Page 71 - 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
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catholic” programme music? franz liszt’s religiosity in the focus of the viennese press ...
of Liszt’s innermost nature can be read from his musical output as clear-
ly as it can from his innermost being, which was ultimately responsible for
– and hence reflected in – the compositions’ form. Kulke presents Liszt –
attesting him a “religiously inclined nature”15 – as an “earthly arm of God,”
and thus as a composer who felt his mission in life was to spread the values
of Christianity to the world through art. There was no doubt for Kulke that
this calling felt by Liszt would have also guided his choice of the themes he
developed in his programmatic music. Accordingly, he states with regard
to Les Préludes:
His earlier works are also meant to demonstrate that this was the com-
poser’s intention; for what else could he be wanting to say when he
warns us that this whole earthly life is only a prelude, only an overture,
what else does he want to awaken in us other than the deep religious
feeling that fills his own breast.16
The critic who went by the abbreviation –i. shares Kulke’s view that
the essence of Liszt’s symphonic creations can only be truly understood on
the basis that “Liszt [...] has always faithfully grasped [the world] according
to the teachings of the Catholic Church.” He cites as evidence his conviction
that the Dante Symphony demands “to be taken as the musical artistic ex-
pression of a man who – according to his nature – was truly devoted to his art
and had deeply felt its spirituality during the most sacred hours of his life.”17
With this statement –i. communicates that he shares his fellow critic Kul-
ke’s assumption that Liszt needed to propagate his Catholic religiosity out
into society through his music.
In order to gain a deeper understanding of what Kulke and –i. meant
to achieve through their criticism, it is necessary to consider the profile of
the newspaper in which their reviews appeared. Das Vaterland, subtitled
Zeitung für die Österreichische Monarchie, was a daily newspaper published
between 1860 and 1911. It had a Catholic-aristocraticorientation and, d espite
perhaps assumed: “But he was not so world-weary as to seek the tranquillity of a mo-
nastery and tonsure the beautiful head that had so often rested upon the bosoms of
tender women. He desired only the ordinances of an Abbé, who can pray when he ple-
ases, and live as he pleases, and drink what he pleases.” Sp-r, “Wiener Spaziergänge,”
Neue Freie Presse 3376 (18 January 1874): 5.
15 –i., “Feuilleton. Symphonie zu Dante’s ‘Divina commedia’. (Zur zweiten Aufführung
im philharmonischen Concerte vom 23. März 1890.),” Das Vaterland 81 (23 March
1890): 1.
16 Ed. K., “Operntheater und Concerte,” 1.
17 –i., “Feuilleton. Symphonie zu Dante’s ‘Divina commedia’,” 4.
71
of Liszt’s innermost nature can be read from his musical output as clear-
ly as it can from his innermost being, which was ultimately responsible for
– and hence reflected in – the compositions’ form. Kulke presents Liszt –
attesting him a “religiously inclined nature”15 – as an “earthly arm of God,”
and thus as a composer who felt his mission in life was to spread the values
of Christianity to the world through art. There was no doubt for Kulke that
this calling felt by Liszt would have also guided his choice of the themes he
developed in his programmatic music. Accordingly, he states with regard
to Les Préludes:
His earlier works are also meant to demonstrate that this was the com-
poser’s intention; for what else could he be wanting to say when he
warns us that this whole earthly life is only a prelude, only an overture,
what else does he want to awaken in us other than the deep religious
feeling that fills his own breast.16
The critic who went by the abbreviation –i. shares Kulke’s view that
the essence of Liszt’s symphonic creations can only be truly understood on
the basis that “Liszt [...] has always faithfully grasped [the world] according
to the teachings of the Catholic Church.” He cites as evidence his conviction
that the Dante Symphony demands “to be taken as the musical artistic ex-
pression of a man who – according to his nature – was truly devoted to his art
and had deeply felt its spirituality during the most sacred hours of his life.”17
With this statement –i. communicates that he shares his fellow critic Kul-
ke’s assumption that Liszt needed to propagate his Catholic religiosity out
into society through his music.
In order to gain a deeper understanding of what Kulke and –i. meant
to achieve through their criticism, it is necessary to consider the profile of
the newspaper in which their reviews appeared. Das Vaterland, subtitled
Zeitung für die Österreichische Monarchie, was a daily newspaper published
between 1860 and 1911. It had a Catholic-aristocraticorientation and, d espite
perhaps assumed: “But he was not so world-weary as to seek the tranquillity of a mo-
nastery and tonsure the beautiful head that had so often rested upon the bosoms of
tender women. He desired only the ordinances of an Abbé, who can pray when he ple-
ases, and live as he pleases, and drink what he pleases.” Sp-r, “Wiener Spaziergänge,”
Neue Freie Presse 3376 (18 January 1874): 5.
15 –i., “Feuilleton. Symphonie zu Dante’s ‘Divina commedia’. (Zur zweiten Aufführung
im philharmonischen Concerte vom 23. März 1890.),” Das Vaterland 81 (23 March
1890): 1.
16 Ed. K., “Operntheater und Concerte,” 1.
17 –i., “Feuilleton. Symphonie zu Dante’s ‘Divina commedia’,” 4.
71
