LISZT, Franz 1811-1886

Symphonische Dichtungen für grosses Orchester ... Partitur ... Les Préludes. (nach Lamartine) Pr. Mk 7.50. [S97] [Orchestral score]

Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel [PN 9056], [after 1874].

Octavo. Original publisher's dark ivory wrappers. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), 1f. (recto preface in German, verso preface in French), 1f. (recto composer's note in German on performance practice, verso same note in French dated "Weimar, Mars 1856"), 97, [i] (blank) pp. Title, preface, and note lithographed; music engraved.

Small B & H stamp to lower outer corner of title.

With publisher's catalogue to verso of lower wrapper.

Wrappers slightly worn and soiled; spine lacking. Occasional small stains; dampstaining to lower outer corners of first leaves; one signature partiallky detached.

Re-issue from first edition plates. Searle 97. Raabe 414. Sonneck p. 266.

Liszt was a distinguished Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and writer.

"Sketchbook evidence points to 1846–7 as the years when Liszt began to conceive the idea of a series of programmatic orchestral works. Of the four works he named, all based on French poetry, Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne and Les Préludes eventually became symphonic poems. ...

Liszt’s concentration on the symphonic poem largely coincided with his tenure as Kapellmeister in Weimar, where he had an orchestra at his disposal and provided music for performances at the Court Theatre. The Grand Duke commissioned Liszt’s ‘overtures’ to preface specific dramas, which thereby determined the subject matter of what were to become a number of his symphonic poems. Cormac (F2017) argues that Liszt’s approach to the overtures and their transformation into symphonic poems was influenced by his experience of an array of dramatic media (opera, plays, melodramas, tableaux vivants), and by his interaction with staff and actors involved in the dramatic productions in Weimar. A New German School acolyte, Felix Draeseke, writing about the symphonic poems in a series of essays from the late 1850s, acknowledged the influence of dramatic music, especially opera, on Liszt’s Festklänge. Draeseke also addressed the issue that continues to interest scholars – the symphonic poems’ engagement with sonata form. ...

Looking at the 12 Weimar symphonic poems, Vande Moortele ... views all but three (Orpheus, Héroide funèbre, and Hunnenschlacht) as using sonata form as one of the central principles guiding their large-scale organization. Furthermore, Liszt seems to have attempted the same merging of sonata form and sonata cycle evident in the B Minor Sonata in Tasso, Les préludes, and Die Ideale (and possibly Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne). ...

Some of the symphonic poems include mimetic representation of scenes and actions, such as Hunnenschlacht’s depiction of a battle and Prometheus’s evocation of a voice, followed by a storm. The inclusion of such passages drew criticism that a number of the symphonic poems seemed formless, and could not be understood without access to a programme. In other symphonic poems, such as Les Préludes and Orpheus, Liszt responded to a philosophical programme without compromising musical logic. In these cases, critics recognized Liszt the ‘tone poet’ who could capture a poetic stimulus in an expressive, evocative musical flow, unified by a single theme that underwent transformations. In general, Liszt’s sumptuous orchestral colorings were the dominant focus of critics’ positive reception of his symphonic poems and programme symphonies." Dolores Pesce, Maria Eckhardt, and Rena Charnin Mueller in Grove Music Online.

Item #41065

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