# Liszt's Tone Poems



## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

Liszt's tone poems are probably the most criticized part of his immense output (except the Hungarian Rhapsodies of course). This criticism I have never really understood. Of course, there are some lesser passages every once in awhile and the orchestration is not as effective as the late romantic/20th century works that these poems would lead to - but I find the usual criticisms to be completely overblown, reducing works that certainly have many charms and deserve listening (even if they aren't quite at the level of some of the works they would lead to) to trash, without really giving them a chance. I was thinking about this today when I listened to one of his most criticized tone poems, 'Hungaria.' I've seen the orchestration be called awful, the piece as a whole being way overlong, and hopelessly bombastic - when it simply isn't! No other romantic/late romantic/20th cent composer would get that latter criticism for a work like this. Sure I can hear some clumsy passages here and there (and lets cut him some slack, he was breaking a lot of ground with these works), but on the whole this is a piece that would work well as an orchestral showpiece, and one with some depth at that.
















Anyone care to tell me what is so bad about this piece? I'm no expert - and maybe as I learn more I will hear these 'flaws' too - but at this point it's something I don't understand. Many of his other more criticized tone poems, like Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, Die Ideale, Festklänge, Heroide Funebre, etc - are not the worthless trash people would have you believe and are actually works that enjoyment can be gotten from, even if they do have some flaws in one way or another.

Of course, I haven't touched on the others, like Tasso, Les Preludes, Orpheus, Mazeppa, Prometheus, Hamlet, Hunnenschlact, all of which are highly enjoyable, especially Orpheus, which is a masterpiece (the same distinction has been given to Hamlet, but I don't see it).

What are your thoughts on these works?


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I wrote about all of them in my blog.


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

^I liked your comments, and your blog! Favourited.


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