Page 70 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 70
glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes | music criticism – yesterday and today
a number of reviews, is especially prominent in a report by one of Liszt’s
students, August Göllerich. Göllerich explains that in the “Pastorale” of Les
préludes, the qualities of “intimacy and tenderness” that comprise Liszt’s
“genuinely German sensibility” are “combined with religious elements to pro-
duce the most genuine consecration” and that due to the interplay of these
two natural character traits, he allows us “to find refreshment in the sunlit
divine peace of nature.”11 The critic Eduard Kulke also draws a close connec-
tion between Liszt’s artistry and his nature, between his music and his re-
ligiosity. He interprets the “clarifying musical process,” which he observes
through the successive genesis of Liszt’s symphonic oeuvre, as the effect of
Liszt’s progressive “cleansing and refinement of [his] inner emotional life,”
which finally manifests itself audibly in the “outer expression,” that is, in
his art. In Les préludes, an early symphonic work, Kulke perceives Liszt
as a “fighter and wrestler against the traditional form,” whereas in his lat-
er works, such as the two symphonies, Kulke hears him as a “hero [...] who
has emerged victorious from his struggle.”12 This insight leads Kulke to con-
clude that in his first compositions, “worldliness [...] had yet to be overcome”
as Liszt was still working his way through “a transitional moment of his ar-
tistic activity and creativity, as well as of his being as a whole.”13 Liszt’s deci-
sion to be ordained as an Abbé was considered by Kulke to be the inevitable
consequence of this inner spiritual development – “an outcome to which he
was driven by the pull of his innermost being.”14 For Kulke, the development
tentions: “At the passage: ‘das Ewig Weibliche – zieht uns hinan’, a single tenor intones
the Gretchen melody, and since it does not fit at all with the words of the text, it virtu-
ally has to be chanted, although Liszt may have intended the result, which is to let the
work end on a priestly, sublime note. We find this entire ending on the whole more ope-
ratic than ecclesiastical, but immensely effective nonetheless.” –h., “Das Wagner-Kon-
zert,” Neues Fremden-Blatt. Morgenausgabe 26 (26 January 1875): 11.
11 August Göllerich, “Siebentes philharmonisches Concert. (3. Symphonie von Brahms.
– Hans Richter. – ‘Les Préludes’ von Liszt),” Deutsches Volksblatt. Morgenausgabe
83 (28 March 1889): 2.
12 Ed. K., “Operntheater und Concerte,” 1.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid. Daniel Spitzer, on the other hand, describes a different connotation of the “cla-
rifying process”: “Formerly a Tannhäuser, Liszt broke free from the white arms of Frau
Venus and turned his back on the Hörselberg, in whose depths such arduous love bla-
zes.” That Liszt’s decision to be ordained as an Abbé was not, in Spitzer’s view, free of
a sense of guilt becomes clear in the following sentence: “His kiss-weary lips yearned
for the cross and he sank repentantly at the pope’s feet and kissed his consoling slipper.”
The cynical undertone, which is hard not to miss in Spitzer’s provocative choice of
words, conveys his feeling that Liszt’s change of life was hypocritical, subliminally
hinting in the following sentence that the change might have been less sincere than
70
a number of reviews, is especially prominent in a report by one of Liszt’s
students, August Göllerich. Göllerich explains that in the “Pastorale” of Les
préludes, the qualities of “intimacy and tenderness” that comprise Liszt’s
“genuinely German sensibility” are “combined with religious elements to pro-
duce the most genuine consecration” and that due to the interplay of these
two natural character traits, he allows us “to find refreshment in the sunlit
divine peace of nature.”11 The critic Eduard Kulke also draws a close connec-
tion between Liszt’s artistry and his nature, between his music and his re-
ligiosity. He interprets the “clarifying musical process,” which he observes
through the successive genesis of Liszt’s symphonic oeuvre, as the effect of
Liszt’s progressive “cleansing and refinement of [his] inner emotional life,”
which finally manifests itself audibly in the “outer expression,” that is, in
his art. In Les préludes, an early symphonic work, Kulke perceives Liszt
as a “fighter and wrestler against the traditional form,” whereas in his lat-
er works, such as the two symphonies, Kulke hears him as a “hero [...] who
has emerged victorious from his struggle.”12 This insight leads Kulke to con-
clude that in his first compositions, “worldliness [...] had yet to be overcome”
as Liszt was still working his way through “a transitional moment of his ar-
tistic activity and creativity, as well as of his being as a whole.”13 Liszt’s deci-
sion to be ordained as an Abbé was considered by Kulke to be the inevitable
consequence of this inner spiritual development – “an outcome to which he
was driven by the pull of his innermost being.”14 For Kulke, the development
tentions: “At the passage: ‘das Ewig Weibliche – zieht uns hinan’, a single tenor intones
the Gretchen melody, and since it does not fit at all with the words of the text, it virtu-
ally has to be chanted, although Liszt may have intended the result, which is to let the
work end on a priestly, sublime note. We find this entire ending on the whole more ope-
ratic than ecclesiastical, but immensely effective nonetheless.” –h., “Das Wagner-Kon-
zert,” Neues Fremden-Blatt. Morgenausgabe 26 (26 January 1875): 11.
11 August Göllerich, “Siebentes philharmonisches Concert. (3. Symphonie von Brahms.
– Hans Richter. – ‘Les Préludes’ von Liszt),” Deutsches Volksblatt. Morgenausgabe
83 (28 March 1889): 2.
12 Ed. K., “Operntheater und Concerte,” 1.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid. Daniel Spitzer, on the other hand, describes a different connotation of the “cla-
rifying process”: “Formerly a Tannhäuser, Liszt broke free from the white arms of Frau
Venus and turned his back on the Hörselberg, in whose depths such arduous love bla-
zes.” That Liszt’s decision to be ordained as an Abbé was not, in Spitzer’s view, free of
a sense of guilt becomes clear in the following sentence: “His kiss-weary lips yearned
for the cross and he sank repentantly at the pope’s feet and kissed his consoling slipper.”
The cynical undertone, which is hard not to miss in Spitzer’s provocative choice of
words, conveys his feeling that Liszt’s change of life was hypocritical, subliminally
hinting in the following sentence that the change might have been less sincere than
70
