Posted on 10/21/2011 3:17:12 PM PDT by Borges
On Oct. 22, 1811, Franz Liszt was born in the Hungarian (now Austrian) village of Raiding. His bicentenary follows hard on the heels of Chopin’s, last year, and anticipates Wagner’s and Verdi’s, in 2013.
But whereas no one really doubts the greatness of Wagner or Verdi, and Chopin seems universally beloved, things are not so straightforward with Liszt. He was, to be sure, an unrivaled performer (“A god for pianists” in Berlioz’s words), a man of unusually catholic artistic interests and the 19th century’s nearest approach to a Hollywood superstar. But although he is surely significant enough to celebrate, the question whether his music is actually any good has never really gone away.
It probably never will. Liszt, like his music, was constructed of paradoxes, as he well knew. “Half Gypsy, half Franciscan monk,” he called himself; another contemporary called him “Mephistopheles disguised as a priest.” But if his life was to some extent a touring soap opera played out publicly on various European stages, what the more prudish Mendelssohn described as a “constant oscillation between scandal and apotheosis,” it was at least a drama with a sympathetic protagonist. And for all his worldly success, Liszt didn’t have a particularly easy ride.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ever listen to von Suppe’s overtures...”Light Cavalry” is my favorite, but “Poet and Peasant” is also quite stirring..
They do some great Arts writing.
Used to read it all the time. They lost me in the 1990’s.
Used to read it all the time. They lost me in the 1990’s.
Used to read it all the time. They lost me in the 1990’s.
Like ‘em both, although I remember asking for and receiving an LP recording of the “Poet and Peasant” for my birthday when I was in junior high school back in the ‘50’s - recording was by the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler I think - so maybe that makes the P and P my favorite - hard to believe ( that I was in junior high in the ‘50’s, not that I asked for a recording of the Overture).....
Not fair to judge him by anything but his best output, and by that criterion his music was very good indeed.
So was I. Good to see a few old timers chiming in. And the Lone Ranger's music, all chosen from the public domain, couldn't have been more appropriate.
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