[SACD-R][OF] Liszt: Symphonie zu Dantes Divina commedia (Dante's Symphony) - Leon Botstein, London Symphony Orchestra - 2003 (Classical/Orchestral)

Telarc releases a compelling recording of Franz Liszt’s “Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina commedia” and “Tasso, lamento e trionfo” with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leon Botstein and featuring London Oratory School Schola.
“I have been working fairly continuously on my symphonic poems, which for now and for the next few years are my life’s work.” Thus did Franz Liszt (1811-1886) describe his compositional activities in the mid-1850s. His dedication to orchestral writing in this period was, in fact, remarkable, as he completed no less than fourteen works in a decade. Though the new job as Director of Music at the Court in Wiemar required Liszt to cut back on his career as a highly successful virtuoso pianist, he did recognize the new position as a chance to expand his expressive potential as a composer.
“Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina commedi” (1855-56) is based on the poetic masterpiece of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). The two movements of the symphony, “Inferno” and “Purgatory,” chart the journey of the soul toward Paradise, with some of the musical ideas taken directly from Dante’s text (the opening theme, for instance, provides a literal setting of four lines inscribed on the Gates of Hell at the opening of the third Canto). The work stops short of heaven, though it does provide a glimpse of heaven with a haunting choir intoning the words of the Magnificat at the threshold to the higher sphere. Perhaps even for Liszt, there was a limit to where earthly music dared tread.
“Tasso,lamento e trionfo” was originally written as an overture to a stage production of Goethe’s drama Torquato Tasso held in honor of the writer’s 100th birthday celebration at Weimar in 1849. The play recalls the life and passions of Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), whose literary masterpiece about the first Crusade, La Gerusalemme Liberata, made him arguably the greatest Italian poet of the late Renaissance. Byron looms in the background to this work as well, for it is his Lament of Tasso which strongly suggests itself in the symphonic poem’s subtitle and in the exploration of an artistic soul wracked by doubt which opens the work. Liszt transforms these doleful themes into radiant melodies in the second half of the piece, heralding the artist’s ultimate victory beyond the grave.
Leon Botstein is music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, which performs at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. His recordings for Telarc with the London Philharmonic include the music of Max Reger; Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra; music of Szymanowski; symphonies of Karl Amadeus Hartmann; Dohnanyi’s D minor symphony; and Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony (Shalk edition). Most recently, Telarc released a recording of Richard Strauss’s rare opera, Die Agyptische Helena with Deborah Voigt, which was recorded live at Avery Fisher Hall in New York with Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra.
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Liszt never wrote any true symphonies in the usual sense of the word, but he wrote two multiple-movement works for orchestra and chorus that have symphonic pretensions. The Faust Symphony, completed in 1857, devotes one movement each to the troubled philosopher, Gretchen, and Méphistophélès, with a transcendental epilogue. It cost the composer much trouble – and about fifteen years – to write. The Dante Symphony, completed one year earlier, enjoyed a smoother birth. As in the Faust Symphony, Liszt enjoys the contrast between the infernal and the divine. Based, of course, on the Divine Comedy, the work is in two movements – an "Inferno" depicting the torments of Hell, and a tender "Purgatorio" in which the soul is prepared for Paradise. Apparently Liszt felt unequal to the task of depicting the soul's ultimate station musically. Instead, a gently radiant "Magnificat" brings the symphony to a close.
The symphony is a typical mixture of Lisztian rhetoric and inspiration. The secret to success is to churn through the rhetoric without apologies, and to savor the inspiration when it comes. Botstein is too tasteful to indulge himself in the hellfire of "Inferno." One can't quite smell the brimstone and hear the gnashing of teeth. Botstein's attempt to subdue the composer's vulgarity (at least in this movement) is admirable, but one might argue that vulgarity is precisely the point – this is Hell, after all. In the "Purgatorio," Botstein's soft-grained approach works much better, and the entrance of the chorus is truly magical. Unlike most (or all?) of the competition, Botstein uses a boys' choir in the "Magnificat." I believe that Liszt specified women's voices, yet it is hard to argue with the effect of disarming innocence that Botstein achieves here. In the closing moments of the Dante Symphony, Botstein's reading definitely comes into its own as competition against Barenboim, Masur, Kojian, and the like.
Tasso (subtitled "Lament and Triumph"), written in 1849, was the second of Liszt's thirteen symphonic poems. It is the story, told by both Goethe and Byron, of the poet Torquato Tasso, who fell afoul of Ferrarese society and yet was vindicated after his death. This symphonic poem, then, is one of those "darkness into daylight" works. Liszt tells the poet's story with music that is memorably melodious and dramatic; this is one of the highlights among the thirteen. Again, Botstein leads a reading that is free of vulgarity. Where other conductors offer a guilty frisson, Botstein is objective and quite convincing in his characteristically self-effacing manner.
The engineering, like the conducting, doesn't call attention to itself, but is nevertheless very fine. (Watford Town Hall in Watford, England was the venue.) The booklet notes are not very helpful.
Copyright © 2004, Raymond Tuttle www.classical.net