Canton Symphony Orchestra: Mephistofeles from A Faust Symphony Mephistofeles from A Faust Symphony by Franz Liszt Mephistopheles, from A Faust Symphony By Franz Liszt Born October 22, 1811 in Doborjan (Raiding), Hungary Died July 31, 1886, in Bayreuth, Germany Dr. Johann Georg Faust (approx. 1480 – 1540) was a German alchemist who was alternately known as Johann Sabellicus and Georg Faust. In around 1580, a chapbook about Faust was published, by unknown authors, titled “The History of Dr. Johann Faust.” Therein Faust was characterized as a notorious drifter and dark genius who purportedly sold his soul to the devil. The English translation inspired Christopher Marlowe’s 1604 play, “Doctor Faustus,” which was later studied by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832).

And it was Goethe’s epic “Faust” (completed in 1831) – a complex theatrical articulation of the physical and spiritual, the incidental and the profound, the philosophical and the poetic – that ultimately morphed a once real-life figure into a legendary giant of German literature. Not long after its publication, composers began to earnestly embrace its drama. The operatic Damnation of Faust (1846), by French composer Hector Berlioz, was a particularly interesting take on the story in that it reversed Goethe’s ending. In the Berlioz interpretation, Faust goes to hell. Berlioz dedicated the work to his friend Franz Liszt. As music director of the Grand Duke’s orchestra from 1848 to 1858 in Weimar, where Goethe had lived, Liszt conducted excerpts from the work. In 1854 he wrote his own Faust Symphony. The original complete title was A Faust Symphony in Three Character Portraits (after Goethe). Liszt dedicated the work to Berlioz, and premiered it in 1857 in Weimar.

His musical interpretation, however, was a far cry from his friend’s dramatization of scenes from Goethe’s play. In keeping with his innovative technique of “thematic transformation,” Liszt avoided literal plot references and instead presented “drei Charakterbildern” – three “character pictures.” Each of the work’s three movements was based on the composer’s emotional and spiritual response to one of the story’s central characters: in order, Faust, Gretchen (Faust’s love), and Mephistopheles (or Mephisto, The Devil). Liszt saw Faust as an embodiment of the brooding, angst-riddled Romantic-era artist wrestling with fate. Further, he regarded Mephistopheles as mirroring the same struggles, thus symbolizing Faust’s dark side. Mephisto cannot create. He can only react, or destroy. His very existence is inextricably tied to, and wholly dependent upon, that of Faust. Consequently, to best convey this fundamental underlying idea, Liszt offered practically no new melodic themes in the third (Mephistopheles) movement.

Instead, he returned to the first movement, twisting it into a sequence of thematic variations that exaggerated and distorted the Faust material into a more sardonic and grotesque version of what it initially was. The music was Liszt at his diabolical best, imbued with an electrifying air of relentless taunting. The 1854 score of Faust Symphony was fully instrumental. But in 1857, Liszt appended it with a men’s chorus and tenor solo. The tranquil “Chorus Mysticus” intones the final lines of Goethe’s Faust, Part II, praising the saving power of Das Ewigweibliche, “the Eternal Feminine”: German English ist nur ein Gleichnis; is only an allegory; das Unzulängliche, what could not be achieved hier wird's Ereignis; here comes to pass; das Unbeschreibliche, what no one could describe, hier ist es getan; is here accomplished; das Ewigweibliche the Eternal Feminine zieht uns hinan. draws us aloft. And so with this addition, the frenetic parody of the Mephistopheles motive ends abruptly.

The music returns to the angelic purity of the Gretchen theme from the second movement, letting the symphony come to a majestic and mystical close. Tom Wachunas Faust Symphony - Liszt's Orchestral Character Painting Orchestral Character Painting Liszt's masterpiece Faust Symphony is a lavish orchestral depiction of three characters from Goethe's Faust. Using nothing but sound, Liszt paints detailed pictures of the three characters' emotions, psychology, and personalities. The piece has beautiful melodies and clever musical storytelling techniques to illustrate the characters I think the entire piece (it's over an hour long!) is an excellent showcase of Liszt's astounding talent. The Idea The composer Hector Berlioz introduced Liszt to Goethe's devil drama Faust in 1830. Liszt toyed with the idea of writing a work based on it for two decades. It wasn't until he moved to Weimar, where Goethe was buried, that he began to seriously compose his Faust Symphony. He got really passionate about it, and finished writing the whole piece in two months. The Faust Symphony was premiered in Weimar in 1857, to celebrate the opening of a monument to Goethe.

Goethe's Faust is an epic closet drama. It's based on a medieval German legend about the sorcerer Doktor Faustus, who people thought had made a deal with the devil. The basic story in Goethe's version of the legend is that the devil Mephistopheles makes a bet with God that he can't tempt Faust (whom God says is a model human) with worldly desires. Mephistopheles goes to earth, and eventually manages to trick Faust by using his desire for the beautiful maiden Gretchen against him. Faust Symphony Music Liszt wanted to illustrate in music the essence of three main characters from Faust. Because of this I'd say the piece is a perfect example of program music (music that describes an idea or story). Liszt chose to dedicate a movement to explore each character.

The movements are: Faust (Allegro, Quick), the disillusioned doctor whom the devil tempts into worldly powers and passion Gretchen (Andante, Walking pace), a sweet, innocent maiden Mephistopheles (Scherzo), the devil, an evil trickster The music is typical Liszt: fast-paced, lush and opulent harmonies, and melodies and themes which transform according to the story. It's also notable, since it uses very advanced (for the time) harmonies, which were modern and progressive or the middle of the 19th Century. The first movement starts with searching music depicting Faust, a philosopher and academic. He's studied all the possible worldly disciplines, but is frustrated that he can't find ultimate knowledge. The music then goes through several melodies, each one representing things like "passion", "love", and "longing", depicting Faust's suffering and inner turmoil. The themes are really effective at illustrating moods. Here's the "love" theme, for example: Eventually we get to a big triumphant theme, which represents Faust's pride and depicts him as a hero. This is one of my favorite themes in the whole piece!

In the second movement Liszt uses some of his most tender music to illustrate the innocence and gentleness of Gretchen. Liszt uses simple combinations of woodwind and string instruments to create highly beautiful textures. Here Liszt uses four violins for Gretchen's theme: We also hear the "love" theme in different versions. First is a passionate outburst: Later on we hear a rapturous, almost spiritual version, which represents the love Gretchen feels for Faust: In the final movement Liszt's trademark devilish music is a perfect representation of the cheating Mephistopheles. The music in the 3rd movement is interesting. According to Goethe, the devil can't create anything, only destroy. So Liszt doesn't give the devil any original themes. He just takes Faust's themes and mutilates them into gleefully wicked parodies to show Mephistopheles acting through Faust. What a clever way of getting round a tricky problem! Here's the distorted love theme: An here's the distorted pride theme: We also hear the Gretchen theme briefly, unchanged, which shows that Gretchen can't be influenced by the devil. At the end, Mephistopheles loses the wager with God.

Faust's soul is transported up to heaven. The movement (and the whole Faust Symphony) ends with a majestic chorus for male choir and a tenor soloist, nicknamed the "mystic chorus". Good Recordings One recording I can recommend is Leonard Bernstein conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It's a little on the slow side, but because of this you can hear the combinations of instruments better (especially that heavy brass!). Liszt wasn't that great of an orchestrator (since most of his pieces are for piano). But since listening to Berstein's measured interpretation I can appreciate the composer's instrumental writing a lot more. Bernstein - Faust But I think my favorite recording is Kurt Masur conducting the Gewandhaus-Orchester Leipzig. There's a lot of energy in their performance, and I think they manage to capture the mystical element of the Faust Symphony very well. This recording is actually part of a box set which includes all of Liszt's other orchestral works - highly recommended!

LISZT: Faust Symphony A Faust Symphony: Three Character Pictures, Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles, after Goethe Franz Liszt was born in 1811 at Raiding (Doborján) near Ödenburg (sopron) in a German-speaking region of Hungary. His father, Adam Liszt, was a steward in the employment of Haydn's former patrons, the Esterházy Princes, and an amateur cellist who had played for Haydn and for Beethoven and enjoyed friendship with Kapellmeister Hummel at Eisenstadt. The boy showed early musical talent, exhibited in a public concert at Ödenburg in 1820, followed by a concert in Pressburg (the modern Slovak capital Bratislava). This second appearance brought sufficient support from members of the Hungarian nobility to allow the family to move to Vienna, where Liszt took piano lessons from Czerny and composition lessons from the old Court Composer Antonio Salieri, who had taught Beethoven and Schubert.

In 1822 the Liszts moved to Paris, where, as a foreigner, he was refused admission to the Conservatoire by Cherubini, but was able to embark on a career as a virtuoso, displaying his gifts as a pianist and as a composer. On the death of his father in 1827 Liszt was joined again by his mother in Paris, where he began to teach the piano and to interest himself in the newest literary trends of the day. The appearance of Paganini in Paris in 1831 suggested new possibilities of virtuosity as a pianist, later exemplified in his Paganini Studies. A liaison with a married woman, the Comtesse Marie d'Agoult, a blue-stocking on the model of their friend the novelist George Sand (Aurore Dudevant), and the subsequent birth of three children, involved Liszt in years of travel, from 1839 once more as a virtuoso pianist, a role in which he came to enjoy the wildest adulation of audiences.

In 1844 Liszt finally broke with Marie d'Agoult, who later, under her pen-name of Daniel Stern, took her own literary revenge on her lover. Connection with the small Grand Duchy of Weimar led in 1848 to his withdrawal from public concerts and his establishment there as Director of Music, now accompanied by a young Polish heiress, Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, the estranged wife of a Russian nobleman and a woman of literary and theological propensities. Liszt now turned his attention to new forms of composition, particularly to symphonic poems, in which he attempted to translate into musical terms works of literature. Catholic marriage to Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein had proved impossible, but application to the Vatican offered some hope, when, in 1861, Liszt travelled to join her in Rome.

The couple continued to live separately in Rome, starting a period of his life that Liszt later described as une vie trifurquée (a three-pronged life), as he divided his time between his comfortable monastic residence in Rome, his visits to Weimar, where he held court as a master of the keyboard and a prophet of the new music, and his appearances in Hungary, where he was now hailed as a national hero. Liszt's illegitimate daughter Cosima had married the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, whom she later deserted for Wagner, already the father of two of her children. His final years were as busy as ever, and in 1886 he gave concerts in Budapest, Paris, Antwerp and London. He died in Bayreuth during the Wagner Festival, now controlled by his daughter Cosima, to whom his appearance there seems to have been less than welcome. The symphonic poems of Liszt caused some controversy.

One of the most influential critics in Vienna, Eduard Hanslick, a champion of Brahms, wrote in 1857 of the impertinence of such an attempt: "He fancies his music capable of fiddling and blowing the most magnificent phenomena of myth and history, the most profound thoughts of the human mind." Hanslick's objection was not to music with some extra-musical association, but to the vastness of the subjects tackled and what he saw as a reliance on an external programme to justify an absence of musical content. The first attempt at what was, after all, a daring new form, came in 1848 with a musical interpretation or translation of Victor Hugo, Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne. The work was orchestrated largely by Joachim Raff, employed by Liszt for the purpose, since his own skills were at the time rudimentary. This was followed by Les Préludes, described as a symphonic poem after Lamartine. The following year he wrote Tasso, lamento e trionfo, based on the poem by Byron. Orchestration this time was by August Conradi, who had served Liszt intermittently as a copyist.

A series of symphonic poems followed, the descriptive title newly coined, the last return to the form in 1881-2 with Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe (From the Cradle to the Grave). Liszt wrote his A Faust Symphony in 1854, adding a choral finale three years later, when it was first performed in Weimar. Further revisions took place, with changes introduced even as late as 1880. The subject of Faust, the scholar who sold his soul to the Devil in return for youth and power, had a particular attraction to artists in the nineteenth century, when Faust might appear as a human hero, an opponent of ancient tyrannies, political and religious, and the Devil himself might seem to have similar attractions. Where the Elizabethan version of the story by Christopher Marlowe brought Faust to a medieval Hell, Goethe's monumental and influential poetic treatment of the subject ended in the final redemption of Faust through the power of love and of the woman he had wronged, Gretchen.

Liszt based his symphony on the literary work of his great predecessor in Weimar, Goethe, and returned to the subject of Faust in later compositions based on Lenau's Faust, including the Mephisto Waltzes. Liszt's A Faust Symphony opens with a picture of Faust himself. This first movement is in traditional symphonic structure, with a slow introduction that leads to a long exposition, with its own developments, a short development section and an abridged final recapitulation. The opening theme, played by muted violas and cellos and using all twelve semitones of the octave, is said to represent the mysterious studies of the old scholar, capped by a theme of feeling from the oboe, marked dolente, of which a derivative provides an opening to the second subject group, representing Faust as a lover. The Allegro, marked agitato ed appassionato, starts with the strings declaration of a theme associated with Faust's struggle and goes on to a descending motif, expressive and passionate, introduced by oboes and clarinets and representing the yearning of Faust.

The theme of Faust's heroic endeavour is introduced by the trumpets as a part of the second subject group, now marked Grandioso. All this thematic material forms the exposition, followed by a development introduced by the excited theme associated with Faust's struggle, coupled with the ominous opening motif, now heard in canon. This material appears in its original form, remarkably developed, and leading to a shortened recapitulation. The movement ends with cellos and double basses recalling briefly the theme representing Faust's feelings. The second movement, Gretchen, starts with a gentle passage for flutes and clarinets, followed by the main theme, played by oboe accompanied by solo viola. Most of the movement is scored for a small orchestra in a texture of great clarity. A second theme is introduced by flutes, with clarinets and bassoons and in the central section of the movement Faust's theme of love is heard first, entrusted to the French horn. The cellos offer the descending melody associated Faust's yearning, leading to a passage of full orchestration. The agitated theme of Faust's struggle re-appears, now mollified in a gentler mood.

This leads to a re-appearance of the Gretchen themes, now rescored, with the theme of Faust's heroism now utterly transformed in conclusion. The third part of the Faust Symphony is devoted to the devil, Mephistopheles. Marked Allegro vivace, ironico, it transforms the thematic material of the earlier pictures, in a remarkable scherzo of great power, twisting the material associated with Faust, but allowing Gretchen to overcome the power of evil, when her theme appears in all its simple purity, after the violence of a fugue, based on a version of the theme associated with the emotions of Faust. The complexities of the movement and the transformation of earlier thematic material defy succinct explanation in a picture that includes only one extraneous thematic element, the 'pride' theme from Liszt's Malédiction for piano and orchestra. The added final chorus and tenor solo offers a final song of serene triumph over evil, in the words of Goethe: Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis, das Unzulängliche, hier wird's Ereignis, das Unbeschreibliche, hier wird es getan, das Ewigweibliche zieht uns hinan.

(All transitory things are but a likeness; what is insufficient, here becomes a true event; what is unwritten, here is accomplished; the eternal feminine draws us upwards.) Keith Anderson Symphony guide: Liszt's Faust Symphony | Music | The Guardian Symphony guide: Liszt's Faust Symphony Liszt's Faust Symphony blows the bogus symphonic vs programme music debate out of the water portrait of Franz Liszt Photograph: Archivo Iconografico, S.A./CORBIS Symphony guide: Liszt's Faust Symphony Liszt's Faust Symphony blows the bogus symphonic vs programme music debate out of the water Share on Messenger Close A notional “symphonic principle” has implicitly underscored much of the discussion of the pieces in this series thus far.

The idea of symphonic “integrity” (another word that needs to be in quotation marks!) is often contrasted in music-historical writing with its orchestral antipode in the 19th century, “programme music” - music that sets out to tell an “extra-musical” narrative, such as attempting to describe a work from literature, or a natural phenomenon, or a painterly image in sound; as if the former were the one true faith of music history, and the latter were a somehow less “pure” (quotation marks again, sorry) form of music. Now, I hope I’ve demonstrate that those boundaries are much more fluid than that simple-minded distinction suggests, and that symphonies that are supposed bulwarks of “purity” or “integrity” are as porous to meanings, interpretations, and story-telling – often more so! – than orchestral pieces that really do set out to tell a story, whether a pre-existing one, such as Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony, or a new narrative, say Strauss’s Sinfonia Domestica .

And more than that, I hope this series, above anything else it might do, has demonstrated how the “symphonic principle” is always about telling stories and doing cultural work; and that any symphony – even the most apparently abstract – is never, ever, about just pushing notes around a piece of paper in a hermetically sealed cultural vacuum, but is an active engagement with the world of the composer who wrote it, the time and place it was written in, the way it’s been received, and the range of its interpretations. All of which is a monumental upbeat to this week’s symphony: Liszt’s Faust Symphony . This even more monumental work – it’s about 75 minutes long - was inspired by Goethe’s Faust, and each of the three movements is an epic depiction and conjuring of one of the characters from the defining work of German romanticism: Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles. In each movement you will hear a crystallisation of the particular character. The first music to be played in the Faust movement sounds out an existential ennui in a searchingly chromatic melody, a tune – and it really is a tune!

– that includes all 12 pitches of the chromatic scale, a melody written in 1854, nearly 70 years before Schoenberg’s serialism. Faust’s music moves through nostalgia and heroism in the enormous, half-hour-long drama of this movement. Gretchen’s music in the almost equally long second movement is pastoral, dream-like, and diaphanous; and then in the third tableau , Mephisto’s is a warped, Satanic, but thrilling corruption and distortion of Faust’s music. And all that sound and fury comes before the most remarkable passage in the symphony, music that presages Wagner’s music of the Ring Cycle and Parsifal, and without which there would be a gaping hole at the heart of 19th century music: the Chorus Mysticus that Liszt added to the piece in 1857, for a choir of male voices and a solo tenor who sings words from end of the second part of Faust, Goethe’s invocation of and paean to the Eternal Feminine.

Pinterest Liszt – older than Wagner by just two years, his future father-in-law, the greatest piano virtuoso of all time, yet still in thrall to Wagner’s musical magnetism - played this piece and his Dante Symphony to him in 1856. Wagner was obviously so inspired by what he heard that he nicked whole ideas from it - its thematic material, harmonic flexibility, and orchestrational sensuality - in everything from Die Walküre to Tristan und Isolde, from Siegfried to Parsifal. And if you're minded, you can hear pre-echoes of Bruckner’s harmonic language in the Faust Symphony, as well as Mahler’s emotional intensity, and even of the expressionist angst of the turn of the century as well. Liszt’s Faust is a genuinely prophetic piece. But there’s a bigger issue at stake in Liszt’s symphony, which returns us to the programme music vs symphonic music debate.

For Liszt, his orchestral music – including his tone-poems as well his symphonies on Faust and Dante – wasn’t an attempt to do something “extra-musical”, in the sense of relying on outside sources - stories or images or plays - for its expressive concentration. Instead, they are proof of what Liszt felt the true power of music could be: that it could do something much more elemental than simply represent or stand metaphorically for ideas or emotions – it could actually embody them as experiences. Music, for Liszt, possessed a magical power that could transcend other art-forms by becoming the sublime, otherworldly, and transcendent encounters that painting or literature could only symbolise. Which all means that the Faust Symphony’s daemonic power is definitively, inherently intra-musical as opposed to “extra-musical” - and it expands the definition and reach of the symphony at the same time. It’s an essential piece for this series, in other words!

Five key recordings Classical Net Review - Liszt - Dante Symphony Amazon - UK - Germany - Canada - France - Japan - ArkivMusic - CD Universe ) Liszt never wrote any true symphonies in the usual sense of the word, but he wrote two multiple-movement works for orchestra and chorus that have symphonic pretensions. The Faust Symphony, completed in 1857, devotes one movement each to the troubled philosopher, Gretchen, and Méphistophélès, with a transcendental epilogue. It cost the composer much trouble – and about fifteen years – to write. The Dante Symphony, completed one year earlier, enjoyed a smoother birth. As in the Faust Symphony, Liszt enjoys the contrast between the infernal and the divine. Based, of course, on the Divine Comedy, the work is in two movements – an "Inferno" depicting the torments of Hell, and a tender "Purgatorio" in which the soul is prepared for Paradise. Apparently Liszt felt unequal to the task of depicting the soul's ultimate station musically. Instead, a gently radiant "Magnificat" brings the symphony to a close. The symphony is a typical mixture of Lisztian rhetoric and inspiration.

The secret to success is to churn through the rhetoric without apologies, and to savor the inspiration when it comes. Botstein is too tasteful to indulge himself in the hellfire of "Inferno." One can't quite smell the brimstone and hear the gnashing of teeth. Botstein's attempt to subdue the composer's vulgarity (at least in this movement) is admirable, but one might argue that vulgarity is precisely the point – this is Hell, after all. In the "Purgatorio," Botstein's soft-grained approach works much better, and the entrance of the chorus is truly magical. Unlike most (or all?) of the competition, Botstein uses a boys' choir in the "Magnificat." I believe that Liszt specified women's voices, yet it is hard to argue with the effect of disarming innocence that Botstein achieves here. In the closing moments of the Dante Symphony, Botstein's reading definitely comes into its own as competition against Barenboim, Masur, Kojian, and the like. Tasso (subtitled "Lament and Triumph"), written in 1849, was the second of Liszt's thirteen symphonic poems.

It is the story, told by both Goethe and Byron, of the poet Torquato Tasso, who fell afoul of Ferrarese society and yet was vindicated after his death. This symphonic poem, then, is one of those "darkness into daylight" works. Liszt tells the poet's story with music that is memorably melodious and dramatic; this is one of the highlights among the thirteen. Again, Botstein leads a reading that is free of vulgarity. Where other conductors offer a guilty frisson, Botstein is objective and quite convincing in his characteristically self-effacing manner. The engineering, like the conducting, doesn't call attention to itself, but is nevertheless very fine. (Watford Town Hall in Watford, England was the venue.) The booklet notes are not very helpful. May 2013 Program Notes » Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra Home / Concerts / Program Notes / May 2013 Program Not... May 1, 2013 Born Hamburg, Germany, 7 May 1833; died Vienna, 3 April 1897.

Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem), Op. 45 Composed between 1865 and 1868 (with the second movement making use of material from the 1850s), the German Requiem was premiered in its 7-movement entirety on 18 February 1869, with Carl Reinecke conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Chorus plus soloists. The work calls for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, organ, 2 harps, strings, 4-part chorus and soprano and baritone soloists. Duration is approximately 68 minutes. The German Requiem was most recently performed by the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on 15 March 2003, Guy Victor Bordo conducting, with soloists Anne Marie Lewis and Steven Jepson.

In the mid-1860s, as Johannes Brahms approached his mid-30s, he was in his early prime as a composer: he had written his two Serenades for orchestra and First Piano Concerto, as well as solo piano music, short choral works, many songs, and some of his most masterful chamber music. (The four symphonies, the other concertos, more vocal works, and the late chamber and piano music were in the future.) Exactly why, with no commission in hand, he decided to compose a large-scale choral work based on texts he chose from the Martin Luther bible is not known, but he may well have intended it as a memorial to his mother, who died in February 1865. By April of that year he had already composed a draft of the first four movements, and was showing it to his close friend Clara Schumann, a composer herself as well as piano virtuoso and widow of the composer Robert. In one letter to Clara, he made reference to writing “a kind of German requiem,” evidently unaware that Robert had proposed something similar more than a decade earlier.

A “requiem” is traditionally a Latin Mass for the Dead, and follows a fairly strict sequence (though with some additions and subtractions acceptable). In his use of 16 different biblical passages, interweaving choices from the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha, Brahms alludes to some of the traditions of the Requiem Mass—e.g., the text from the Revelation of John on the sounding of the Final Trumpet (Posaune/trombone in Luther’s translation)—but creates a very original structure, with emphasis on comforting the bereaved rather than praying for the souls of the departed. Brahms told one friend that he would happily have called the work Ein menschliches Requiem (a Human Requiem). The first three movements of A German Requiem were performed in Vienna on 1 December 1867, as part of a program honoring the memory of Franz Schubert. Evidently this music in the spirit of Protestant Northern Germany did not altogether please the more Southern, Roman Catholic Viennese.

Much more successful was the premiere of the “complete” work (i.e., Movements 1-4 and 6-7) on Good Friday, 9 April 1868 for a crowd of over 2500 at the Cathedral of Bremen, Brahms conducting. (It was a very full program: after Movement 4 Brahms’ friend the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim performed solos by Bach, Tartini and Robert Schumann, and following the Requiem were an aria from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and three numbers from Handel’s Messiah, including “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth” and the “Halleluiah” Chorus.) When and why Brahms decided another movement was needed is also not known; at any rate, only a month after the Bremen premiere he alerted his publisher to the fact that an additional movement, with soprano solo, would be on its way. This movement was given a tryout in Zurich that September, before being incorporated in the whole work for the 1869 Leipzig Gewandhaus premiere. 1. Selig sind, die da Leid tragen.

Blending the words of the Gospel on the Mount (“Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted”) with verses from Psalm 126 (“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy”), Brahms sets in motion the central theme of his Requiem. This movement, with its soaring oboe solo and discreet use of harp, a features a reduced orchestra: not only fewer winds than usual but no violins. It begins in a hushed manner but rises twice to a climax on the words “shall reap in joy” before subsiding. 2. Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras. The funereal pulse, in triple meter, of the first half of Movement 2 accompanies the words “All flesh is like grass and the splendor of man is like the flower of the field.” The quiet orchestral introduction and the chorus’ first passages could suggest resignation, but as the inexorable kettledrum rhythm comes to dominate, the chorus rises to a grief-stricken intensity.

Yet there is a lovely section that follows, describing waiting for the coming of the Lord as the farmer patiently waits “for the morning rain and the evening rain.” The “All flesh is like grass” music returns, but a thrilling transitional passage takes us to a triumphant fugal conclusion in which the chorus sings, first passionately and finally calmly, of “eternal joy.” 3. Herr, lehre doch mich. The solo baritone is first heard in this movement, singing “Lord, teach me that I must have an end.” The first section, with soloist and chorus alternating, expresses a shattering grief over one’s own mortality, followed by a section on the vanity of humans who attempt to store up riches. When the baritone finally asks, “Now, Lord, how shall I find comfort?” the chorus answers, “I hope in Thee” and proceeds to a magnificent fugue with the words “The righteous souls are in God’s hand.” 4. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen. “How lovely are your dwelling places,” the chorus sings in an utterly contrasting movement, which is also the shortest of the seven.

It is a hymn of praise in a very Brahmsian slow waltz tempo, with rapturous lyricism and great delicacy in detail. 5. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit. A solo soprano sings, “You now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice.” Woodwinds, soprano and chorus interweave their voices in this gently paced movement. 6. Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt. The solo baritone returns in this very dramatic movement. First, against a steady pizzicato beat, the chorus sings “For here we have no abiding place; however, we seek one in the future.” The music shifts mood as the baritone enters with the famous words of Paul to the Corinthians: “Behold, I tell you a mystery . . . We shall all be transformed . . . at the time of the last trumpet.” In a forceful new section in triple time, the chorus reiterates the baritone’s message and continues with “Death, where is your sting? Hell, where is your victory?” The movement ends with another triumphant fugue, proclaiming God’s “glory and honor and power.” 7.

Selig sind die Toten. Brahms uses only one text in his finale, from the Revelation of John: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; then their works follow them after.” Marked Feierlich (solemn, ceremonial), the movement begins and ends with the word selig: “blessed.” WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Born Salzburg, Austria, 27 January 1756; died Vienna, 5 December 1791. The Marriage of Figaro: Overture Composed in 1786, Le Nozze de Figaro was premiered at the Burgtheater, Vienna, 1 May 1786, Mozart himself conducting. The Overture calls for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings. The overture, about 4 minutes in length, was performed by the SSO on 17 November 2001, Guy Victor Bordo conducting.

Unlike overtures that preview tunes from the musical play to follow, Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro is a set piece in itself, establishing a general mood for what will follow. It is one of Mozart’s most purely joyful and exuberant works, with no (or little) hint of the threat imposed by Count Almaviva to break up the impending marriage of his servants Figaro and Susanna, or of the melancholy poured out in the opera by the Count’s long-suffering wife. Rather, the Overture suggests the bustle and excitement of the wedding preparations. Perfectly balanced in musical shape (a condensed sonata form), the Overture is a favorite concert opener. STEVEN L. ROSENHAUS Born 23 July 1952, Brooklyn, NY. Dream Dream (2013) was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, the Sheboygan Symphony and Maestro Kevin McMahon. The instrumentation calls for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, timpani, bells, vibraphone, harp and strings. Duration is about 5 minutes.

Tonight’s performance is the world premiere. The composer has provided the following note for this lyrical composition: ‘The work is a transcription of the first movement, "Laura's Dream," of a larger work for solo piano, Pro*Ject (2001). The full three-movement Pro*Ject (pronounced as "PRAH-ject" or "pro-JECT") was in turn commissioned by, and written for, pianist Laura Leon for a multimedia project in which Ms. Leon performed music live to projected photographic images by Barry Rosenthal and Eric Jacobson — hence the two pronunciations of "project" and the asterisk in the middle of the title. Originally only two movements were used for the presentation ("Laura's Dream" and "Two True Blues"), but later on . . . a third, livelier movement, "Samba," was [added]. Laura Leon has since arranged and recorded all three movements on her CD Changing the Pace. ARRIGO BOITO Born Padua, 24 February 1842; died Milan, 10 June 1918. Mefistofele: Final Chorus from the Prologue.

The opera was composed between 1862 and 1867, with Boito conducting the premiere at La Scala, Milan, 5 March, 1868; extensively revised and shortened, it was heard again in Bologna, 10 April 1875, with minor revisions to follow. Tonight’s performance of the final chorus of the Prologue features piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, tam-tam, cymbals, 2 harps and strings, plus—offstage—2 additional trumpets, 1 horn, and thunder sheet. The Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed this selection previously on 9 May 2009, Andrews Sill conducting. Duration about 4 minutes. The fame of Arrigo Boito today rests upon the superb libretti he wrote for Giuseppe Verdi’s final masterpieces, Otello andFalstaff, and for his opera Mefistofele, inspired by the two parts of Goethe’s Faust.

Lured to the formidable task of settingFaust to music, composers of the Romantic Age approached it from different directions. Hector Berlioz wrote a “Dramatic Legend” for voices and orchestra, The Damnation of Faust (1846), using only a freely adapted Part I, in which Faust, rejuvenated by his pact with the devil, seduces and abandons Marguerite (Goethe’s Gretchen), and pays for it. Robert Schumann wrote an oratorio featuring only Scenes from Goethe’s Faust (1853); Franz Liszt wrote a Faust Symphony with separate portraits of Faust, Gretchen and Mephistopheles, but ending with a choral setting of the final lines of Part II (1857); and Charles Gounod wrote one of the most popular operas of all time (1859), again using only Part I. Boito attempted something more faithful to Goethe: an opera including not only the “Margherita” scenes but the Prologue in Heaven, Part II’s encounter with Helen of Troy and Faust’s final redemption. Still, he made Mephistopheles the dramatic center of attention.

Boito’s Prologue opens with a heavenly chorus singing praises to God: “Hail, Lord of the angels and the saints and of the flying golden cherubim!” Mefisofele interrupts the praise with a wager that he can catch Faust in his devilish net. After he is driven offstage by a children’s chorus of cherubim (he calls them a “swarm of bees”), the heavenly choirs return to their opening hymn of praise. Boito’s “Ave signor” (which ends not only the Prologue but the entire opera, after the ultimate defeat of Mefistofele) is one of the most thrilling choral passages in all opera, beginning quietly and sweetly but fervently, and building overwhelmingly toward a glorious climax. Franz Liszt – Faust Search Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. He was a renowned performer throughout Europe during the 19th century, noted especially for his showmanship and complete sovereignty over the keyboard.

Today, he is generally considered to be one of the greatest pianists who ever lived. Liszt studied and played at Vienna and Paris and for most of his early adulthood toured throughout Europe giving concerts. He is credited with inventing the modern piano recital, where his virtuosity earned him approbation by composers and performers alike. His great generosity with both time and money benefited the lives of many people: victims of disasters, orphans and the many students he taught for free. He also contributed to the Beethoven memorial fund. His piano compositions include works such as his Piano Sonata in B minor, and two piano concertos, which have entered the standard repertoire. He also made many exuberant piano transcriptions of operas, famous symphonies, Paganini Caprices, and Schubert Lieder. As would be expected from a pianist-composer of Liszt’s virtuosity, many of his piano compositions are among the most technically challenging in the repertoire. His music is well loved in part because of its melodic and emotional harmonies. He would often add a few pages of flashiness in his music to impress the young women. He deeply loved women and wrote many love songs for them.

Biography Liszt was born in the village of Doborján, near Sopron, Hungary, in what was then the Austrian Empire (Doborján is now Raiding in Austria after the Treaty of Trianon of 1920). His baptism record is in Latin and lists his first name as Franciscus. The Hungarian variant Ferenc is often used, though Liszt never used this himself. His father, Ádám Liszt, was Hungarian and his mother was Austrian-born Anna Liszt, née Lager. Franz was a weak and sickly child, and was surrounded from his early childhood with music. His father, who worked at the court of Count Esterházy, was himself a pianist and cellist (he used to play in Esterházy’s summer orchestra in Eisenstadt); he organized chamber music evenings with amateur musicians from the surrounding villages, in which his old friends from Eisenstadt occasionally took part, so the level of music was fairly good. Liszt displayed incredible talent at a young age, easily sight-reading multiple staves at once. His father gave him his first music lessons when he was six years old.

Local aristocrats noticed his talent and enabled him to travel to Vienna and later to Paris with his family. As a result, Liszt never fully learned Hungarian; his later letters and diaries show that he came to regret this deeply. One letter to his mother begins in faltering Hungarian, and after an apology continues in French (his preferred language). In Vienna he was educated in piano technique by Carl Czerny. His father had wanted him to be taught by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, but Hummel’s fees were too high. Antonio Salieri taught him the technique of composition and fostered the young Liszt’s musical taste. He formed an early friendship with Frédéric Chopin, but later fierce competition turned the men into rivals. He was a lifelong friend of Camille Saint-Saens, and the latter dedicated his Symphony #3 in C Minor to Liszt. On April 13, 1823, Liszt gave a concert, and it is often said that the 53-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven gave him a kiss for his marvelous playing. Years of Pilgrimage Liszt left Vienna in 1823 to travel.

In Paris, on March 9, 1831, he attended a concert by the virtuoso violinist Paganini and became motivated to become the greatest pianist of his day. He often took to seclusion in his room, and was heard practicing for over 10 hours a day. In 1832 he wrote the Grande Fantaisie de Bravoure sur La Clochette de Paganini (“Great Bravura Fantasy on Paganini’s La Campanella”). A shorter piece using the same thematic content was included in the 1838 Etudes d’Execution Transcendante d’apres Paganini (Etudes for Transcendental Technique after Paganini). Also composed in this period were the 12 Grandes Etudes (Liszt later rewrote these into the 12 Transcendental Etudes in 1851). He fraternized with such noted composers of his time as Frédéric Chopin, Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann; and Richard Wagner, who later married Liszt’s daughter Cosima.

He was very widely read in philosophy, art and literature and was on friendly terms with the painter Ingres and the authors Heine, Lamennais, H.C. Andersen, and Baudelaire, who addressed his prose poem “Le thyrse” to Liszt. From 1835 to 1839 Franz Liszt lived with Marie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny, ex-wife of the Comte d’Agoult. She is better known by her pen name, “Daniel Stern.” They had two daughters, Blandina (1835-1862) and Cosima (1837-1930), and one son, Daniel (1839-1859). In 1840-1841 Liszt took part in two tours of the British Isles arranged by the young musician and conductor Lewis Henry Lavenu, accompanied by Lavenu’s half brother Frank Mori, two female singers and John Orlando Parry, an all round musician, singer and entertainer (who vividly recorded the tour in his diary).

Between August 17 and September 26, they gave 50 concerts around England which were generally unsuccessful, having an average attendance of 140. The second tour which encompassed Liverpool, Ireland and Scotland from November 1840- January 1841 was mildly more successful, with audiences of more than 1200 in Dublin. The tour was however a financial failure, and Liszt waived his promised 500 guineas a month fee. After 1842, when “Lisztomania” swept acros the European continent, Liszt’s recitals were in an overwhelming demand. His admirers praised and courted him, and ladies fought over his handkerchiefs and gloves, which they often ripped to pieces as souvenirs. Liszt’s contemporaries such as Chopin and Schumann saw this kind of worship as vulgar and inappropriate, and eventually came to despise Liszt because of it. In 1847 Liszt met Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. The Princess was an author, whose one work was published in 16 volumes, each containing over 1600 pages.

Her longwinded writing style had some effect on Liszt himself. His biography of Chopin and his chronology and analysis of Gypsy music (which later inspired Béla Bartók) were both written in the Princess’ loquacious style. The couple had intended to marry in 1860, but since the Princess had been previously married and her husband was still alive, the Roman Catholic authorities could not approve the wedding. Liszt and Princess Carolyne remained friends, although Liszt never recovered from being unable to marry her. During the years in which he performed regularly in public, he was almost universally acknowledged (even by musical conservatives who disliked his compositions) as the foremost pianistic executant and interpereter. His main rival in public esteem as a virtuoso was Sigismond Thalberg, who specialized in salon music, especially operatic fantasies. Thalberg’s reputation has faded, and in current opinion, only Chopin is comparably significant among romantic pianists. Liszt in Weimar In 1848, Liszt gave up public performances on the piano and went to Weimar, remaining there until 1861.

During this period he acted as conductor at court concerts and on special occasions at the theatre, gave lessons to a number of pianists, including the great virtuoso Hans von Bülow, who married Liszt’s daughter Cosima in 1857. He also wrote articles championing Berlioz and Wagner, and produced those orchestral and choral pieces upon which his reputation as a composer mainly rests. His efforts on behalf of Wagner, who was then an exile in Switzerland, culminated in the first performance of Lohengrin in 1850. The compositions belonging to the period of his residence at Weimar comprise two piano concertos, in E flat and in A, the Totentanz, the Concerto pathetique for two pianos, the Piano Sonata in B minor, sundry Etudes, fifteen Rhapsodies Hongroises, twelve orchestral Poemes symphoniques, Eine Faust Symphonie , and Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina Commedia, the 13th Psalm for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra, the choruses to Herder’s dramatic scenes Prometheus, and the Graner Fest Messe.

In 1851 he published a revised version of the 1838 Etudes d’Execution Transcendante d’apres Paganini, now titled Grandes Etudes de Paganini (Grand etudes after Paganini), the most famous of which is La Campanella, a study in octaves, shakes (trills) and leaps. In retirement Liszt retired to Rome in 1861. He joined the Franciscan order in 1865, receiving the tonsure and four Minor Orders of the Catholic Church (namely, Porter, Lector, Exorcist and Acolyte). From 1869 onwards, Abbé Liszt divided his time between Rome, Weimar and Budapest where during the summer months he continued to receive pupils gratis, including Alexander Siloti. During this time, his relationship with Wagner grew more strained. Cosima left Bülow, who abused her, for Wagner in 1869. The intensely devout Catholic Liszt was personally repulsed by his new son-in-law, but continued to champion his music, and regularly attended the Bayreuth Festival.

From 1876 until his death he also taught for several months every year at the Hungarian Conservatoire of Budapest. He died in Bayreuth on July 31, 1886 as a result of pneumonia which he contracted during the Bayreuth Festival hosted by his daughter, Cosima. At first he was surrounded by some of his more adoring pupils, including Arthur Friedheim, Siloti and Bernhard Stavenhagen, but they were denied access to his room by Cosima shortly before his death at 11:30pm. He is buried in the Bayreuth Friedhof. Musical style and influence The majority of Liszt’s piano compositions reflect his advanced virtuosity; however he was a prolific composer, and wrote works at several levels of difficulty, some being accessible to intermediate- (and even beginner-) level pianists. Abschied (Farewell) and Nuages Gris are examples of this less virtuosic style, as are at least some of the six Consolations. In his most popular and advanced works, he is the archetypal Romantic composer.

Liszt pioneered the technique of thematic transformation, a method of development which was related to both the existing variation technique and to the new use of the leitmotif by Richard Wagner. He also largely invented the symphonic poem, or tone poem, in a series of single-movement orchestral works composed in the 1840s and 1850s. His poems all came from classical literature, including “Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne,” based on a Victor Hugo poem of the same title, and “Les preludes” from Lamartine. Liszt’s “First Mephisto Waltz” was based on Lenau’s Faust, and he composed a second waltz from the poem in 1881. Other pieces are based on works by Lord Byron, Goethe and Dante. Liszt’s symphonic poems, although successes, were criticised because they were not Absolute music. His transcriptions met with less criticism. As a transcriber of even the most unlikely and complicated orchestral works, he created piano arrangements which stood on their own merits; many other pianist-composers followed his example.

While his Hungarian nationalist works are widely recognized, his understanding of form, expression and use of virtuosity for musical effect are more apparent elsewhere. Later works of the composer such as Bagatelle sans tonalité (“Bagatelle without Tonality”) foreshadow composers who would further explore the modern concept of atonality. His thoroughly revised masterwork, Années de Pélerinage (“Years of Pilgrimage”), arguably includes his most provocative and stirring pieces. This set of three suites ranges from the pure virtuosity of the Suisse Orage (Storm) to the subtle and imaginative visualizations of artworks by Michaelangelo and Raphael in the second set. Années contains some pieces which are loose transcriptions of Liszt’s own earlier compositions; the first “year” recreates his early pieces of Album d’un voyageur, while the second book includes a resetting of his own song transcriptions once separately published as Tre sonetti del Petrarca (“Three sonnets of Petrarch”). The relative obscurity of the vast majority of his works may be explained by the immense number of pieces he composed. To Franz Liszt’s honor, he helped found the Liszt School of Music Weimar [1], which bears his name.

– Besides, Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest (a music school and a concert hall) is also named after him. His piano works have always been well represented in concert programs and recordings by pianists throughout the world. Many of his works have been recorded a multitude of times. However the only pianist who has recorded his entire pianistic oeuvre is the Australian Leslie Howard. This massive undertaking included a number of premiere recordings. Liszt’s virtuosity and technical reforms Liszt’s playing was described as theatrical and showy, and all those who saw him perform were stunned at his unrivaled mastery over the keyboard. Perhaps the best indication of Liszt’s piano-playing abilities comes from his Transcendental and Paganini Studies, written in 1838-39, and described by Schumann as “playable at the most, ten or twelve players in the world”. To play these pieces, a pianist must connect with the piano as an extension of his own body. Liszt claimed to have spent ten or twelve hours each day practicing scales, arpeggios, trills and repeated notes to improve his technique and endurance.

All of these piano techniques were often applied in his compositions with, often unparalled difficulty. He would often challenge himself and his immaculate fingering by presenting random problems to his playing. During a performance of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto in Vienna he managed to cut the second finger of his left hand, and played the entire piece by redistributing the notes amongst his other fingers. During the 1830s and 1840s—the years of Liszt’s “transcendental execution”, he revolutionized piano technique in almost every sector. Figures like Rubinstein, Paderewski and Rachmaninoff turned to Liszt’s music to discover the laws which govern the keyboard. Piano recital While touring, Liszt would play before as many as three thousand attendees. He would learn entire programmes from memory, play with the piano at right angles to the platform (with its lid open, reflecting sound across the auditorium), and traversed the European continent from the Urals to Ireland. Those were all feats unmatched by any solo pianist at the time.

The very term “recital” was coined by Liszt in London on June 9, 1840, and his career model is still followed by performing artists to this day. Noted works (1822) Variation on a Theme by Diabelli (S/G147, R26) (1826) Etude in Twelve Exercises, including No. 10 in F Minor (1832) Grande Fantasie de Bravoure sur La Clochette, variations (S/G420, R321) (1833) Arrangement of “Scaffold March” from Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique (S/G470, R136) (1833) Divertissement on the Cavatina “I tuoi frequenti palpiti” from Pacini’s La Niobe (S/G419, R230) (1838) Grandes Etudes de Paganini, including No. 3, “La Campanella”; and No.

5, “La Chasse” (revised 1851) (1841) Feuilles d’album (‘Album Leaves’), (S/G165) (1841) Réminiscences de Don Juan, (S/G418) (1848) Trois Études de Concert No. 3, Un Sospiro (“A sigh”), Etude No. 39 (piano solo) (S/G144, R5) (1848-53) Années de Pèlerinage: Première Année — Suisse; Deuxième Année — Italie – Venezia e Napoli; Troisième Année (1848-61) Twelve Symphonic Poems Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne, (1848-9) (after Victor Hugo) Tasso: lamento e trionfo, (1849) (after Byron) Les préludes, after Lamartine (1848, rev.

before 1854) Orpheus, (1853-4) Die Ideale (1857), after Schiller (1849) Piano Concerto no. 1 in E-flat Major (S/G124) (1849) Piano Concerto no. 2 in A Major (S/G125) (revised 1861) (1849) Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses, (S/G173) a collection of solo piano pieces, including the often-performed No. 7, Funérailles (1849) Totentanz (‘Dance of death’) (S/G126ii), piano concerto. (revised 1853-1859) (1850) Liebesträume No.

3 (“Dreams of Love”) in A-flat Major (piano solo) (S/G541, R211) (1851) Transcendental Etudes (Prelude, Molto Vivace, Paysage, Mazeppa, Feux Follets, Vision, Eroica, Wilde Jagd, Ricordanza, Allegro Agitato Molto, Harmonies du soir, and Chasse-niege. Known well for being technically difficult, notedly Mazeppa and Feux Follets) (S/G139, R2B) (1851) Nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies (S/G244, R106) – Rhapsody No. 2 became famous in the modern day as a popular piece for accompaniment of animated cartoons, during the golden age of animation; Rhapsody No. 19 in D Minor (1885) is also of note. (1852) Valse-Impromptu, (S/G213) (1855) Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H for organ, rev.

1870 (1857) Dante Symphony (1860) Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (piano solo) (S/G514, R181) (1866) Christus (S/G498b) (1881) Nuages Gris (‘Grey clouds’) (S/G199, R78) (1885) Bagatelle sans tonalité (S216a) Note: Although Liszt provided opus numbers for his works during his lifetime, these are rarely used today. Instead, his works are usually identified using one of two different cataloging schemes: More commonly used in English speaking countries are the “S” or “G” numbers, derived from Humphrey Searle catalogue of the 1960s, The Music of Liszt. [2] Less commonly used is the “R” number, which derives from Peter Raabe’s 1931 catalogue Franz Liszt: Leben und Schaffen.

Literary Works He wrote about many subjects, such as: a necrology of Paganini; the position of music in Italy; Robert and Clara Schumann; Chopin; Robert Franz; Beethoven’s “Fidelio”; Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”; the Goethe’s Foundation at Weimar; Wagner’s Lohengrin and Tannhäuser; the music of the Hungarian gypsies; John Field’s nocturnes; Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy”; and much more. His letters and musical essays are published in 6 volumes. Some literary works that appeared under his name were actually written by Marie d’Agoult and Carolyn von Sayn-Wittgenstein. However, a work only he could have written himself is a “Manual of Pianoforte Technique” for the Geneva Conservatoire. This has never seen the light of day, but there is no reason to believe it never existed. It is now considered a lost work. It would provide an invaluable insight into the playing style of probably the greatest pianist who ever lived. References Walker, Alan. Franz Liszt, The Virtuoso Years (revised edition) Cornell University Press, 1987.

ISBN 0801494214. Walker, Alan. Franz Liszt, The Weimar Years Cornell University Press, 1989. ISBN 0801497213. External links

Question: Which composer wrote a Faust Symphony in 1857?
Answer: Franz Liszt