Symphonic Poem No.9 "Hungaria" (for solo piano) - Friedrich Spiro/Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt: Hungaria – Poème Symphonique No.9 (transcribed for solo piano by Friedrich Spiro). Liszt arranged all thirteen of his symphonic poems for piano duet, and all but the last one for two pianos, whereas he arranged the last one for piano solo (Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe). The other twelve works were all published for solo piano with Liszt's blessing, and on occasion his collaboration. In the case of Les Préludes his part in the proceedings was publicly acknowledged from the beginning - the arrangement having been originally made in 1865 by Karl Klauser and published with Liszt's additions and altérations the following year. With Hungaria Liszt made his alterations to a copy of the already published transcription by Friedrich Spiro, and marked it up fully for the engraver to make a second edition, in which his own additional work would be acknowledged. Sadly, this edition was never published, and the holograph remains in Weimar. The work lies well for solo piano since it was based on a piano piece: the Heroischer Marsch im ungarischen Styl. Liszt had prepared an orchestral version of that march, intending it to be published by Schlesinger, but for some reason the score remained in manuscript. The symphonic poem is more than twice the length of the original piece, and the second subject of the earlier work is adapted to 4/4 time from the original 6/8. There are many new ideas and a much broader dramatic canvas, and several specifically Hungarian elements are added. [While the march] is in a simple sonata form; [Hungaria] is a vast rhapsody, still with elements of the sonata, but with much added fantasy and collateral thinking, culminating in a fine frenzy on a Hungarian melody also familiar from Brahms and Glazunov. (notes by Leslie Howard) Hungaria, the ninth of the twelve Weimar symphonic poems, is one of the most discursive and episodic. It dates from 1854 and, unlike most of the others, it has no specific poetic basis or programme but is a generalised evocation of the composer’s native land, especially in the happier times before Hungary’s defeat in its 1848 war for independence. It takes its place, therefore, along with Liszt’s other patriotic works, including the Hungarian Fantasy for piano and orchestra, the oratorio Saint Elisabeth and the symphonic poems Héroïde funèbre and Hunnenschlacht, not to mention Funèrailles and the many Hungarian Rhapsodies which he developed from his early collections of Magyar Dallók and Magyar Rapszódiak for piano. Liszt provided no preface to Hungaria, but Stradal remedied the deficiency by including his own lengthy one to his piano transcription: it is dated ‘Vienna, August 1903’ although he talks in it of Liszt having been dead for thirteen years, which suggests it was largely written around the time of his work on the transcription in 1899. Stradal’s preface is a polemical piece in support of Liszt’s powers as a composer and of this work in particular, bewailing its neglect by conductors. He suggests that Liszt should be seen as a counterpart to Berlioz: the latter as a great romantic pessimist, Liszt by contrast as a mighty optimist, which is reflected in the emotional progression of Hungaria from sorrow to triumph. He also links Hungaria with the poet Mihály Vörösmarty’s ode of 1840, Liszt Ferenchez (‘To Ferenc Liszt’), which calls upon the composer – ‘Renowned musician, freeman of the world, / And yet our kinsman everywhere you go’ – to make a music that will awaken in the present a love of the Fatherland equal to that of contemporary Hungarians’ great ancestors: Great Universal Master, make for us another song about days gone by, […] Sing out a song so in their deepest graves our ancestors are compelled to stir, so each immortal soul awaking proves new life to descendants, made aware of blessings in their Magyar fatherland. For Stradal, Hungaria is Liszt’s specific answer to this appeal. In fact the main themes of the symphonic poem originated precisely in 1840, the year of Vörösmarty’s poem, in Liszt’s piano work Heroic March in the Hungarian Style. It opens Largo con duolo with a motif which Stradal says brings the ‘lonely, sad, immense Puszta’ before our eyes. Almost at once the theme of the March appears, which Stradal associates with knightly riders galloping over the Puszta. It is interrupted by a cadenza-like passage (given by Liszt in the original to solo violin) but dominates the first part of the symphonic poem. As the work unfolds, Stradal points out a ‘storm over the Puszta’, a burial song for fallen heroes, and a contrasting Allegro trionfante leading to a wild Czardás and a concluding Victory Hymn. [...] (notes by Malcom MacDonald) Heroischer Marsch im ungarischen Styl, S.241 (an earlier piano piece using the same themes):    • Heroischer Marsch im Ungarischem Stil, S.2...   Carl Tausig's transcription:    • Symphonic Poem No.9 "Hungaria" (piano tran...   August Stradal's transcription:    • Symphonic Poem No.9 "Hungaria" (piano tran...   Our Discord Server:   / discord