Liszt Faust Symphony
About this episode
This episode explores Liszt's Faust Symphony and its connection to Goethe's Faust.
Thank you to Jerry for sponsoring today's episode on Patreon! Goethe's Faust is considered to be the greatest work of German literature. This sprawling, 2-part play occupied Goethe's life for nearly 60 years, from its original version, begun in 1772, all the way to Goethe's final revisions before his death. It inspired just about every Romantic era composer who came after it, including Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Berlioz, Gounod, Mahler, and our subject for the show today, Franz Liszt. Liszt, who was in many ways the world's first pop star, was initially skeptical of Faust , saying that he couldn't relate to the eponymous main character of the play. He wrote: "Faust's personality scatters and dissipates itself; he takes no action, lets himself be driven, hesitates, experiments, loses his way, considers, bargains, and is interested in his own little happiness." But slowly, Liszt began to be taken in by this remarkable play and decided to try his hand at a reflection on it, writing a massive, 3-movement, 75-minute-long symphony that never attempts to tell the story of Faust , but instead reflects on the psychological nature of the 3 central characters: Faust, Gretchen…
People in this episode
Host: Joshua Weilerstein
Sponsors
Jerry
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Faust
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