Customer Reviews

Franz Liszt: Symphonic Poems, Vol. 5

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So far this is the last volume in Gianandrea Noseda's exploration of Liszt's symphonic poems - it was recorded in September/November 2008 - and it seems that there will be no volume 6. Together with the BBC Philharmonic and Chandos, Noseda has in the recent years recorded all of Liszt's 13 symphonic poems, his two 'program symphonies', which are in fact multi-part symphonic poems, and his two Legendes. On the whole, Noseda's cycle is expendable and, considering the price, it can be recommended only to curious Liszt completists. Though a decidedly finer musician than Masur, Noseda shares with him a temperament basically unfit for Liszt's music. Be that as it may, the two Legendes included on this fifth volume are something quite unique that nobody seriously interested in Liszt's orchestral music should miss.

The two Legendes, of course, are the ones that are much better known in their versions for solo piano: No. 1 St François d'Assise: la prédication aux oiseaux; No. 2 St François de Paule marchant sur les flots. These marvellously evocative and powerful pieces are not recorded as often as they should, but as far as I know this is the only recording of the orchestral versions that exists. Jonathan Summers, in his extensive and excellent liner notes, tells us that the manuscript of the orchestral versions was discovered only in 1975, in the collection of August Göllerich, one of Liszt's pupils; it was published as recently as 1984 by Editio Musica in Budapest. It is not certain which came first - the piano or the orchestral versions - but both were surely composed in the first half of the 1860s. The fascinating thing is that the piano versions were published in 1866, while the orchestral ones not only remained unpublished for almost a century after Liszt's death, but it is not known that Liszt ever mentioned these manuscripts to anybody. Anyway, both works are just as haunting in these orchestrations as they are in their original (or not?) versions for solo piano. Mr Summers also mentions in his notes the instrumentation Liszt employs for both pieces; it is telling: No. 1 was scored for strings, woodwinds and harp only, whereas No. 2 makes use of additional four horns, four trombones and a bass trombone. I hope these orchestral versions will be performed and recorded more often in the future. They certainly deserve that. Unfortunately, even without reference for comparison, Noseda's devastating caution 'shines' through.

Noseda's 'Dante' Symphony is done in his typical, fast-paced Masur-like, style; and it is recorded in Chados' typical digital sound where clarity is somewhat at expense of sonority. Unlike his over-rated predecessor, Noseda manages to pull off the symphony without any rushing; the only exceptions are the haunting climax of 'Purgatorio', which is completely ruined, and the ethereal 'Magnificat', which is at least partly compromised. Considering Noseda's innate fear of big orchestral sound and over-the-top Romantic rhetoric, he is surprisingly convincing in the outer parts of 'Inferno', though he is nowhere near the class of Sinopoli on DG or Barenboim on TELDEC. Apart from the velocity problem here and there, or his inherent timidity almost all the time, the only real problem with Noseda's recording is Gilian Keith whose screeching soprano mars the otherwise beautiful singing of the ladies from City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus.

All in all, Noseda fully lives up to his DDD status: Decent, Dependable, and Dull. Normally, he wouldn't receive more than three stars, even though his 'Dante' is surprisingly convincing. But I should like to give this CD four stars solely because of the extreme scarcity of the two Legendes. It is hoped that Noseda's example will have some followers and these obscure Legendes, as well as Liszt's still neglected symphonic poems and symphonies, will be performed and recorded much more often in future. It is also hoped that in the future these works might be tackled by conductors who are not afraid to push the limits of their orchestras at least as far Liszt pushed his contemporary limits of form, tonality and content some century and a half ago.