Although Lizst is a 'sung' composer, this piece is not. It was composed to celebrate Schiller's 100 birthday. It is a theatrical melodrama featuring actors interacting with the incidental music . This first UK performance will take place at Cadogan Hall, London on 4th October. Actors include Jema Redgrave and Sara Kestelman with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Also included in the concert are Hummel's Freudenfest Overture and Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier Suite. The evening is introduced by the musicologist Gerard McBurney.
I wonder if my fellow Liszt Society members are aware of this?
S 347 for what it's worth.
I have it listed as being for 'three speakers and orchestra'.
Quote from: TerraEpon on Wednesday 25 September 2019, 13:27
I have it listed as being for 'three speakers and orchestra'.
Liszted, shurely...
Ho, ho.
I believe there is a discussion about this work on BBC radio 3 on the "In Tune" programme this afternoon.
I listened to it: it was everything Radio 3 has become - superficial. No discussion of how effective (or otherwise) the "melodrama" sections are (we never got to hear a clip of any of those). No discussion of the text, nor what McBurney had to do to make the music performable. No meat - just watery pap: an insult to the intelligent listener.
These days Radio 3 is like Classic FM with intellectual pretensions, but no actual intellectual content. Quite honestly the members of this forum could do a better job...
I agree, R3 is a shadow of it's former self. I actually missed the segment about the Liszt but it can't have been very long as I was only out of earshot of a radio for a short while.
Oh for the days of Anthony Hopkins (no, not that one) and 'Talking About Music'.
If allowed, will somebody be able to record it when it is broadcast, and upload it? Or is it being released commercially?
Quoteit can't have been very long as I was only out of earshot of a radio for a short while.
The interview with McBurney lasted about 5 mins, if that, preceded by about a minute's worth of purely orchestral music from the piece. That was it! Wow!!!
My recording of the concert is available in our Downloads board here (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7402.0.html). I've included the three minute introductory commentary and interview with the conductor as a separate file. The whole concert can be heard on the BBC web site here (http://hwww.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008w7p). Vor hundert Jahren lasts around 44 minutes, but only about a third of that is music - the rest is English dialogue, translated from the German original. Not having access to the score, I haven't attempted split this into the four tableaux mentioned in the introduction. As a prelude to Vor hundert Jahren we heard the associated purely orchestral Kunstlerfestzug, a 10 minute long piece new to me but, like the main event, best described as "occasional music". I don't think we should get too excited.
QuoteNot having access to the score, I haven't attempted split this into the four tableaux mentioned in the introduction.
I might just as well post this here; my "edition" with a piano reduction alongside the score. It's unfinished in a way - the text column in
italics would be reserved for an English translation which I didn't have at the time of making it. In any case, hopefully it can be useful to you.
The BBC3 Radio performance itself was just a pleasure to listen for me - to finally hear how it all comes together. That some/most of the music (and also Kunstlerfestzug) might be classed occasionally superfluous is of course valid criticism.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/85rqn1sybytgq7b/Vor%20hundert%20Jahren%20-%20Full%20Score%20%28december%202018%29.pdf?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/85rqn1sybytgq7b/Vor%20hundert%20Jahren%20-%20Full%20Score%20%28december%202018%29.pdf?dl=0)
Thanks tpaloj, that's really helpful and the score really adds to the enjoyment of the melodrama. You've done a great job.
Very many thanks Mark for making this available - I'm abroad at the moment so missed the broadcast!
Huh interesting, I'm actually more interested in S 114 which I don't have a recording of (if there are any).
Ok so it turns out there are two versions of it for piano and I have both of them.....still a nice piece though.
Am going to its performance this evening in Cadogan Hall.....
Well, it just finished, now it's the interval. I really liked what must (presumably) have been the overture. But then I think they should have stopped there. Most of the rest of it is spoken - a pretty third-rate piece of interminable angsty German poetry (in translation) lamenting, on and on, poor "Germania". Most of the music throughout the remainder was not really Liszt's bar a few plucks for sound effect here and there - it was Beethoven's Ode to Joy and Gaudeamus Igitur (whoever wrote that...). Some of the words of the poem are quite uncomfortable from this end of history "Our Fatherland must be bigger!"... etc - ouch.
But yes, I will take the MP3 and cut out the overtire as a stand-alone piece and add that to my Liszt collection and enjoy it.
Is it too soon to say that this was an example of over-hyping an unknown minor piece by a major composer and that instead more time should have been spent putting on the unknown masterpieces by forgotten composers of which the so-called experts are completely unaware?
No, it isn't too soon. Vor hundert Jahren is, as I mentioned above, an Occasion piece and we don't normally expect profundity from such works, but even setting the bar that low I must admit I've found it pretty thin gruel. As Christopher says, several of its short episodes borrow from other musical material, to reflect episodes in Schiller's life, but even then that material (like Gaudeamus Igitur etc) isn't developed with much imagination because Liszt doesn't have long to do so before he has to stop for another long stretch of interminable mono/dialogue. I can't say I enjoy the melodrama form much anyway, but I am a Liszt enthusiast and did want this to be something special. It really isn't. The text doesn't bother me, it's of its time certainly but just has to be taken in context. The "Overture" section of Vor hundert Jahren by the way lasts only just over a minute, I suspect what Christopher thought was the Overture is the separate work Kunsterlerfestzug, itself an Occasion piece, which immediately preceded the main work that followed without a break.
Continuing to answer Alan's question, what a shame that the time and effort put into this wasn't spent on reviving the original version of Der entfesselte Prometheus, another pièce d'occaision but a much more balanced mix of melodrama and choral music, preceded by a fine overture which Liszt later reworked as the familiar symphonic poem. Prometheus also has the added attraction of being a truly joint effort by Liszt and the young Raff.
Thanks, Mark. It's just that I thought I heard the bottom of a barrel being scraped...
Quote from: Mark Thomas on Saturday 05 October 2019, 07:36
several of its short episodes borrow from other musical material, to reflect episodes in Schiller's life,
I wouldn't even say borrow, rather copy-paste...!
I'm in agreement with your sentiments regarding the piece. Vor hundert Jahren will probably only ever appeal to true Liszt enthusiasts. Upon first hearing the selection of material might appear inconsequential, but I think some credit should be given to the fitting choice of pieces and there are some interesting details to be appreciated.
The music in the first section after the Overture ("The Appearance of Poesie") Liszt would later include in the "March of the Three Kings" of his Oratorio Christus.
The ending of the "Parzenlied" section closes with the familiar "cross" motive of Liszt's (often quoted in Via crucis, Christus etc).
In the first Tableaux, the tune we commonly associate as a student song (Gaudeamus igitur), appears because a song in Schiller's play "Robbers" was set and popularly sung to this melody. Here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulHd38GCNhc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulHd38GCNhc).
The second Tableaux, "Wallenstein's Camp", is a trilogy of plays by Schiller. Liszt arranges a popular tune "Wohlauf Kameraden", to which a song in Schiller's play was commonly sung to. Here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MciCKJDF-l0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MciCKJDF-l0).
In the Third, Swiss-associated Tableaux there is no song in Schiller's Wilhelm Tell from which to draw (or copy-paste ;D ) material from, but instead we can hear the fitting Le mal du pays from Liszt's Swiss years of pilgrimage.
All in all, Liszt chose not (or was not allowed) to take too many liberties in this work. His librettist Halm had clearly indicated sections in the text where music were to be inserted, and Liszt followed this instruction almost to the letter. Liszt's autograph seems somewhat hurriedly composed. That whole part with Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" blazing as Schiller's statue is revealed, is not even in the autograph! Liszt probably just told his copyist to look up the Beethoven score and copy-paste something in that section.
EDIT: Also my great thanks to Mark for creating the download and your kind words about the score.
That's really illuminating, tpaloj, thanks again. I for one did appreciate that the borrowings weren't random but, as you say, the score has all the hallmarks of being put together in haste. Still, as a completist I'm pleased to have the recording, although I doubt that I'll listen to it very often.