Classical Music | Orchestral Music

Recorded on 07/01/2007, uploaded on 08/20/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Franz Liszt pioneered the genre of the symphonic poem, an orchestral composition with a descriptive or programmatic intent, and its expressive capabilities were enriched by such later composers as Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss. Liszt, himself, composed thirteen symphonic poems, but it is his third, Les Préludes that has remained the most well-known and popular. In fact, during World War II, its fanfare motif from the finale served infamously as the signature music for Nazi Germany’s propaganda newsreels.

While many of Liszt’s compositions underwent long processes of revision passing through various versions until a final form was reached, Les Préludes experienced simply a prolonged period of genesis. In Marseille during 1844, Liszt composed Les aquilons (“The North-Winds”) for male chorus and piano. During the succeeding years, he composed three similar pieces—La terre ("The Earth"), Les flots ("The Floods"), and Les astres ("The Stars")—and the four together became Les quarte élémens (“The Four Elements”). Liszt later orchestrated the four choruses and determined to include a lengthy overture. However, the overture eventually grew into its own unique piece, and instead of attaching it to the Les quarte élémens choruses, Liszt fashioned it into his third symphonic poem. It was premiered in February 1854 and published two years later. The work was given the full title of Les préludes (d’après Lamartine), a reference to Alphonse de Lamartine’s Nouvelles méditations poétiques, and the published score included the preface:

What else is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown Hymn, the first and solemn note of which is intoned by Death?—Love is the glowing dawn of all existence; but what is the fate where the first delights of happiness are not interrupted by some storm, the mortal blast of which dissipates its fine illusions, the fatal lightning of which consumes its altar; and where is the cruelly wounded soul which, on issuing from one of these tempests, does not endeavour to rest his recollection in the calm serenity of life in the fields? Nevertheless man hardly gives himself up for long to the enjoyment of the beneficent stillness which at first he has shared in Nature's bosom, and when "the trumpet sounds the alarm", he hastens, to the dangerous post, whatever the war may be, which calls him to its ranks, in order at last to recover in the combat full consciousness of himself and entire possession of his energy.

A heroic and triumphal overture, Les Préludes opens with an introduction in C major in which the work’s principal theme is announced. Passing through successive dissonant harmonies, the overture’s main section is reached—an Andante maestoso in 12/8 time. The theme undergoes various transformations, at one point turning sentimental and tender in the violins, then later again stormy and violent. In the end, however, the theme finds its final reincarnation in the form of a triumphal march, leading to the overture’s heroic conclusion.      Joseph DuBose

Courtesy of The International Festival-Institute at Round Top

Located in historic Round Top, Texas, The James Dick Foundation for the Performing Arts and its sole project, The International Festival-Institute at Round Top, were founded in 1971 by world-renowned concert pianist James Dick. Begun with a handful of gifted young pianists in rented space on the town square, the project is now an internationally acclaimed European-styled music institute for aspiring young musicians and distinguished faculty. Over a thirty eight year period and with the help of its patrons and friends, The James Dick Foundation for the Performing Arts has developed superb year round education and performance programs.