Faust Symphony and Overture

Liszt A Faust Symphony and Wagner A Faust Overture. Christian Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden and Sächsischer Staatsopernchor Dresden (Chorus Master Pablo Assante).  Endrik Wottrich is tenor soloist in the A Faust Symphony. Recorded live 2011 at the Semperoper, Dresden. Produced by Günter Atteln at Accentus Music; directed for TV by Tilo Krause. Released 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B

One neat thing about HDVD is you often get brilliant travelogue images of the venues where the famous orchestras play. For example, the Semperoper building in Dresden is decorated with a statue called "Faust" celebrating the famous Goethe poem. So when the Staatskapelle management was casting about for a Liszt commemorative program, it probably didn't take long to zero in on the Liszt A Faust Symphony. As chocolate chips for the cookie, they scheduled Wagner's A Faust Overture as warmup. This was more than just a good fit. The Wagner Overture was first played, with Wagner himself as conductor, in Dresden by the Staatskapelle (under an earlier name). You may recall that Liszt was Wagner's father-in-law. When Wagner dropped his plans to write a complete symphony on Faust, Liszt eventually took up the the task himself when he settled in Weimar, Goethe's home (not far from Dresden).

There are now many CDs of both of these Faust compositions. But subject HDVD appears to be the only video of both works together, and there are only a couple of older DVDs of the A Faust Symphony. So now we have an excellent video of a fine performance of two symphonic works that have previously perhaps been neglected on film.

Wagner was 31 when he finished his Overture. In 12 meager minutes Wagner demonstrates that he was a greater master of orchestral composing than Liszt would ever be. But this should not prevent you  from enjoying Liszt's ever-energetic, never-boring 70-minute symphony with a male chorus.

Liszt's chorus ends the symphony with the last eight lines of Goethe's Faust. Here is the text in German (which is not in the keep case booklet):

Alles Vergängliche
Ist nur ein Gleichnis;
Das Unzulängliche,
Heir wird's Ereignes;
Das Unbeschreibliche,
Hier ist's getan;
Das Ewig-Webliche
Zieht uns hinan.

Here's a translation from Wikipedia into English:

Everything transitory
Is only an approximation;
That which could not be achieved,
Here comes to pass;
What no-one could describe,
Here is accomplished;
The Eternal Feminine
Draws us aloft.

Fair enough, but how ugly!

Give this a try:

Everything perishable
Decay is ahead;
Here unattainable
Becomes fact instead;
The unexplainable,
Here will be done;
In woman's crucible
We all become one.

Update on Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at 3:28PM by Henry McFadyen Jr.

Robert Cowan reviewed this title in the April 2012 Gramophone at page 47. He said the sound was on a par with the finest SACDs. He also praised the picture quality (although you can't tell from the article if he watched a DVD or the Blu-ray version).  We have yet to apply to this title our now standards for symphony HDVD  recordings, so the grade we have given this is provisional.