Stephen, the Pro Cultura Hungarica award, and even a mounted bronze cast of Liszt’s hand presented by the Hungarian President. When Hyperion Records declared the album finished in 1999, it earned Leslie Howard, amongst other awards, an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest recording project ever undertaken by a solo recording artist (pop or classical), six Grands Prix du Disque, the Medal of St. ![]() It took Leslie and Hyperion Records fourteen years to complete the recordings, with the final album amounting to a mammoth size of 1377 tracks in ninety-five full-length CDs (equivalent to nearly five days’ continuous playing time). This massive undertaking attracted the attention of Ted Perry, Hyperion Records’ founder and managing director, who invited Leslie to record a comprehensive series of Liszt’s solo piano oeuvre, this time with no time constraints. The Liszt Project started in 1986 when, as a commemoration of the centenary of Liszt’s death, Leslie performed Liszt’s entire original solo piano works (excluding arrangements and transcriptions) in a series of ten mammoth recitals. Or rather, Leslie Howard’s ambitious recording of all of Liszt’s solo piano works was. Liszt never did finish the orders to become a full-fledged priest, though he was made canon of Albano in 1879.ģ Liszt was listed in the Guinness World Records. Two years later, Liszt declared that he was to enter a life of seclusion, and he retreated to a monastery outside Rome, receiving minor orders of the Catholic church and becoming a Franciscan monk. Liszt nearly married Princess zu Sayn-Wittgenstein in 1861, but his plans were thwarted by the Russian Tsar. This naturally made him unhappy with the libretto, and he had only completed seventy minutes’ worth of music by the time of his death. Unfortunately, Liszt’s heart was not in the story because he wanted to make a present for Princess zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. Interestingly, Liszt also started work on the third oratorio in Weimar, whose libretto was about St Stanislaus’ love of Poland. Liszt’s religious beliefs returned with a fervor in 1847, and he produced most of his major religious works in Weimar, including the mass for the consecration of Basilica at Gran, the setting of Psalm 13, numerous settings of Ave Maria, and the Cantico del Sol (the Hymn to the Sun), where Liszt set to music the words of St François d’Assise. However, Liszt was influenced by the idea that an organized form of religion is not satisfactory, and he slowly drifted away from the church. He held some fairly progressive ideas at his time, and together with his friend, Abbé Felicité de Lamennais, they joined a religious sect called the Saint-Simonists. The young Liszt was quite a radical, and he thought the church was terribly old and stuffy. ![]() ![]() What came out of this was a wistful, introspective piece, even evoking the mystical sound qualities of Scriabin to some.Ģ Liszt also wrote a lot of sacred music.ĭid you know that Liszt wrote more than fifty Latin motets? While most people wouldn’t know any of those works at all, there are still some churches where his sacred choral works, such as the Missa Choralis or Via Crucis, are actively performed. Instead, he experimented with different sonorities and harmonies, altering the strings and piano parts as he saw fit. ![]() Liszt took the chance to rework the piece, and published it in four versions simultaneously: for piano solo, for violin and piano, for viola and piano, and for cello and piano.Ī lesser composer might just assign the melody to different instruments and left it at that, but Liszt was not satisfied with a simple transcription. It was originally a romance Liszt wrote when he was young, but he had forgotten about it until a publisher recovered it from his manuscripts in 1881 (hence the title Forgotten Romance). However, Liszt would never write the same piece twice.Ī case in point would be the Romance Oubliée. The Liszt Society, of which Leslie had been president since 1987, has in fact been publishing volumes of rare music by the composer, including undiscovered chamber gems such as the various works for piano and violin, as well as the three works for trombone and piano/organ.įor those familiar with Liszt’s piano works, a cursory glance through Liszt’s chamber catalogue might reveal some familiar titles – indeed, some of the pieces are a reworking of their piano counterparts. Leslie estimates that Liszt’s chamber music, for one combination or another, totaled between fifty and sixty pieces. Whilst Liszt is mostly known for his piano music, he also wrote a large amount of chamber music.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |