Liszt: Die Legende von der Heiligen Elisabeth

soliści;
Staatskapelle Weimar;
St. Clair, Carl

CPO 777339

One may stand as one pleases Franz Liszt and his music, but one thing must be attested to: he was one of the most versatile musicians of the 19th century. Between the extremes of the celebrated salon virtuoso and the ascetic abbé, he spent his life searching for truth and intensifying musical expression. Thus he came to the symphonic poem, which is so actually his creation, but so he also came to his late strange piano works and to his fervent church music. The Legend of Saint Elisabeth, begun in Weimar in 1857, completed in Rome in 1862 and premiered in Budapest in 1865, is certainly one of his key works, as Liszt identified himself in a special way with the figure of Elisabeth: like him, they came from Hungary, both had dedicated themselves to a mission - he for pure art, they for pure love - both felt torn inwardly between the demands on themselves, the high ideals and the lowlands of real life. The form of the oratory is based on the fresco cycle by Moritz von Schwind, which can be admired on Wartburg Castle, the former place where Elisabeth lived and worked, and depicts the central stations in the life of the saints.

CD x 2

Muzyka klasyczna

CPO

16-10-2007

761203733927