The contradictory social situation of the artist, the elusiveness of success, the workings of creative inspiration or the responsibility of the genius are general artistic and aesthetic problems that essentially defined Ferenc Liszt’s thinking. Lament and Triumph, which ponders the tragic fate of the Baroque poet Tasso, and The Ideals, his resigned reflection on his own artistic situation, are symphonic poems that reveal Liszt’s creative dilemmas with the sharpness of an X-ray machine.
The conductor of the concert, which explores the typically Lisztian links between poetry and music, will be Martin Haselböck, who is one of the most devoted enthusiasts of Liszt’s music both as a conductor and organist. He has done an invaluable service for the reconstruction of the symphonic sound of the 19th century, and The Sound of Weimar, a series of recordings, has cast a radically new light on Liszt’s symphonic poems. The Orchester Wiener Akademie, which he founded, strives to create an authentic sound not only through the instruments it uses, but also through its choice of venues, which in acoustic and historical terms are as close as possible to the environments in which the works were first performed. The soloist of the evening is a luminary of the young generation of pianists, Fülöp Ránki.