The Faust Connection
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Poster art from the F.W. Murnau’s film of Faust (1926)
In 1829, Hector Berlioz wrote a short work based on Goethe's Faust, published it at his own expense, and then had second thoughts. He quickly rounded up every copy he could find and destroyed them.
Fifteen years later, he pulled out the abandoned manuscript and revamped it into a longer, more exciting work—but not before he had urged his friend, Franz Liszt, to read Faust, prompting Liszt to write his own setting of the famous tale of the man who sold his soul to the devil.
In this hour, how a single book inspired Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner—indeed, an entire generation of composers.
Recordings Used
Title
|
Catalog Number
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Faust by Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner
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Erato 685738023424
|
Symphonie Fantastique
|
BBC MM113
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Liszt Transcriptions
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Hyperion CDA66346
|
La Damnation de Faust, etc.
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EMI 0946 3 81493 2 3
|
A Faust Symphony
|
London 417 399-2
|
Die Walkurie
|
Decca 455 5592
|