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These forums are being phased out. The new, improved Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Forum is at classicalmusicforums.com.
Posted by Dennis DeSantis on November 10, 19103 at 22:17:39:
This month the PA Ballet presented Dracula, the Houston Ballet production, which features the music of Liszt. This of course was an event not to be missed. And as promised all the music was Liszt's. The arranger certainly knows his Liszt. To someone familiar with Liszt the arrangements were pieced together at times in an awkward manner. I mean hearing the Todtentanz in the middle of To excerpts was disconcerting. But the music Liszt had orchestrated was played unadulterated. They arranger also orchestrated many of Liszt's piano pieces from the Annees which were done exceedingly well. The highlight of these pieces was the Vallee d'Obermann which was orchestrated in the manner of the First Piano Concerto. It included piano and really made you believe it was a Liszt orchestration.
The following poems were played in various segments: To, Mountain Symphony, Orpheus, Cradle to the Grave, and Hamlet. The real gem of these was the Mountain Symphony. A very large segment was played in the ballet and the music is, without a doubt, beautiful and a delight to hear. As with so much of Liszt I find that hearing these pieces live is a totaly different experience from listening to a CD. After all Liszt was always concerned with sonority and in a hall, the effects are always amazing and moving. This only underscores the tragedy of the Ashkenazy cancellation of the poem in Philadelphia two years ago. That was perhaps the one and only chance to hear this gem and it never came to p.
Again as I sat there listening to Liszt I was repeatedly reminded of how much Tchaikowski copied, especially in orchestration.
So, the buring questgion is, why was Liszt never enticed into creating a ballet. He lived so much of his life in Paris, the ballet capital of the world, and could easily have created a new work or simply used his exisiting material in a new manner (as he always did anyway). This remains a real puzzle to me and, if I were an academic, a great topic for a thesis or paper.
BTW there is a one disc CD of the score. It is severely cut since the opera was 2 hours and the CD is one hour. But you get the idea and you do get to hear the complete orchestration of the Vallee.
Dennis