Franz Liszt - Dante Symphony and Dante Sonata

Franz Liszt 

Dante Symphony, S 109; Dante Sonata, S 161 No. 7

Daniel Barenboim (Conductor and Piano)

,Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

I've had a decades-long love-hate relationship with this music, but it won't let me go! But one result is that I've owned, over the years, almost every recording of it - including a real rarity, the Bolschoi Orchestra conducted by Boris Khaikin (pretty poor!).

I assess the difficulty of the Symphony as having very little to do with how it's played. Liszt's skills as an orchestrator were modest - that's part of the problem. Brahms' complaint against him rings true: he tends to forget the bass line, because as a pianist he was used to treating it as part of the virtuoso fabric, i.e. independently, whereas it should really serve as a support and foundation of the whole texture. The short of it is, that Liszt hardly ever writes a proper tutti, and so his score tends too often to sound thin - either in the middle or at the bottom. What conductors make of this, is the secret of a successful performance.

In that regard, I feel that Masur Liszt: Symphonic Poems had the measure of this work. Lisztians are likely to take note of the absence of hectic muddles, and especially of the brass sounding round and fat, rather than belching as in most other recordings. His slow movement is judiciously paced and the angels sound truly angelic. His recording portrays the music as MUSIC. To my mind an inestimable advantage that raises his version well above other contenders.

It is unfortunate that albums from the second rank far outnumber the really masterly ones. Although Sinopoli Liszt: Dante Symphonie comes in as a good second, his nervous approach and tub-thumping in the climaxes will not be to everyone's taste. At any rate it is still a superior reading, and until now the decision was really between these two outstanding performances.

Where does Barenboim fit in? In style and manner he is close to Sinopoli's approach (both live performances, whereas Masur is a studio recording). He makes a very grand affair of it. The Berlin and Dresden brass sound equally stunning; but I would give a marginal preference to Barenboim's strings - and I say Barenboim's, because here is the difference between these two conductors. The Berliners have a richer and mellower sound, and surely this work desperately needs softening in places! Barenboim also has a better feel for Liszt's Romanticism in the slow movement, I think, and the same applies to the final chorus.

Barenboim is better recorded as well, so the choice (even though by a slim margin) seems plain. It is complicated, however, by the fill-up. Sinopoli gives us two pieces from Busoni's Dr Faustus, whereas Barenboim plays the piano. His reading of the Dante Sonata is, I think, one of the best; but he recorded the same piece ever better on Deutsche Gramophon on a solo album containing a magnificent performance of the Sonata in B minor.

I'm inclined to put Barenboim's recording on the same level as Masur's. Two very different view of the same work, both indispensable.

(PS I find another reviewer claiming Edo de Waart's recording as THE BEST, in capital letters. It strikes me as vastly exaggerated, indeed incomprehensible. That recording is hardly in the same league as the object under discussion today)

Jurgen Lawrenz on March 6, 2011