ADVENT CALENDAR – DAY 21
I try to make it a point to listen to Franz Liszt’s oratorio, “Christus,” every year, whether I need it or not.
It helps that I love Liszt, of course. Not all of his music – someone so prolific had to turn out a clunker now and then – but he was such a noble, well-intentioned guy. I’ve been a hardcore admirer ever since I read Alan Walker’s biography about 14 years ago. And hearing so many performances of his Piano Sonata certainly didn’t hurt.
Liszt was one of the most original musical thinkers of the 19th century. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that, after Beethoven, Liszt was probably the most influential musician of the 1800s. There was likely no composer who didn’t at some point make a decision to follow or react against him. Liszt wrote a lot of wonderful music, and at least as much that might be construed as a little embarrassing. He was more successful as a musical thinker than he was a consistent executor of his ideas. But Wagner, to name just one, would have been a very different composer without Liszt. And we all know how influential Wagner was.
Liszt’s flamboyance was legendary, but I think his reputation in that regard stemmed mostly from the overwhelming impressions he created in recital, and the crowds’ hysterical reactions to them. Liszt was also an introverted, thoughtful, pious man. He was so pious, in fact, that at one point he wound up taking minor orders and living in a cell in Rome, where he was known as the Abbé Liszt. So his religious works were not mere posturing.
The incredible “Christus” is an oratorio in three parts that is really part oratorio, part loose collection of symphonic poems. Part I, the Christmas portion, contains two purely orchestral movements, which together comprise about half an hour. The concluding “March of the Three Holy Kings” is a corker. It’s also interesting in that one of the movement’s main themes is nearly identical to Wagner’s motif for Wotan. Which came first? Both “Christus” and “Das Rheingold” were written at just about the same time.
I know it’s the last weekend before Christmas, so everyone is likely very busy, but if there is any time to listen to “Christus” it is on a weekend. Maybe you can block out three hours late on your Sunday afternoon. Kick back on the sofa with the Christmas lights on, enjoy the tree, and wallow in this ambitious, romantic music.
Part I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_KWFIl_XR4
Part II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcFd4m2wa1M
Part III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hEdexzXqcI
If you just can’t get enough, here’s Liszt’s “Christmas Tree Suite.”
Some of the movements in the first half incorporate traditional carols (including “Adeste Fideles,” in yet another evocation of the Three Holy Kings). In the later movements, Liszt just kind of dreamily wanders into the future the way only Liszt can. All of the movement titles are listed on the page containing the video.
PHOTOS: Liszt takes the cloth (left); Jesus gets frankincense and myrrh
