Description
Following their critically acclaimed recording of theFaust Symphony (BIS-2510), the OrchestrePhilharmonique Royal de Liege, conducted byGergely Madaras and joined by the ChoeurSymphonique de Namur, now presents Liszt'sDante Symphony -- a work reflecting his profoundengagement with Dante's Divine Comedy.Initially planned in three movements -- Inferno,Purgatorio and Paradiso -- the Dante Symphonywas ultimately cast as two symphonic poems witha choral conclusion. The Inferno opens with a sterntrombone theme beneath Dante's gate inscription,moves through lyrical episodes evoking Paolo andFrancesca, and ends in demonic frenzy. ThePurgatorio, serene and simple, contains a centralfugue evoking souls striving toward paradise,leading without pause into the choral Magnificat.Liszt's treatment of tonality anticipates Mahler andNielsen, while his use of the tritone and whole-tone scale confirms him as a composer ahead of histime. This recording also includes the symphony'soriginal conclusion, later abandoned at RichardWagner's insistence.The programme concludes with John Adams'orchestration of La Lugubre Gondola II, a visionarylate work inspired by a funeral gondola processionon Venice's Grand Canal. Adams' arrangementhonours the structural, stylistic and poeticdimensions of Liszt's original, placing its Romanticlanguage within a modern soundscape.
