Search - Liszt, Blochwitz, Chailly :: Faust Symphony

Liszt by Chailly

Samuel Stephens | TN, USA | 08/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nevermind that Liszt is many things to different people...the facts are in his music to hear for yourself.

What you have here is a great symphony by a great composer, performed by a great conductor and orchestra.



If you liked the Saint-Saens 3rd, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, or anything of the "excessive" romantic reportoire, you shouldn't miss this work."

A refined, culivated Faust--one way to resuce junk

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 11/05/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In my heart of hearts I know that Liszt's shameless Faust Symphony is phony junk, having no more to do with Goethe or the Faust legend than a cardboard pantomime. But Jascha Horenstein (on BBC or several pirate labels) can make you believe the rhetoric because he does.



Chailly takes a different approach. He leads a suave, straight-faced reading as if he's above junk. It works--the Concertgebouw plays without any tawdry touches--Liszt certainly put in a lot--and the whole enterprise could be by Goldmark or some other lesser Brahmsian. I think I will stick with honest blood-and-guts, as offered by Bernstein among modern conductors, and I'll turn to Horenstein when I want to feel like a true believer. Excellent sonics from Decca, though Chailly doesn't take the opportunity for many thunderous climaxes."