COMPOSERS: Liszt
LABELS: Philips Duo
WORKS: Complete Tone Poems, Vol 1; Complete Tone Poems, Vol 2: Les préludes; Orpheus; Mazeppa; Hungaria; Hamlet
PERFORMER: LPO/Bernard Haitink
CATALOGUE NO: 438 751-2/438 754-2 ADD (1968-72)
Liszt invented the symphonic poem, and many of these seminal works of the 19th-century orchestral literature, including such works as Die Ideale and Hunnenschlacht, deserve to be as well known as the familiar Les préludes. Haitink’s ground-breaking recordings from 1968-72 manage to underplay the music’s worst, bombastic excesses while emphasising its poetry and harmonic ingenuity. Now neatly packaged on four CDs, the works may not benefit from being heard en masse, but individually hold plenty of interest. Matthew Rye
Liszt: Complete Tone Poems, Vol 1; Complete Tone Poems, Vol 2: Les préludes; Orpheus; Mazeppa; Hungaria; Hamlet
Liszt invented the symphonic poem, and many of these seminal works of the 19th-century orchestral literature, including such works as Die Ideale and Hunnenschlacht, deserve to be as well known as the familiar Les préludes. Haitink’s ground-breaking recordings from 1968-72 manage to underplay the music’s worst, bombastic excesses while emphasising its poetry and harmonic ingenuity. Now neatly packaged on four CDs, the works may not benefit from being heard en masse, but individually hold plenty of interest. Matthew Rye
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:31 pm