Memorable Musical Listening Experiences

[Peter1953]

One of my latest purchases is Liszt's Complete Piano Music Box (BTW what an achievement by Leslie Howard) and as a result I'm rather occupied with Liszt over the past weeks. This sunny Sunday morning I've listened under ideal conditions (completely undisturbed) to the Faust Symphony (Boston SO, Bernstein), a work I haven't listened to for quite some years.
After listening it left me completely quiet for ten minutes. I was dumbfounded, overwhelmed. This is serious, emotional music with a great depth. The music gave me an almost esoteric musical listening experience.

Liszt is everything but unsung. I wonder whether there are unsung composers who wrote a piece of romantic music that has a similar great impact. It could be a symphony (or a series of symphonies to show the development), a symphonic poem, a concerto, an opera, chamber music, a piano sonata, whatever.
Personally I'm thinking of Die Tageszeiten by Raff and his Symphonies 1 & 5, although the effect (on me) is not as strong as Liszt's Faust Symphony. Cliffe's gorgeous VC, Czerny's majestic Piano Sonata No. 6 op. 124, Draeseke's Cello Sonata op. 51, Henselt's Studies opp. 2&5, Noskowski's impressive First, Röntgen's PC op. 18, all Rubinstein's Piano Sonatas, just to name some works that leave me stunned.

Do you have examples of music that gives you memorable listening experiences?

[Alan Howe]

I must say I had once neglected Liszt's Faust Symphony too. It's truly extraordinary stuff: when you listen to it, you hear where so much later music came from, e.g. Tchaikovsky, etc. I picked up one of the recently reissued EMI boxes of Beecham performances for a ridiculous price on Amazon last week and he makes a marvellous job of the work. Beecham magic indeed. A seminal piece IMHO. 

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Following your musical progress I've noticed the frequent occurrence of goosebumps, but the experience of listening to Liszt's Faust seems to have far transcended such things! I thoroughly agree with you: Liszt is an absolute knock-out composer. I collected those Leslie Howard volumes one by one as they came out, and was quite mesmerised when the number crept up to an unbelievable Vol 20, and then Vol 30 (and that surely must be the last one?....), no, for there was Vol 40 (can't believe my eyes!), then Vol 50 and up to Vol 57.... and then we get various Vols of second thoughts, revisions, yet more Album-Leaves. How on earth did Liszt (or Leslie Howard for that matter!) also find the time to perform, conduct, teach, write extensively, frequently travel throughout Europe, organise musical festivals and events, devote immense amounts of time and support to deserving composers, let alone eat and sleep. It is an incredible story.

For many years I've thought that Liszt was the 'biggest' phenomonen in 19th century music. 'Biggest' not in the sense of 'quality of the music' (although he is utterly stunning at his best), but 'big' in the wider senses of his general musical activity, revolutionising musical history and performance practice, influence on other composers, making things possible that would not have been possible without him and so forth. Try this 'thought experiment': imagine to yourself that, for example, Schubert or Schumann or maybe even the glorious Brahms had not existed. Can you conceive of 19th century music without them? It would be hugely impoverished, but just about conceivable. (Actually, to be very naughty, if we didn't have Brahms then we might listen to a lot of music of remarkably high quality that the towering presence of Brahms has cast into a shadow). But 19th century music without Liszt? At first thought, you jump to the conclusion: OK, no symphonic poems, no Faust, no piano sonata, no transcendental studies or whatever....but musical culture remains pretty much the same. But give it a bit more thought, and I think anyone must concede that in terms of the sheer difference that Liszt's presence made to musical activity he was a true colossus, and take Liszt out of the 19th century and the result is something we just can't imagine.

You say, Peter, that Liszt is everything but unsung. Clearly in terms of CDs produced you are absolutely right. He is a household name. (In England there are a number of public houses or 'pubs' which are actually called 'Brahms and Liszt' - and I am clueless about why!) But I'm going to be brave and foolhardy and say that Liszt is one of the best examples of an UNSUNG composer! Why? Well, with a thoroughly sung composer (Beethoven or Brahms, for example) there is a sense in which all of us (at least on the UC site!) can lay hands on hearts and declare that we 'know' these composers. True, there may be an odd work or two that for some reason has escaped us. But we're in touch with the 'spirit' of these composers, are in intimate touch with their souls (I go very vague!), and although we are astonished each time we hear their music, we are no longer surprised by it for we feel we know it. (That's why a hitherto unknown to you piece by Beethoven is almost instantly recognisable as Beethoven to you).

But with Liszt I, for one, can never feel that I 'know' him in this sense. Just dipping into Leslie Howard at random I'm frequently encountering pieces of music that pull me up by the bootstraps and make me not only astonished but surprised at their inventiveness, genuine novelty, sheer unexpectedness or whatever. There is more evidence in my 'Liszt is unsung' suggestion when it comes to the choral music. St Elisabeth and Christus are stunning masterpieces known to a few. But there are also significant masses, oratorios, shorter choral pieces (accompanied or unaccompanied) and so on that are quite unsung. (Maybe - I don't know - they are performed with frequency in Hungary?) Whenever I am lucky to hear them they strike me as either glorious or plain mad (and that's a sure sign of an unsung composer, i.e. one who we don't really 'know' in the sense that we know a thoroughly sung composer).

And then the songs. Over the years I've collected Liszt songs scattered all over the place, usually on mixed recital CDs. But that new Hyperion Volume 1 of the projected 'Complete Songs' (and Vol 2 out at the end of the month, whacko!) has quite knocked the socks off my feet. All of the 16 songs included I've encountered elsewhere and thought I 'knew'. But the experience of listening to them (partly because we're talking different and less familiar versions) has been the experience of listening to these songs as if for the first time. (And glorious performances by Matthew Polenzani and Julius Drake! This Hyperion series is going to be fascinating to follow).

Enough of the long diatribe! What it really boils down to is that Liszt's compositions are so utterly vast in range, so frequently 'different' or novel, so rich in implications for other compositions, admit of so many different treatments or interpretations and so forth that I feel we can never say 'I know Liszt' - and hence in that sense he counts as an unsung composer.

Sometimes I can't shut up (but then no-one is compelled to read my rants!). I've recently been absorbed, and have almost neared the end of Alan Walker's 'Hans von Bulow'. Magnificent book and compulsory reading for all on this site. There is a huge amount, of course, of Liszt in the book (and rather disappointingly, limited amounts of Raff). But what a hugely generous, wise and endlessly patient almost noble kind of man does Liszt appear in the book. (Lots more, of course, in the 3 volume Alan Walker book on Liszt of a few years ago). And if you want a truly awful, horrendous, miserable and wretched tale, then try the saga of the events leading up to Liszt's illness and death in Bayreuth. In short, Liszt's presence and then illness and death couldn't be allowed to distract attention from the forthcoming production of Tristan, and thus Liszt was more or less left for the last 10 days of his life to die alone in a back cupboard unattended by the Wagner mob and subject to medical malpractice. Worse still, the Wagner publicity machine put it about that Liszt gently expired with the word 'Tristan' escaping from his lips. There is reliable evidence that in fact he was in a great deal of pain and discomfort, and the last word was 'Luft!'. The poor bugger could not get breath. See both Walker books for all the eye-opening squalid details.

[thalbergmad]

I am a big fan of Liszt, but not a big fan of Howard. Whilst I have huge respect for the man for completing this monumental task, I sometimes find his playing uninspiring, slightly robotic and as far as many of the transcriptions are concerned, a lack of flair and conservative tempi.

As a result, the disks that I have already have a layer of dust on top, whilst Berman, Cziffra, Barere, Wild and others are as clean as a whistle.

Thal

[albion]

The closing minutes of Part II of Bantock's Omar Khayyam (in the Handley recording) - a great welling up of sound and a gathering of momentum, soloists, chorus and orchestra at full tilt crowned with diamond-like glints from the glockenspiel and a trumpet resolutely holding its C against a chord of D flat major. Fabulous!

[dafrieze]

I would nominate Parry's 2nd Symphony, the "Cambridge."  The first movement is well-written but unexceptional - he was still under the thrall of Brahms (not one of my favorite composers, I should confess).  It's with the aggressively propulsive Scherzo that the symphony really takes wing.  The Andante 3rd movement is exceptionally rich in emotion, and the sheer nobility of the final movement sends shivers down my spine.  I think it's the only really great 19th-century symphony by an English composer (not that the competition is that compelling) and certainly one of the great unsung Romantic symphonies.

[albion]

Oh, and then there's the closing section of Act II of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty when the Prince awakens Aurora and the entire court comes back to life - absolute shivers-down-the-spine when listening at home, but a positive knee-trembler in a really sumptuous live production. 

[TerraEpon]

For me, Tchaikosky's most heart-inducing moment is the Pas de Deux between the Prince and Sugar-Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker -- I doubt there's anywhere, ever, that uses a simply descending scale to that effect.

As for unsungs? A couple of the Atturberg symphony finales come to mind off hand. Oh, and second movement of  Gottschalk's Symphony No. 2 'A Night in the Tropics'....

[Jonathan]

Well said Peterschott - as a devoted Lisztian* (it's because of him that I discovered Raff) I agree with your comments about Leslie Howard and his mammoth 99 discs!  I bought them all in order as well from 1991 onwards ending just last month with the New Discoveries 3.  The trouble with Liszt is that there is so much still to be recorded - Hyperion have now made a start on the songs but Noseda on Chandos gave up without even recording the remaining orchestral works (there are loads) - I find it odd that they did do the 2 symphonies as well as the Symphonic poems as the former cannot be described as the latter!  I've already talked on another thread about the vast amount of 2 piano / piano 4 hands music as yet unrecorded and I found another couple of pieces to add to my list at the weekend.  I passed the information onto a record company some time ago and await news...
As for the chamber music, the complete violin and piano works have been recorded (Hungaroton) but the 'cello works remain ignored (DO NOT buy the CD entitled Liszt - complete 'cello works, it's far from complete and if I could complain to the label under the trade descriptions act, I would!).  The remaining late works for various ensembles have been recorded but there is still more to go.  The complete organ works are on Arte Nova but this CD set certainly was not available in the UK when I got mine from JPC some years ago.  As for the choral and sacred works, there are very few recordings.
I'd better stop here, I think!

* = on topic bit here:  I discovered Liszt because of Louis Kentner's record of some of the piano works.  This included Nuages Gris and the Sonata and this was my starting point at age 17.  The first time I heard that would be a memorable listening experience!

[Alan Howe]

Probably my most ear-opening experience was hearing Rufinatscha 6 for the first time in its proper orchestral guise after getting to know the piece in a piano four-hands reduction. I knew that this was a truly great unknown mid 19th-century symphony, but when I heard the orchestra strike up it was just something else. Watching Noseda and the BBCPO explore the piece in Manchester last November was also inspiring - I was on the edge of my seat in the recording booth looking out into the studio. Can't wait for the Chandos release on the 28th...

[Steve B]

Parry fourth Symphony; especially the "nobilmente" theme in finale

S. Wagner: Sehnsucht; endless succession of melodies

Just two. Thanks Peter:)

P.S (recently) Scriabin- THAT, slightly martial, very emotionally stirring theme at end of Second Symphony

Anyone know these?

Steve

[TerraEpon]

The Arte Nova set isn't complete either -- I filled it out with some DLs from eMusic.

And yeah, there's a LOT of piano four hand (both duet and two piano) unrecorded. There's not really "loads" of orchestral music missing, but still a bunch of pieces.

I think the other big hole is the choral works though.

[alberto]

I would indicate two very rarely performed (in actual concerts) works by performed composers:
Nielsen: Pan and Syrinx
Sibelius: The Bard
I would add:
Busoni : Sarabande and Cortège
Schreker: Chamber Symphony
Magnard: Hymne a Vènus
I would add two short works not aiming depth:
Busoni: Tanzwalzer (anyway more disquieting than frivolous)
Martucci: Novelletta (orchestral version)
Being impressed by the posts for Parry (a composer I much admire) I would ask if someone may explain his absence from British concerts (even if, if am not wrong, at the last Proms seasons were performed the Symphonic Variations, the Elegy for Brahms and the Fifth Symphony, but that seemed to me an exception).

[Jonathan]

The Arte Nova set isn't complete either -- I filled it out with some DLs from eMusic.

Actually, TerraEpon, I did the same (I forgot about those...)!

[Peter1953]

Thank you all for your posts! Especially Peter's thoughts are interesting, however, I think Liszt is very sung, but a lot of his works are truly unsung. I don't even like all his piano music; some of them sound to my ears more like an improvisation than a well-crafted piano piece, despite the fact that those works are not even called an impromptu. But the Faust Symphony, yes Peter, it still gives me the goosebumps.

A very little anecdote. Many, many years ago I must have heard a lovely, but rather sombre and emotional piano piece. No idea who the composer was, but I couldn't get the tune out of my head. This lasted for years. Many years later, in the 1990s, the tune settled in my head again. I thought it must be typically Rachmaninoff. So I ordered as many Rachmaninoff piano music as possible, but... that specific melody wasn't there. It became almost an obsession to me. What was this piece called? Who was the composer? Then for a moment I thought it was my own composition. So I played it (not very well) on the piano, over and over again. I played the tune for others, asking them whether they knew what it was, but without result. I even got some compliments, not for my rudimentary piano playing, but for the tune I was supposed to have composed. And then, one day it happened. I was driving my car, listened to the Dutch classical radio station, and then, suddenly, as a shock, "my" tune was played. Étude Op. 8 No. 12 in D Sharp minor by Scriabin, played by... Rachmaninoff. This was for me a very short, but most impressive memorable musical listening experience.