapsodies and the fine transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies (the 9th for two pianofortes as well as solo), and of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, and the symphony, Harold en Italie. In his orchestral pieces of Liszt appears—next to Berlioz—as the most conspicuous and most thorough-going representative of programme music, i.e. instrumental music expressly contrived to illustrate in detail some poem or some succession of ideas or pictures. It was Liszt’s aim to bring about a direct alliance or amalgamation of instrumental music with poetry. To effect this he made use of the means of musical expression for purposes of illustration, and relied on points of support outside the pale of music proper. There is always danger of failure when an attempt is thus made to connect instrumental music with conceptions not in themselves musical, for the order of the ideas that serve as a programme is apt to interfere with the order which the musical exposition naturally assumes—and the result in most cases is but an amalgam of irreconcilable materials. In pieces such as Liszt’s “Poèmes symphoniques,” Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne (1848–1856), after a poem by Victor Hugo, and Die Ideale (1853–1857), after a poem by Schiller, the hearer is bewildered by a series of startling orchestral effects which succeed one another apparently without rhyme or reason. The music does not conform to any sufficiently definite musical plan—it is hardly intelligible as music without reference to the programme. Liszt’s masterpiece in orchestral music is the Dante Symphony (1847–1855), the subject of which was particularly well suited to his temperament, and offered good chances for the display of his peculiar powers as a master of instrumental effect. By the side of it ranks the Faust Symphony (1854–1857), in which the moods of Goethe’s characters—Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles—are depicted in three instrumental movements, with a chorus of male voices, supplying a kind of comment, by way of close. The method of presentation in both symphonies is by means of representative themes (Leitmotif), and their combination and interaction. Incidents of the poem or the play are illustrated or alluded to as may be convenient, and the exigencies of musical form are not unfrequently disregarded for the sake of special effects. Of the twelve Poèmes symphoniques, Orphée is the most consistent from a musical point of view, and is exquisitely scored. Melodious, effective, readily intelligible, with a dash of the commonplace, Les Préludes, Tasso, Mazeppa and Fest-Klänge bid for popularity. In these pieces, as in almost every production of his, in lieu of melody Liszt offers fragments of melody—touching and beautiful, it may be, or passionate, or tinged with triviality; in lieu of a rational distribution of centres of harmony in accordance with some definite plan, he presents clever combinations of chords and ingenious modulations from point to point; in lieu of musical logic and consistency of design, he is content with rhapsodical improvisation. The power of persistence seems wanting. The musical growth is spoilt, the development of the themes is stopped, or prevented, by some reference to extraneous ideas. Everywhere the programme stands in the way. In much of Liszt’s vocal music, particularly in the songs and choral pieces written to German words, an annoying discrepancy is felt to exist between the true sound of the words and the musical accents. The music is generally emotional, the expression direct and passionate; there is no lack of melodic charm and originality, yet the total effect is frequently disappointing. In the choral numbers of the five masses, and in the oratorios Die Heilige Elisabeth and Christus, the rarity of fugal polyphony acts as a drawback. Its almost complete absence in some of these works makes for monotony and produces a sense of dullness, which may not be inherent in all the details of the music, but is none the less distinctly present.
Omitting trifles and all publications that have been cancelled, the following list of compositions may be taken as fairly comprehensive:—
Pianoforte Pieces.—Études d’exécution transcendante; Études de concert; Zwei Etuden, Waldesrauschen, Gnomentanz; Ab Irato; Paganini Studies; Années de Pélerinage, 3 sets; Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, 1-10; Consolations, 1-6; Ave Maria in E; Sonata in B minor; Konzert-Solo in E minor; Scherzo und Marsch; Ballades, I. II.; Polonaises, I. II.; Apparitions, 1-3; Berceuse; Valse impromptu; Mazurka brillant; 3 Caprices Valses; Galop chromatique; Mephisto-Walzer, I., II., III. and Polka; Zwei Legenden, “Die Vogelpredigt,” “Der heilige Franciscus auf den Wogen schreitend”; “Der Weihnachtsbaum,” 1-12; Sarabande und Chaconne (“Almira”); Elegies, I., II. and III.; La lugubre Gondola; Dem Andenken Petöfi’s; Mosonyi’s Grabgeleit; Romance oubliée; Valses oubliées, 1-3; Liebesträume, 1-3 (originally songs); Hexameron; Rhapsodies Hongroises, 1-18.
Pieces for Two Pianos.—Concerto pathétique (identical with the Konzert-Solo in E minor); Dante symphony; Faust symphony; Poèmes symphoniques, 1-12; Beethoven’s 9th symphony.
Pianoforte with Orchestra.—Concertos I. in E flat, II. in A; Todtentanz; Fantasie ueber Motif aus Beethoven’s “Ruinen von Athen”; Fantasie ueber Ungarische National Melodien; Schubert’s Fantasia in C; Weber’s Polacca in E.
- ↑ It is understood that, in point of fact, the Princess Wittgenstein was determined to marry Liszt; and as neither he nor her family wished their connexion to take this form, Cardinal Hohenlohe quietly had him ordained.—[Ed. E.B.].
