Symphonic Poem No.13 "Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe" (for solo piano), S.512 - Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt: Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe 'Du berceau jusqu'à la tombe', S.512 (transcribed for piano solo, slightly rearrranged by Liszthesis).

Liszt’s Symphonic Poem No. 13, Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe, S.107, was composed long after the others, in 1881–82, with the score published in 1883 by Bote & Bock. The work was inspired by the gift of an ink drawing by Count Mihály Zichy. ‘Celebrated painter!’, responded Liszt, ‘You have given me a great gift. Your drawing “Du berceau jusqu’au tombe” is a wonderful symphony. I will attempt to put it into music and will dedicate the work to you. In friendly devotion. Fr. Liszt.’ As noted by Keith T. Johns, the painting, like the following musical work, is divided into three parts: a lower section (a cradle with mother and child; a casket with mourners), a middle section (allegorical musical figures) and an upper section (angels). These correspond in Liszt’s work to three divisions (the first two moving attacca onwards), within which Johns identified five major motifs: the cradle, struggle, grief, lullaby and heaven. The first section, ‘Die Wiege’ (‘The Cradle’), begins with an expositional lullaby, and is orchestrated modestly for violins, violas, two flutes and harp. The second part, ‘Der Kampf um’s Dasein’ (‘The Struggle for Existence’), is developmental in its contrasting clashes of motifs taken from the first section and is scored for full orchestra. The third portion, ‘Zum Grabe: die Wiege des zukünftigen Lebens’ (‘To the Grave: the Cradle of Future Life’), sonically transcendent, is scored minus piccolo and trombones, and ends with solo cello.

‘If one orientates oneself on the motivic-thematic material, the large-scale layout of the work can be described as arch form ABA' with a clear reprise character in A’. Jürgen Schläder proposed: ‘The formal structure of the composition corresponds to the poetic idea.’ Patrick Boenke elucidated: ‘The final movement functions as a thematic recapitulation and synthesis, which, however, is no longer staged as an emphatic breakthrough, as in earlier works, but rather as a process of dismantlement preceded by a dramatic collapse at the end of the second movement. The demonstrative break with the concept of a final apotheosis relates back not only to the source of inspiration for the work, but also to a transformation in the composer’s aesthetic viewpoint.’

The reception of Von der Wiege has been fraught from the outset. Theodor Müller-Reuter reported that ‘The so-called “Symphonic Poem” was performed only when styled as Liszt’s last instrumental work; musical value alone could not justify it.’ Humphrey Searle noted that the work ‘was inspired by what is apparently a very bad painting by Count Michael Zichy, and is divided into three parts, ‘The Cradle,’ ‘The Struggle for Existence’ and ‘To the Tomb: the Cradle of the Future Life’. The scheme suggests the worst type of Victorian melodrama; but the originality of the music makes it a very interesting work. The first part is tender, delicate and beautifully written; the violent central section is admittedly rather more conventional, but at any rate acts as an effective foil to the outside parts; while the final part combines the themes of the two previous sections and uses them to suggest a curious, transitional atmosphere which is exactly in keeping with the subject.’

Elsewhere, Searle called the piece ‘a restrained and austere work that looks towards the future both musically and in its subject matter.’ More recently, Michael Saffle concluded that ‘Carefully constructed but emotionally understated and somewhat indistinct expressively, Von der Wiege is nevertheless an interesting piece, although one that has never found much favor with concert audiences.’ (notes by William Melton)

[...] At the time he was completing the Cantico he was working on a thirteenth and final symphonic poem whose subject was From the Cradle to the Grave, after a drawing by Mihály Zichy depicting three stages of existence: birth, the struggle for being, and death—the cradle of the life to come. [...] Unusually, Liszt drafted the work for piano, then arranged and amplified it for duet and for orchestra, and transferred later alterations back into the solo version. Equally unusually, he made very little effort to incorporate extra instrumental lines into the piano version but left them printed on an extra stave to be included at will. Such inclusion [as on the present MIDI] requires one or two small accommodations to be made in the main solo text, but to omit the extra voices would be to diminish a beautiful piece, especially as the fuller text is not unknown in its orchestral form. (notes by Leslie Howard)

00:00 - I. Die Wiege (The Cradle)
05:37 - II. Der Kampf um’s Dasein (The Struggle for Existence)
08:27 - III. Zum Grabe: die Wiege des zukünftigen Lebens (To the Grave: the Cradle of Future Life)


Wiegenlied, S.198:    • Wiegenlied – Chant du Berceau (Cradle Song...  

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