Special offer. Liszt - Symphonic Poems Volume 5
BBC Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda
Once again in this superb series Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic erase all possible bombast and inflated rhetoric in performances of a special refinement and romantic fervour. …throughout,...
Special offer. Liszt - Symphonic Poems Volume 5
BBC Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda
Purchase product
Once again in this superb series Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic erase all possible bombast and inflated rhetoric in performances of a special refinement and romantic fervour. …throughout,...
About
This monumental survey draws to a close with Dante’s Symphony, coupled with Two Legends.
Based on Dante’s Divine Comedy, Liszt’s Dante Symphony was completed in 1856 and dedicated to his friend and mentor, Richard Wagner. Liszt had conceived a work that was to combine music, poetry and the visual arts. He wrote to Wagner in 1855 ‘I have long been carrying a Dante Symphony in my heard – this year I intend to get it down on paper. There are to be three movements, Hell, Purgatory and Paradise – the first two for orchestra alone, the last with chorus. Liszt inscribed Wagner’s copy of the Dante Symphony, ‘As Virgil guided Dante, so you have guided me through the mysterious regions of the life-imbued worlds of tone. From the depths of his heart calls to you ‘Tu sei lo mio maestro, e il mio autore!’ and dedicates this work to you in unchangeably faithful love, your F.Liszt.’ Liszt quotes the words Dante spoke to Virgil, ‘You are my master, and my author’ from Inferno, canto 1, line 85.
Two Legends complements Dante Symphony. It is best known as a solo piano work, and is rarely recorded in its orchestral version. This makes for a useful addition to the catalogue.
Contents and tracklist
- Gianandrea Noseda, BBC Philharmonic, Gillian Keith, Ladies Voices of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus
Awards and reviews
August 2009
Once again in this superb series Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic erase all possible bombast and inflated rhetoric in performances of a special refinement and romantic fervour. …throughout, you are made to feel the composer's humility before Dante's greatness. Once more Chandos has done the orchestra and conductor proud in a recorded sound of a special brilliance and transparency.
12th June 2009
We're reminded that the Purgatorio pre-empts not just the harmonic irresolution of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde but the sickly sensuousness of Parsifal. The Deux Légendes, meanwhile, are orchestrations, undiscovered until 1975, of St Francis of Assisi: the Sermon to the Birds, and St Francis of Paola Walking on the Waves, neither of which is quite as good as its piano original. They're wonderfully done, but it's the Dante Symphony that makes the disc such essential listening.
28th May 2009
Liszt’s mastery at musical depictions of dramatic fury is borne out by this arresting performance of his two-part but multifaceted symphony inspired by Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio
The Independent on Sunday 17th May 2009
Textural precision is foremost in "Deux Légendes", with an exhilarating wash of brass, low woodwind and frenzied strings in "St François de Paule marchant sur les flots". Most impressive, however, is Noseda's navigation of the bombastic colourations of "Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina Commedia".
