- Orpheus is one of twelve symphonic poems Liszt wrote while he was working as Kapellmeister to the Grand Duke of Weimar from 1848-1861. This period in his life was a chance for Liszt to settle down after years as a traveling virtuoso and concentrate on composition.1
- Liszt’s focus upon composition was partly at the encouragement of his partner, Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein, whom he met in 1847 and with whom he lived during the Weimar years. The princess, a Polish woman who had been married against her will to a Russian aristocrat, struggled for 13 years to obtain an annulment in order to marry Liszt, but ultimately failed. This was a source of great stress and sadness for the couple.
- Liszt coined the term Symphonische Dichtung (Symphonic Poem) around 1853 to describe a new genre of programmatic one-movement orchestral works. Orpheus was one of his first six symphonic poems, published in 1856. Liszt dedicated all of his Weimar symphonic poems to Princess Carolyne.2
- Liszt prefaced his symphonic poems with explanations of their extramusical inspiration. In the preface to Orpheus, he explained that that work was inspired by an Etruscan vase in the Louvre’s collection, which depicted Orpheus playing the lyre.3
- Orpheus premiered on February 16, 1854 in Weimar, before a performance of Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice. Liszt conducted the premiere.4
Sources
- Maria Eckhardt, Rena Charnin Mueller, and Alan Walker, “Liszt, Franz,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 18, 2021, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000048265.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- “Orpheus: Poème symphonique. Transcription by Jean Guillou,” Schott, accessed August 18, 2021, https://en.schott-music.com/shop/orpheus-no212582.html.
Cut IDs
15786 40306 40311