"Everybody is against me. Catholics, because they find my church music
profane; Protestants because for them my music is Catholic; Freemasons
because they feel my music is clerical; for the conservatives, I am a
revolutionary, for the 'adventurists' a false Jacobin. As for the
Italians, in spite of Sgambati, if they are Garibaldians, they hate me
as a cagot, if they are on the Vatican side, they accuse me of
transporting the cave of Venus in the church. For Bayreuth, I am not a
composer but a publicity agent. The Germans dislike my music as French,
the French as German; for the Austrians, I make gypsy music; for the
Hungarians, foreign music. And the Jews hate me and my music for no
reason at all..."

This confession of Mahler could have been written by My Friend
Ferenc...Who, it cannot be said enough, was misunderstood during his
whole creative life...One only loved the virtuoso who, from 1820 to
1847, travelled all over Europe, from Saint Petersburg to Lisbon...From
Scotland to Turkey...And this on several occasions...In the conditions
of comfort [sic] that one can imagine! ...And in the trains and
stagecoaches in which he spent a great part of his time, he wrote
thousands of letters in 6 or 7 languages to hundreds of people more or
less illustrious...To heads more or less
crowned...Composed...Composed...Revised unceasingly his old
compositions...Until the end of his life...
One liked of course also his extreme prodigality, and the help and the
support which he brought all his life to artists (composers,
instrumentalists, creation of monuments, helps to the disaster victims
etc etc...)... And the majority of the composers whose works he created
very often were not very grateful to him, these bastards of Wagner and
Berlioz in head...
As for the piano lessons that he never stopped giving all his life,
until the day before his death, he never charged for them!... And
Perenc had hundreds of pupils, from 1820 to 1886!...

All this to arrive at the work of sacred music of Franz!... Who knows
it?... Who knows the incredible diversity and the prodigious richness,
based essentially on the Gregorian chant, of an asceticism astonishing,
Palestrina being never very far?... Who knows that Liszt took the minor
orders in 1865, and was tonsured?... Who knows that he started to
reform the Latin liturgical music, but who, in front of numerous
opponents of the Vatican, had to give it up in the end (extracts for
piano exist in the complete Hyperion of Howard)...
I ask the question©...

Come on...I'll go with My little catalog, eh...And, like dabe, no skull
juice...Victor will make up his mind...And anyway the great majority of
these masterpieces are no longer available, have never been reissued on
CD and are all....sublimes!!...

1 - the ORATORIOS : The Legend of Saint Elizabeth (1858-1862) and
Christus (1867-1873)...Immense and fascinating frescoes of #3 hours
each...Some will find some length...Not me...Just let yourself be
engulfed by these masterpieces (both exist in CD)...

2 - the MESSES :

- Sexardique Mass (1848-1859)
- Mass of Gran (His most known religious work, with the Via Crucis)...A
monument...In homage to the Missa Solemnis of the GS...This bastard of
Berlioz dared to write "this mass is the negation of art" (when one
knows all that Liszt made to support the work of this asshole!)...
- Hungarian mass of the coronation (of the emperor Françius-Joseph,
king of Hungary)...
- Requiem (Only for male voices) 1868-1883

3 - the Psalms

- Psalm 13 (1855)
- Psalm 18
- Psalm 23 (1859)
- Psalm 116 (1869)
- Psalm 137 (1662)
- Psalm 129
- Psalm 125 (extract)

4 - OTHER RELIGIOUS WORKS

- Via Crucis (1874-1878)...Certainly one of the most fabulous
masterpieces of all Ferenc Liszt's work (available on CD)...Versions
for piano or organ or a capella...
- Septem Sacramenta (for soloists and mixed or male choir)...Published
in...1907/1936, by Busoni !
- Ave Maria : 4 Ave (1846, 1869 etc...)
- the Rosario : cycle of 3 short Ave Maria (1879)...
- Inno a Maria Virgine, for mixed choir, harp and organ or piano (1869)
- Salve Regina, a capella (1885)

5 - PROFANESE CHORAL WORKS (1840s)

- Solemn cantata, for the inauguration of the Beethoven monument in
Bonn
- Choir for the Prometheus Delivered, for the inauguration of a
monument to J.G.Herder in Weimar...
- Workers' Chorus
- At the edge of the brook

As you can note it, O Friends Mélosiciens, the vocal work, religious
and profane, of what is, you know it now, one of My fetish Composers, I
named Ferenc Liszt (one wrote very often "List", of his time!) is of an
incredible richness...
And of a sovereign beauty...As I am not Victor Polémil, I will thus not
say to you why...You will have to trust Me...Simply, these compositions
are of a rare originality, richness, diversity...But, let us admit it,
very often of an austere abors, limit boring for certain parts and for
those which are not fans of this genius...

To finish...No need to tell you that all these works are in MMD, but,
unfortunately, for the most part, only on vinyl (essentially at
Hungaroton)...From the time when this publisher was doing his job (cf.
his complete works of B.Bartok, which appeared for a while on CD, but
now seems to have disappeared again)...

A thousand apologies for having bothered you with this stupid, useless
and completely uninteresting list, I agree...
But I just wanted to let you know that Liszt is not only the second
Hungarian rhapsody and the Preludes, isn't it...

Moreover, there exists, for a very great part of his compositions,
several versions (that it is works for piano that choral or
orchestral), Liszt having spent his time to revise the majority of his
masterpieces, you see...
And moreover, he spent his time to fuck to the right and to the left
(he made all the most beautiful women of Europe and Russia)...One had
moreover invited him to the "states"...He refused, this Brave Man...He
made himself decidedly too old !...

For those who are really interested in this composer, I can only
recommend THE bible : the two big volumes of Alan Walker, published by
Fayard...It must be the third time that I read it again !...

On Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 1:59:31 AM UTC-7, MELMOTH wrote:
>
> And moreover, he spent his time to fuck to the right and to the left
> (he made all the most beautiful women of Europe and Russia)...One had
> moreover invited him to the "states"...He refused, this Brave Man...He
> made himself decidedly too old !...

This is obviously the part of his life that is most interesting to you.

dk

> For those who are really interested in this composer, I can only
> recommend THE bible : the two big volumes of Alan Walker, published by
> Fayard...It must be the third time that I read it again !...

I have Walker in three volumes, iirc - the English version. Incidentally, Walker's Liszt biography is infinitely more interesting than his Chopin biography.

One difference between the two composers that has received little attention among musicologists is the fact that Liszt's music is far more dependent on the quality and musicality of its performers - without necessarily being inferior to Chopin in quality.

Is that the consequence of its relative obscurity?

Henk

HT avait prétendu :
> I have Walker in three volumes, iirc - the English version. Incidentally,
> Walker's Liszt biography is infinitely more interesting than his Chopin
> biography.

I am currently rereading "Franz Liszt" by Jean-Yves Clément (Actes
Sud)...The best book on FL that I have ever read...
I don't know if it has been translated into English...

Op zondag 4 september 2022 om 21:04:26 UTC+2 schreef MELMOTH:
> HT avait prétendu :
> > I have Walker in three volumes, iirc - the English version. Incidentally,
> > Walker's Liszt biography is infinitely more interesting than his Chopin
> > biography.
> I am currently rereading "Franz Liszt" by Jean-Yves Clément (Actes
> Sud)...The best book on FL that I have ever read...
> I don't know if it has been translated into English...

French is no problem. The fact that it is unavailable in Kindle is. Amazon has a Kindle version of his Chopin versus Liszt book. Do you know it?

Henk

On Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 3:45:46 AM UTC-7, Dan Koren wrote:
> On Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 1:59:31 AM UTC-7, MELMOTH wrote:
> >
> > And moreover, he spent his time to fuck to the right and to the left
> > (he made all the most beautiful women of Europe and Russia)...One had
> > moreover invited him to the "states"...He refused, this Brave Man...He
> > made himself decidedly too old !...
>
> This is obviously the part of his life that is most interesting to you.

Here is some of the nicest FERENC for you all:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p09o37tli813fb9/AACiurQenciv-nBUYycHrBIJa?dl=0

There is no need to download the files as one
can listen directly in a (modern) browser just
by clicking on the link.

Enjoy!

dk

On Monday, September 5, 2022 at 2:31:26 AM UTC-7, Dan Koren wrote:
> On Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 3:45:46 AM UTC-7, Dan Koren wrote:
> > On Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 1:59:31 AM UTC-7, MELMOTH wrote:
> > >
> > > And moreover, he spent his time to fuck to the right and to the left
> > > (he made all the most beautiful women of Europe and Russia)...One had
> > > moreover invited him to the "states"...He refused, this Brave Man...He
> > > made himself decidedly too old !...
> >
> > This is obviously the part of his life that is most interesting to you.
> Here is some of the nicest FERENC for you all:
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/p09o37tli813fb9/AACiurQenciv-nBUYycHrBIJa?dl=0
>
> There is no need to download the files as one
> can listen directly in a (modern) browser just
> by clicking on the link.

And here's more FERENC in a more serious vein:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5x2ucMVGvA

dk