Mac'nClassicalCheese - Feb 8, 2024

Heyyyy everyone. Look at this tiny little playlist. It's so adorable right? This playlist is inspired by the first piece, Les Preludes, "The Beginnings" by Liszt. This piece is the FIRST EVER symphonic poem which I've kinda waxed poetic about so I won't get too into it again...but! Here I go. So a symphonic, or "tone" poem is a single movement piece written for orchestra, and it is based off a preexisting work of art or literature. This symphonic poem by Liszt is inspired by a poem of the same name by Alphonse de Lamartine. This piece also marks the early Romantic Era in classical music (mid 1800s) when composers started breaking down forms (like the symphony being 4 movements) and creating works in their own forms (like the tone poem) and making pieces that were emotional, personal, theoretical, existential, etc. You get the idea. It's like the teen-angst-self-realization-phase of classical music. So to complement this opening piece we have a work for solo piano, also by Liszt, from his 3 part work "Years of Pilgrimage", and this is from the first part, "Year 1: Switzerland," movement 8, "Homesickness." And then we have Chopin piano concert no. 2 in its entirety to finish out the rest of the show! I don't have the energy to go into Liszt and Chopin drama/history but the pieces today all fit together I promise.