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trained-pianist
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« Reply #15 on: 22:33:42, 18-03-2007 » |
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Thank you Ian. I must read Liszt's letters. I found Mozart's letters fascinating. Beethoven's letters were interesting too.
Also that Via Crucis is a good piece to know better for me. I loved Liszt's organ music. I did not think I would (after Bach and all), but I did.
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autoharp
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« Reply #16 on: 12:22:03, 19-03-2007 » |
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On the subject of early piano works, has anybody ever heard the opening of Harmonies poetiques et religieuses (the piece not the set) played as indicated ? - "Extremement lent avec un profond sentiment d'ennui". And with a "tres long silence" at the end of the first page ?
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pim_derks
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« Reply #17 on: 13:30:04, 19-03-2007 » |
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Just to second most of the recommendations and also add another book - Lettres d'un Voyageur, edited by Charles Suttoni, a collection of Liszt's early letters, during his time as a touring virtuoso. Fascinating stuff, often not what you would imagine.
Liszt's letters are very interesting indeed. Sometimes very aggressive, sometimes very funny. I have a collection in Dutch. "Het goede willen is al het goede doen," is a sentence from this collection I will never forget. Other interesting books written by musicians are Lorenzo da Ponte's memoirs and the autobiography of John Philip Sousa. |
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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Jonathan
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« Reply #18 on: 18:28:57, 19-03-2007 » |
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Autoharp,
Yes, by me! It's a really strange piece and quite unlike the other pieces that he is famous for.
As for letters, I dislike reading collections of them, it always feels as though I am intruding. I've just read a biography by Alexander MacKenzie (dating from 1910!) about Liszt and it is probably the nicest book on him I have. He obviously knew the man well and writes of his as a friend rather than a biographical subject.
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Best regards,
Jonathan
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"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #19 on: 19:08:58, 19-03-2007 » |
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Do people agree that the best biography is by Alan Walker in three volumes?
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autoharp
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« Reply #20 on: 19:23:43, 19-03-2007 » |
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Ah, Jonathan ! This I would like to hear !
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roslynmuse
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« Reply #21 on: 20:57:33, 19-03-2007 » |
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t-p - yes, definitely! (see one of my earlier posts!)
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Jonathan
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« Reply #22 on: 21:19:33, 19-03-2007 » |
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Autoharp,
Thanks! I've not recorded it but i do have some other recordings of mine as mp3's on the hard drive.
I might attach one later in this thread - bearing in mind that I'm not happy with them and they were recorded 6 years ago and the sound quality (despite audioclean) is rubbish.
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Best regards,
Jonathan
*********************************************
"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #23 on: 20:17:27, 20-03-2007 » |
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Do people agree that the best biography is by Alan Walker in three volumes?
Certainly - I think most Liszt scholars would likely agree, also. You could say it's a four volume biography, if the book about Liszt's death is considered as an appendage. |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #24 on: 19:07:07, 24-03-2007 » |
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Another interesting quote from Liszt (from a letter to Adolphe Picet in September 1837), which I had forgotten about before, which relates somewhat to things that have been discussed in other threads:
What is art, the artist to do in these terrible times? The painters exhibit pictures and the musicians give concerts for the benefit of the poor. No doubt they do well to be concerned in this way, if only to demonstrate their ever-present desire to serve the cause of the working class. But should they really limit themselves to something as partial or as incomplete as that? For too long they have been regarded as courtiers and parasites of the palace. For too long they have celebrated the affairs of the great and the pleasures of the rich. The time has come for them to restore courage to the weak and to ease the suffering of the oppressed. Art must remind the people of the beautiful self-sacrifice, the heroic determination, the fortitude, and the humanity of their peers. The Providence of God must be announced anew to the people the dawn of a better day must be shown to them so that they can hold themselves in readiness for it and hope can inspire noble virtues in them. Above al, the Light must flood their spirit from all sides, the sweet joy of art must take its place in people’s homes, so that they too will come to know life’s prize and never turn barbaric in their vengeance or merciless in their frustration.
In Suttoni - Lettres d'un Voyageur, p. 50.
Were there any artistic figures in the 19th century who didn't believe that the 'suffering of the oppressed' was best eased by art? Who exactly are the 'peers' that Liszt is referring to, those who demonstrate 'beautiful self-sacrifice' and 'heroic determination'? If those are fellow members of the working classes, is this not a way of romanticising the very condition of their oppression (notwithstanding Liszt's own flirtations with Saint-Simonism)? If 'art must take its place in people's homes' so that they well 'never turn barbaric in their vengeance or merciless in their frustration', is Liszt propagating a similar ideology to that of Matthew Arnold in his Culture and Anarchy (whose theories are cruelly parodied by Terry Eagleton, who paraphrases Arnold's ideas as follows: 'If the masses were not thrown some novels, they might respond by throwing up some barricades')? Interested in the thoughts of Lisztians here.
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« Last Edit: 19:11:41, 24-03-2007 by Ian Pace »
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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Jonathan
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« Reply #25 on: 22:13:15, 24-03-2007 » |
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Hi Ian,
I wonder if perhaps the workers who inspired the piece "Lyon" from the Album d'un Voyager were who he had in mind when he wrote that? The score for the piece is prefaced with their motto which translates as: "To live in honest toil or die fighting"
(it's an excellent piece as well, IMHO!)
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Best regards,
Jonathan
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"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #26 on: 13:44:29, 25-03-2007 » |
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Hi Ian,
I wonder if perhaps the workers who inspired the piece "Lyon" from the Album d'un Voyager were who he had in mind when he wrote that? The score for the piece is prefaced with their motto which translates as: "To live in honest toil or die fighting"
(it's an excellent piece as well, IMHO!)
Absolutely it is! And very little-known. I don't think it's included in the EMB edition, is it (as it's part of the Album d'un Voyageur, deemed merely an early version of Années de pèlerinage - I haven't got all the volumes, though, they are rather pricey)? But in Volume 2 of the Liszt Society edition, for those who want to check it out. There was talk of a new complete edition, from Peters, I think, that really would be complete, including all earlier versions of pieces. I think Leslie Howard would have been the editor of it. Wonder if that, or something equivalent, will ever happen? |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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Jonathan
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« Reply #27 on: 13:49:54, 25-03-2007 » |
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Lyon is a brilliant little piece and I have it in a Dover edition along with all three Annees de Pelerinage. I don't play it very often though, maybe I should have a proper go at it now that I've played most of the Annees. I sincerely hope there is a complete edition, I remember Leslie Howard saying at a Liszt Society day some years ago that it would run to "about 30 volumes of 300 pages apiece". The EMB is overpriced and lacking a lot of things as well but it's the best available at the moment. Incidentally, there is volume 1 of a thematic catalogue due to be published later in the year, written by Leslie Howard and Michael Short - details are here: http://www.pendragonpress.com/cgi-bin/bl.cgi?title=&author=Leslie+Howard&desc=&SUBMIT=Search+Now... (assuming that works!) |
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Best regards,
Jonathan
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"as the housefly of destiny collides with the windscreen of fate..."
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roslynmuse
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« Reply #28 on: 13:54:59, 25-03-2007 » |
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Yes, the link works! Looks fascinating. Was amused to see it listed as Howard/ Short catalogue - anything but short I should imagine!
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smittims
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« Reply #29 on: 10:44:19, 02-04-2007 » |
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I've loved the 'Faust'Symphony ever sinve I first heard Beecham's amazong recording. It's a work which silences any criticism about shallowness:this is clearly a major workof art by any standards.
The Prom performance was announced as of the 'original' version.Can anyone tell me how this differs from the final one? I missed the end, so could it be the absence of the final chorus?
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