Hi-Rez Highway New high resolution SACD releases, players and technology.

---

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Hi-Rez Highway ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

What I do not manage to hear . . . .

Posted by DkB (A) on January 7, 2007 at 14:01:15

In Reply to: Liszt-Dante Symphony-What should I Listen For? posted by Robert C. Lang on January 4, 2007 at 15:55:29:

....in this work, as a whole, is a sense of tight dramatic flow, integration of ideas and structural coherence, the standards of which have been set by Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn before Liszt.
What I do hear, in studying this work, are sequences of figures that are repeated in a rather predictable manner, indulgent forays and tangential shootings off in non-logical directions which grate on me after a while. This seems to be true of Liszt's extended orchestral works.

Perhaps some may say this is what unfettered Romanticism is all about. I do prefer Romanticism when it is guided by a firmer hand, as in Brahms or Mahler. Even Tchaivkovsky, in general, holds together more securely. The glory of R Strauss' symphonic poems is that, while they sound free and episodic on the surface, the music is generally held together and propelled by powerfully logical threads cunningly embedded deep in the structure, betraying his roots in the tradition of his Austrian classical predecessors.

I do have a great deal of admiration for Liszt's solo piano music, such as his Transcendental Meditations. The ideas presented are imaginative and powerful. In extended solo piano works such as the B Minor Sonata, his sense of structure and development seems to be deeply sharpened in the context of an individual musician expressing himself through a grand piano, and this is where Liszt seems most comfortable.

I suppose it is a matter of focussing on what there is to enjoy rather than dwelling on what is missing. I find the Dante symphony does present an intriguing musical premise and striking melodic ideas and textures. I very much agree with Russell: In the hands of a skilled conductor and orchestra, applying their "tricks of the interpretive trade" to gloss over the weaknesses and to highlight its best features, the Dante "symphony" can sound engaging enough to hold one's interest.

In this vein, do let us know how much of the baby you enjoy, and how much of the bathwater you manage to ignore. The Telarc Dante title is one of over a hundred SACDs I have bought but have not listened to due to a drawn-out system upgrading process and home move. I look forward to hearing what SACD and Botstein can do for a work like this.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

VH Audio

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---