Liszt Hunnenschlacht

 Day 19

Liszt Hunnenschlacht (the Battle of the Huns)

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Gianandrea Noseda

The Liszt symphonic poems have a slightly curious place in music history. They are seen as key works in the development of the symphonic poem and programmatic music more generally yet they are often discussed in a patronising tone, as if they are not quite respectable and too vulgar and populist. This discourse is not helped by the long-standing rumours that Liszt didn't orchestrate them himself, suggesting that he was not a 'proper' composer. The orchestration myth has been debunked. Liszt did try out ideas with colleagues and took their advice on some aspects of how to write for particular instruments but it is now clear that the final orchestration was entirely his work. 

The only one of the symphonic poems that it at all well known (and the only which which I have played) is Les Préludes, though even that is a rarity in the concert hall these days. 

Hunnenschlacht is based on a painting which depicts a battle between the forces of Atilla the Hun and the Romans. I enjoyed it immensely. it is full of very vivid music description - the sound of the horses as they gallop towards the battlefields, the battle cries themselves and then the ascent of the souls of the dead soldiers as they ascent heavenwards. The first section is perhaps a bit overlong and repetitive (it must be a nightmare to play for the strings) and the apotheosis is rather over the top - complete with organ solo. But overall it does make a very strong impression. The musical language is quite advanced and at times looks forward to the world of The Ring and Parsifal, which were a couple of decades away.

One problem with listening to this sort of piece is that descriptive musical language has been absorbed into the world of the film and television score, so that what was novel in Liszt's time has become the commonplace and clichéd. (Indeed there was an irreverent moment when my mind turned to the Devil's Gallop by Charles Williams - as used in Dick Barton special agent, and the Spanish Inquisition sketch of Monty Python!). That's hardly Liszt's fault.

One interesting point is that the score specifies that an organ or harmonium can be used. Presumably that for situations where a full organ is not available. The same thing happens in Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony. I did once hear a recording of a performance where a harmonium was used - it sounded dreadful!

There is so much Liszt to go at that I hardly know where to start.  The complete piano music on Hyperion takes 99 CDs (and more is still being discovered). How, given his very active life as a performer - to say nothing of the complexities of his private life - he ever found time to compose is a mystery to me.