Wednesday 17 March 2010

Sound of the day

Today's record is Alfred Scholz's recording of Franz Liszt's Symphonic Poems. By and large, Liszt is unknown to me: this is all I have, probably because I'm not that keen on the 19th Century post-Classical/Romantic period. This is no doubt ignorance on my part, but this sound sums up for me what I endured four hours as a child, when my attention span was rather limited. Not enough violence, too much prettiness, a problem solved in 20th century classical music.

Listening to these instrumental poems now though, I can hear tension, passion, sturm un drang in quantity - reflecting Liszt's troubled private life and progressive lefty values during a time of upheaval. He had, it must be admitted, an amazing life.



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