This authoritative edition presents full-score reproductions of three of Liszt s best-known symphonic poems. Les Preludes (Symphonic Poem No.3) grew out of the composer s unpublished choral setting of Joseph Autran s poem The Four Elements , blending stirring martial music and lovely pastoral themes to make this work the most popular of the symphonic poems. Mazeppa (Symphonic Poem No.6) evokes Victor Hugo s portrayal of the Cossack leader and the symbolic triumph that comes only after defeat: He runs, he flies, he falls, and he stands up king! Heroide Funebre (Symphonic Poem No.8) is the last vestige of the monumental Revolutionary Symphony, planned but never completed, suggesting universal brotherhood: a fine, heroic, dignified funeral march. In these richly sonorous works, Liszt explored the concept of the one-movement transformation of themes, an approach to composition that Wagner would carry forward in his development of the leitmotif. Liszt s expanding chromaticism would be no less influential, anticipating the twentieth century s embrace of atonality. Frequently performed favourites of audiences around the world, these three works are reprinted from the original Breitkopf & Härtel edition.
