Liszt Battle of the Huns/Hunnenschlacht

[gprengel]

Today I made a great discovery -  Battle of the Huns by Liszt. Wow- I think it is a fantastic work with great battle scenes (Horses!) and an awesome choral ending!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=eDGcybCs5Ro
https://muswrite.blogspot.com/2013/04/liszt-hunnenschlacht-battle-of-huns.html

So far I liked only "Les Preludes" by Liszt, but I think I will check out his other symphonic poems again. Any recommendations?

Gerd

[Alan Howe]

I'd recommend that you invest in a complete set of the symphonic poems, e.g. either Haitink or Masur.

[Jonathan]

I was much impressed by Martin Haselbock's set originally on New Classical Adventure. 

This is my favourite set of the 13 pieces. 

If you buy the boxed set on Gramola you get an excellent "Faust" and "Dante" symphony and much else besides; I may have had something to do with this review on Musicweb: 
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Oct/Liszt_orchestral_99150.htm

[adriano]

And I strongly recommend Arpad Joó (on Brilliant Classics) - or (the historical) Nikolai Glovanov!
Yes, Jonathan: I also bought this Gramola set. Very interesting indeed. Perhaps not too excitely conducted, but the musicological aspect prevails.

[Alan Howe]

Unfortunately Joó's Brilliant Classics set is deleted - and the original release on Hungaroton is also unavailable, though I'm sure copies can still be found (at a price). I wouldn't recommend Haselböck (audition first!), so would probably stick with Masur.

[Revilod]

Yes. "Hunnenschlacht" is my favourite of Liszt's symphonic poems....especially the first section. I don't think he ever did anything better. I'm not quite so keen on the bombast of the second half. It doesn't have a choral ending, though. Do you mean "chorale"?
Other particularly good ones are "Tasso" and "Mazeppa". Some of them take a bit of sitting through, though. "Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne" is one.

[JimL]

Mazeppa is my fave.

[TerraEpon]

This is one of thoses pieces I've always been fascinated by.
I have the Masur set and I recommend it, even if the Faust Symphony is taken at a somewhat fast pace (contrasting to Bernstein's version whose broadness works well in this case). Honestly I pretty much enjoy all of Liszt's orchestral music to a fine degree, because it always feels so....expressive. I dunno how else to put it.

[mjmosca]

The symphonic poems are all wonderful, no clunkers! The ones that I love particularly are "From the cradle to the grave", "Prometheus", Mazeppa, Festklange, Orpheus, [I will end up mentioning all of them!]- I would highly recommend Solti's recordings of the Liszt symphonic poems, and also Michael Halazs on Naxos- both very idiomatic. Solti includes a sizzling performance of the Mephisto Waltz Number 1 - most exciting! thank you!

[gprengel]

Thank you for all of your recomendations. I listened to all of them, but I must admit that only Les Preludes and The battle of the Huns I really love ....  In the other pieces I miss the great themes ...

[tpaloj]

"Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne" and "Die Ideale" could maybe have used the scissors as far as their lengths go, but especially the former had great melodies and contrasts.

I have a soft spot for "Hamlet" for its atmosphere and I like the allusions it makes to the play. For example the starting theme spelling out "To be or not to be", chords signifying the clock striking twelve, a section for Ophelia and such and such. But I wouldn't call its orchestral version so convincing as a whole. Liszt apparently wasn't that pleased with how it turned out either. I remember playing Stradal's piano solo arrangement to friends sometimes; it has always made for a good if grim conversation piece.

[Christopher]

"Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne" and "Die Ideale" could maybe have used the scissors as far as their lengths go, but especially the former had great melodies and contrasts.

Didn't Liszt (or someone, anyway) called it Bergsymphonie/Mountain Symphony?  That might justify its length!  Could he therefore be said to have written 3 symphonies?  It's a great piece anyway and one of my favourites out of the 13. 

They did From the Cradle to the Grave at the Proms either last year or the year before.  I can't say it set me on fire.  I wondered why they chose that one of the 13 tone poems.

My favourites are the predictable ones, apart from Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne: Preludes, Prometheus, Tasso, Mazeppa, Orpheus.

[adriano]

Here some info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ce_qu%27on_entend_sur_la_montagne

"Bergsymphonie" goes for the German translation of the work's original French title"
It was Liszt's first symphonic poem - and it was orchestrated by Joachim Raff.

[Mark Thomas]

Well, although Raff did indeed orchestrate the sketches and first versions of several of Liszt's symphonic poems, to the best of my knowledge the final, published works are all Liszt's work, although they do incorporate some of Raff's ideas from those early drafts. Manuscripts survive of several of Raff's interim orchestrations, and his original version of Prometheus has been recorded on the Sterling label.

[adriano]

Interesting! Thanks, Mark :-)