Eine Faust-Symphonie

Liszt’s Eine Faust-Symphonie in drei Charakterbildern (A Faust Symphony in Three Character Portraits), for tenor solo, male-voice choir, and orchestra, is one of the major works of classical music based on the Faust legend. Johann Faustus actually existed: He was a travelling astrologer and magician whose career in late-medieval southeastern Germany gave rise to multiple posthumous legends about him. Liszt’s work was inspired by Goethe’s verse play Faust, which tells how the hero sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for a life of sensual gratification. Introduced by the Devil’s earthly henchman Mephistopheles to the young and trusting Gretchen, Faust seduces, impregnates and then abandons her. Eventually he redeems himself by good works, and Gretchen’s soul intercedes successfully for the dying Faust to enter Heaven. Liszt composed the first three orchestral movements of A Faust Symphony in 1854 and conducted the first performance of them in Weimar that year. The first and longest movement, “Faust”, a masterly portrait of the brilliant but emotionally dissatisfied philosopher/scientist, is followed by “Gretchen,” whose music reflects her winsome innocence. “Mephistopheles” then depicts the character’s destructive nihilism by reworking and distorting the musical material of the “Faust” movement. In 1857, with a second Weimar performance scheduled, Liszt added the finale, “Apotheosis.” This is a setting for tenor solo, male-voice choir, and orchestra of the “Chorus mysticus” (Mystical Chorus) from the radiantly affirmative final scene of Goethe’s play.