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Franz Liszt
was born in Raiding (Hungary), on October 22, 1811; the son of a steward
in the service of the Esterházy family, patrons of Haydn. He died
in Bayreuth (Germany), on July 31, 1886, during the Wagner Festival.
Wagner was the husband of Liszt's daughter Cosima.
Liszt studied piano with Carl Czerny and composition
with Antonio Salieri in Vienna and later continued his education in Paris
with Ferdinando Paer and Anton Reicha, learning composition and music theory.
By the age of twelve he established himself as a concert pianist.
No-one was his equal in piano performance. Liszt pioneered in playing
solo piano
concerts, which were an absolutely unknown phenomenon at that time.
He competed with the violinist Paganini in the development of different
virtuoso techniques.
In 1848, Liszt took a full-time conducting post at
the Weimar court, where, living with the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein,
he conducted new operas by Wagner, Berlioz and Verdi and became a musical
icon worshipped by numerous followers. Conductor Hans von Bülow was
among them.
During his Weimar period, Liszt composed eleven of
his twelve symphonic poems ('die sinfonische Dichtungen'). Establishing
this new genre Liszt followed the idea of monothematism and derived all
musical material from the short initial motif. One-part form, usually
the developed sonata allegro with introduction and conclusion, was the
formal structure for his symphonic poems.
Liszt's commitment 'to translate literature into music'
resulted in the creation of new aesthetics known as program symphonism.
Many of Liszt's disciples turned his idea into an absurdity of primitive
musical illustration of literary origins. Most of Liszt's followers
had no idea about the spiritual content of music and were ready to search
for it in other forms of art. It always brought them to the dead end.
They did not understand that music and literature might just have the same
spiritual source, which was called by Liszt 'a program' and the unfolding
of spiritual content as 'a plot'.
Everyone, who studied Liszt, read about the war between
followers of 'pure music' /Brahms/ and 'program music' /Liszt, Wagner/.
Even today many don't know who was right and who won. In my opinion,
one important point is missing in a list of numerous arguments advocating
'pure', or 'program music': Any music has a program and therefore IS 'program'.
The program means the spiritual content of the particular piece of music
and the 'plot' is the unfolding of this spiritual content. The best
music inspired by literary origins has never been an illustration /accompaniment/
of the literary work. The spiritual origin was inspirational to both
forms of art.
Neither music, nor literature is original. They are
just our reflections of various spiritual patterns, spread across eternity.
What then are all those innovations described by every researcher of Liszt's
music? If a composer just sincerely follows the unfolding of the
spiritual content regardless how advanced and revolutionary it is for a
listener, why should we expect any innovations? There are no innovations.
If someone tells you what you forgot or what you, lacking a sensitivity,
consider non-existing, why should you think that you are hearing something
'new' invented by a composer and why should this 'discovery' be his virtue?
In the Middle Ages most composers were anonymous, but
maybe at that time they understood more about music composition.
Mark Ermler
(1932 - 2002) recorded more operas than any other Russian conductor.
He was famed for his work with the Bolshoi. Ermler graduated from
the St. Petersburg conservatory under Boris Khaikin and Alexander Rabinovich.
It is interesting, that the St. Petersburg school of conducting is very
different from Moscow or any other school. An amazing perfection
in ensemble and in the balance of orchestral groups, attention to each
detail of the orchestral score and persistence in achievement of artistic
goals, are features of performances by Ermler. His interpretations
remind us of the best recordings of other conductors, followers of the
St. Petersburg school of orchestral direction - Evgeni Mravinsky and Vladimir
Fedoseyev.
Ermler did not only tour with the Bolshoi Theatre,
but took on many engagements in the world's leading opera houses.
In 1985, he was appointed principal guest conductor of London's Royal Ballet.
His recording of Tchaikovsky ballets with the Royal Opera House Orchestra
in London is probably the most known and the most admirable.
His last appointment was in 2000, as Musical Director
of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
St. Petersburg was the place where Liszt during his
concert tour in 1847 first met the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein
which resulted in his fruitful Weimar period and the composition of eleven
symphonic poems. Three of them - "Festival Echoes", "Hamlet"
and "Hungary" - are recorded on this album by Ermler and the
USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra in 1988 and 1989. "Festival
Echoes" is autobiographical and portrays the Princess Wittgenstein
and Liszt.
©2003 Evgeni Kostitsyn
Franz Liszt
(1811 - 1886)
1. Festival Echoes
Symphonic Poem No. 7 - 19:03
2. Hamlet
Symphonic Poem No. 10 - 14:06
3. Hungary
Symphonic Poem No. 9 - 22:16
Total Time - 55:41
The USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra
Mark Ermler, conductor
Recorded in 1988 (1, 2) and 1989 (3)
Recording engineers: Pakhter (1, 2) and Ivanov (3)
Cover painting "Kiss" by Gustav Klimt
Design by Evgeni Kostitsyn