Franz Liszt: Festklänge – Poème symphonique No 7, S.511d (transcribed for piano solo by Ludwig Stark, later revised by Liszt).

Festklänge is unlike most of Liszt’s symphonic poems as far as design is concerned, and features an improbably conventional application of sonata form. It begins with the dotted rhythms of the Allegro mosso con brio introduction in C major/G major, which yields to an exposition (Andante sostenuto, 1:17) in which the rising arpeggios of the principal theme in the strings in C major are contrasted by the stepwise declamation of the secondary theme in the woodwinds in G major (bar 158). The traditional sonata form unfolding brings a lengthy development (Allegro con brio, 7:17), a recapitulation (Tempo I. Allegro mosso con brio, 12:10) that finishes with the Polonaise rhythms that many writers have felt echo Carolyne’s Polish heritage, and a coda. Yet Liszt deftly managed a high degree of tonal ambiguity throughout, right until the key of C major is decisively affirmed at the very end of the coda. Festklänge reveals a side of the composer that is unexpected, and the Liszt scholar Michael Safe has written:
"The earliest proponents of the New German School ignored Liszt as sonata composer. So did Hanslick. So do we, most of the time, today. Perhaps because, in our eagerness to salute the revolutionary in Liszt, we slight Liszt the conservative." (notes by William Melton)

Although the first draft of Festklänge (Festival sounds) was presented as an overture to Schiller’s Huldigung der Künste (The homage of the arts), it is really a very elaborate wedding celebratory piece, and its autobiographical nature is undisputed: whilst the marriage of Liszt to the Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was fated never to take place, her influence on his creative life during his years at Weimar was decisive, and all twelve of these syphonic poems are dedicated to her. There are many references to themes of both Polish and Hungarian character in homage to the ethnic origins of the couple. It remains surprising that this grand and grandiose work should not appear more often as a curtain raiser at orchestral concerts.

Festklänge was published as a transcription by Liszt's disciple Ludwig Stark, which had no doubt been made under Liszt's supervision, especially since it deviates from the standard orchestral score by employing all of the Polish-character variants which Liszt composed (presumably to please the Polish Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein) and which only appear as a supplement to the score. (Liszt's own versions for two pianos and piano duet do not utilize these variants.) This performance was prepared from Liszt's corrected version of Stark's transcription and from a further manuscript containing Liszt's own rewritten transcription of most of the peroration (18:28). (notes by Leslie Howard)

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