Berlioz-Liszt - Symphonie Fantastique (The Witches' Sabbath)

[ubfiawudwe]

3:39 to 3:45 is the Melody of Liszt's Dance Macabre, isnt' it?

[joefalchetto94]

@ubfiawudwe

Yes, but it's taken from the Dies Irae theme :)

[ubfiawudwe]

@joefalchetto94 AWESOME

[losmonjes]

Quien es el interprete?

[quintron3]

Good transcription but as mention below it can't never equal the full orchestra version. I need that Eb Clarinet @2:00. Great sound and playing none the less

[Rheesoman]

It's like listining to Musical Fireworks.

[kudi82]

huh, here you see the limitations of a piano :-o how boring compared to the orchestral version! either the piano transcription is simply bad, or the orchestration of berlioz is so perfect. never heard a piece which looses so much in the piano version. all the craziness gets lost.

[desination7]

@kudi82 i thot liszt did a damn good job transcribing this piece, its clearly never going to be as good as the original, cause all the timbres of the other instruments is gone, however, his transcription reflects the berlioz symphony extremely well. its just a transcription, its one instrument versus many, of course its not going to be as good. however, if u can imagine the sound of the orchestra behind the piano, the transcription only gets better!!

[308813062]

02:00 my fav

[Laudan08]

08:51 Skeletons dancing!

[MidniteHasStruck]

who are the brilliant pianists who play these incredible pieces so well???

[xtfcr7]

Obviously this was recorded in several takes. So many awkward cut/pastes...

[firstofthecouncil]

@Mariezee44 Wait. What? You mean that some rednecks are sane? :o

[Gryffindor8]

Liszt is such a show off. still beast though

[sallygirl2066]

heard this on sleeping with the enemy i love that movie reminds me of the abusive husband

[Rodintube]

At 4:35 seems a lot like Tottentaz. Is there a reason?

[coasterman16]

@Rodintube The melody in both pieces is the "Dies Irae" plainchant. It's a pretty common melody. It appears in many many pieces.

[Glhrd]

Thanks for uploading this! 

[kimattbort]

its apparent that she just ran out of gas there at the end- very understandable

[LongDriveChamp03]

Does 3:39 sound like the opening bars to Morte by Alkan or is that just me?

[aardvaark069]

That's an absolutely shocking piano 'reduction'. It's not a reduction or even a transcription. It is a work of genius that seems to expand the music even beyond the effect of the orchestral original. It's incredible!

[wolfkuehn]

What a piece. Amazing that someone spends time on this and delivers like Leslie Howard did. His fingers must be sore after the 10 min performance.

[exelpaperclip123]

The notation scares me more than how it sounds. O.O

[NoirOrchestre]

In my opinion, it's almost too nicely interpreted. This is a demonic part, it should be more "grating"...

[peterperlot1]

pianists are crazy enough to be able to play this

this guy has skills

[coaster1000]

@bigcalamaro The only connection is the use of "Dies Iræ", an old Gregorian chant from the Middle ages. It is used in several works.

[ChopinBachBrahms]

Thank you SO much for posting this!!!!!!!!

[averyfatsnail12]

2 people like Justin Bieber

[sebastianrc]

could you pleaaaseee upload the second and the fourth movement of the symphonie???

[thomandy]

03:39 +, reminds me a lot of the opening of The Shining!!! :) Anyone else agree?

[DhAoS1020]

I must say the performace of this is absolutely fantastic. However, I am not a fan of Lizst's transcription of this. But I do like Liszt. I just think { and yes i know...it's from full orchestra to piano} that this doesn't do this piece justice.

[enVme731]

this didnt sound like a sabboth at all! I expected something a lot more like Night on Bald mountain

[Keytaster]

Wow, there's no music in the piece up to 1:40

[grrrr17]

@Keytaster

yeah i wasnt feeling a melody either.

[wolfymozartinio]

it like a something heavy on you

[freelanzerflz]

3:40 used in "Room of the God Machine" from Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis!

[IamH3leN]

@freelanzerflz gotta love that game

[bersa888]

WOW!

[micheldvorsky]

Good performance but that cut at 1:47 is atrocious.

[Lukecash12]

Strangely enough, this makes me think of Cowell's three Irish Tales.

[pastafantastica]

me too !

[addeex1]

OMG 3:40 is the exact same theme as in Alkans Morte!! :O

[RagtimeFox1]

It's called the Dies Irae, an old chant melody, and a movement in Requiem Masses.

[addeex1]

aha Thanks :D

[Lukecash12]

Actually, Alkan's Morte was directly partly towards Liszt, so really we're hearing a dialogue here.

[addeex1]

Hmm, sorry you lost me haha ^^

[lovesGenet]

i've always wanted to hear this.Liszt had imgination he made this stuff killl da crowds.Leslie Howard well.Good for him needs a dash of irrational he's too english.But this is well done just not rollicking .Cziffra should have doe some of the orchestral stuff.

[leoufdu38]

It's played too slowly !

[PlyMood]

LOL the sheet music looks scary lol it's wondefuk

[zurzica51]

OMG a tremendous recording by Mr

Leslie..

[philosophersphone]

You must excuse me if this sounds a bit like heresy...but...why is it that so much classical music (and music in general) seems to be directly or indirectly associated with pagan/satanic worship?

As an emcee, I have a deep-seated passion for many styles of music but, as a man of faith, I find it difficult to ignore the possibility that many of these cats have sold their souls in exchange for fame and flame.

I'm just sayin.

[Hexameron]

Many in the 19th-century assumed Liszt and especially Paganini sold their souls to the devil, not because of the content of their music, but because of their inhuman virtuosity. You might want to rethink your assertion that "so much classical music" has traces of satanic worship; it doesn't.

If you read about Romanticism in the arts, you'll see that a prevalent characteristic in the literature, visual arts, and music is a fascination with the macabre. That doesn't mean "satanic worship."

[philosophersphone]

I can dig it. Michelangelo's Torment of Saint Anthony just went on display at a museum in Ft. Worth. As dark as it is, it seems in line with the theology of the times and the fact that he completed it as a teen keeps it innocent. But just the same, I can't deny the overwhelming presence of intended darkness in the arts. Berlioz did The Witches Sabbath and blew minds. So I'll check out Romanticism and follow up. PreShateCha. Peace.

[PierreZeFrenchButler]

Not to mention that classical music and church hymns were essentially the same thing for many centuries (and they share very deep roots).

[ThePenguin1995]

@Hexameron

Actually the only composer I know of with any conection to Satanism is Scriabin.

Btw I think faith in excess is a serious blunder to understand Art. I sincerely think that that religion is only a way to understand what you can't.

And there are uncounteble religius composers: Bruckner, Liszt (he turned into an abbot in the last years of his life), and many others.

[TDarkHunt]

@Hexameron

And if the devil existed, this would be revelant...

[bigcalamaro]

@Hexameron What are the connection between this piece and totentanz?

[PizzatheHutt78]

@Hexameron Religious people don't read, it kills their god off.

[nauticalfate]

@PizzatheHutt78 actually we do, more than you know, my friend, and love fine arts and great scores of music.

[bloody31234]

@Hexameron

Couldn't have said it better myself, +1 mate and thanks for the upload :)

[imababyshark]

lol if only selling your soul was that easy... anyone could be as rich as rockefeller.. get a grip on reality, friend.

[oxygensnoboard]

Because classical music is a form of art, not pop culture. Therefor, composers wrote music that could deal with a much broader range of emotion and atmosphere, not just what the "fans" want. Not to mention, classical composers were very intelligent people who would not have been afraid to write ALL kinds of music for fear of "god".

Which, if you think of one "selling their soul", isn't it rather odd that one could make a pact with evil forces to persuade others who have not?

[AltoSaxOlly]

@philosophersphone - I think many (if not most) of the famous composers (like Liszt) were deeply religious, and in my opinion writing a piece based on the the macabre and the fear of all that is satanic is exactly the same as writing about the beauty of God. Surely composing a piece of enchantingly engaging music that conjures such emotions cannot be a sign of the devil himself?

[afertyus1000]

@AltoSaxOlly yes you may be right,its amazing composing this when it would hardly be played that often even with an accomplished pianist

[Malaka57]

@philosophersphone ... Might I confirm Hex's answer. "so much classical music??" How much have you listened to? The fascination with the macabre Hexameron mentions comes straight from Chiristianity and the Middle Ages. Ibid the obsession with witches! That is all perfectly Christian hallkucinations, so you may go on listening without fear.

[agreatguy6]

@philosophersphone This piece in particular is specifically about an artist who killed himself because of love, and this is a depiction of a witches sabbath [in hell, I presume] but it's just programme music reflecting the inner emotional torment Berlioz was going through because he got rejected by a woman he'd fallen for from afar.

Nothing satanic about it at all. He's no more a satan worshiper than Goethe is for writing Faust.

[GuitarmasterAlucard]

@philosophersphone its just that they didnt had tv's and computers in that days so they used aaaall their time in the piano... playing or composing

[TheNikosba]

@philosophersphone R U American? hahahahaha

[geck1204]

@philosophersphone Of course they did. How else can they play so well? ;)

[mandel11]

@philosophersphone says the one named philosophers stone.

[kearabob]

@philosophersphone I would also take care in reminding you that pagan worship has nothing to do with satanic worship.

[JakeMDavey]

@philosophersphone

The majority of classical music is based around faith to Christianity. Almost every composer has choral and hymn music. Use your brain mate

[laura195116]

@philosophersphone lol

[MrJoshuaHaines]

God what a fucking idiot I am.

[MrJoshuaHaines]

Who transcribed this?

[addeex1]

No one cares

this is wonderful.

Give an explanation please...

[BlackjackSP]

Harriet Smithson seemed to like it :P

[Hexameron]

Of coures she did. Any woman would want her lover to imagine her as a rotting corpse dancing in a graveyard during a witches sabbath ;)

[franzpschubert]

Maspixxx,

Are you referring to Liszt's transcription as being bombastic, irregular, etc., or the original work? I think that these qualities are what makes Symphonie Fantastique great to many people. . . After all, there is a reason that it is considered to be a monument in the study of music history.

[Rlaw2222]

3:50 totentanz anyone?

[Voicuk]

The part that sounds like the totentanz is quoted from Dies Irae, by both composers.

[ThePenguin1995]

@Rlaw2222

The Dies Irae theme is a plainchant from the Magnus Liber, the book of original music worshp divised by Charlemagne to unite his empire with faith. He created what he called the gregorian chants. The Dies Irae theme also appears in the gradual of the Requiem's mass. The text is an extense hymn that comprises such sections as: Dies Irae, Tuba mirum, Mors stupeabit, Rex tremendae, Lacrimosa, etc...The theme of the fianl judgement has inspired artists from the begginig of times.

[ThePenguin1995]

The Dies Irae theme is like a Wagner's leitmotif appearing in such works as:

Dvorak's 7th Symphony, Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel,  Saint-Saëns 3rd Symphony (organ) and Danse Macabre, Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony, Rachmaninoff's Isle of The Dead, Synphony's no. 1 & 2, Mahler's 2nd symphony and many others.

[EvangelineSky]

Whoa! This is simply incredible...I love it! Liszt and Berlioz...what a perfect match. Thank you very much for posting this! ^ ^

[dolceano]

omg.. mazaing!!!

[rachmaninovisback]

the pianist is leslie howard the actor who acted with ingrid bergman in "intermezzo"?

[Hexameron]

Lol, no - Leslie Howard, the Liszt scholar and Australian pianist who recorded 59 volumes of Liszt's complete solo piano music on the Hyperion label.

[violadamore87]

@Hexameron Mr. Howard has given us all a wonderful gift. His playing is so clear and seems to do such keen justice to Liszt. I can play a good number of works by Liszt but I am astounded by the sheer virtuosic genius of a man who can master the entire Liszt repertoire. It must be so much fun to play these wonderful pieces.

[123eldest]

thanks for post, great piece

[GaryPansey]

Thank you Hex.

[AntiProUltra]

this is the kind of show-off party piece i can imagine someone like maurizio pollini playing as an encore to send everyone away with a smile on their face after boulez second sonata or the hammerklavier

[Hexameron]

And yet to the music public and critics of the mid 1830s, this transcription was the only available published score of Berlioz's work. Even Robert Schumann wrote his review of the symphony based on studying the score of Liszt's transcription.

[AntiProUltra]

- which is pretty shocking when you consider that a substantial part of what makes the fantastique so revolutionary is its orchestration

btw where did liszt get the score from to make the transcription in the first place?

[Hexameron]

A manuscript copy from Berlioz himself. Liszt was one of the only early champions of Berlioz's music; he certainly had a talent for spotting genius (Wagner).

[EuriskoLontano]

I know a lot of Liszt's original music. Sometimes I get lost trying to figure when and how he had the time to write all the original works AND find time to make the many, many transcriptions. I had to check a time line of his life and found he put this symphony transcription out in 1833 (at age 22), the year Brahms and Borodin were born and Chopin wrote his Op.10 Etudes. That's what was like before electricity ruined everything, what with TV, internet, recordings, American Idol ;-)

[SCOREdom]

hmmm ... it's almost as if Liszt intended to compose this in Berlioz' style. It also looks and sounds like something Alkan would have written. Very nice upload!

xD