We all make magical bargains all the time. It is a myth that's as old as time, and it still persists to this day. It's a simple deal - trading the vague promise of Paradise for the reality of fun right here on earth. In other words, that he must have made a bargain with the devil in which he sold his immortal soul in return for total knowledge and power for an earthly life of guaranteed pleasures. Faust must have acquired his magical powers by being in league with the devil or Satan or Mephistopheles, or whatever you wanted to call him. So, naturally, the legends about this miracle man captured the imagination of the people who automatically assumed that Dr. Faust was supposed to be as learned you could get. They were always considered magi, and this mythical Dr. Now, in those years, when superstitions were running riot, simple folk were ready to believe anything, especially about men of great learning.

Faust, a mysterious old magician who went about Europe doing his various magic acts - you know, things like conjuring up spirits, turning base metal into gold - stuff like that. Well, for hundreds of years, before Liszt's time, there had been circulating fabulous stories about a certain Dr. Before we can know anything about Liszt's Faust Symphony we have to know something about Faust, whoever or whatever that is.

And I hope by the end of this program we may have -some clues. I want you to hear some parts of this extraordinary symphony today, not only because it's such exciting music, but because in a funny way, it may throw some light on this nagging question about Liszt himself - the double question really of why his works are so neglected, and, secondly, why he is not thought of as belonging exactly up there in the highest musical heavens along with Beethoven and company. I think most musicians would agree with me that this Faust Symphony is one of the monumental works of the whole Romantic Movement. And one of my contributions to this survey is what I consider to be Liszt's true masterpiece his Faust Symphony.

So, why not Liszt? Well, partly to answer this question, the New York Philharmonic, under its brilliant new director, Pierre Boulez, is featuring works of Liszt all through this season's programs. And this is an interesting question: why? Especially since Liszt was the most celebrated musician of his time about a century ago, and a tremendous influence on other composers, especially on Wagner, and on Debussy even, who are played all the time. But actually, he wrote tons of non-piano music - songs, choral works, symphonies, symphonic poems, whatnot.Īnd most people don't know them because they're simply not performed very much. But, as you see they're mostly piano music, which is natural, since Liszt was the greatest pianist of his time, and some say of all time. Which you've all heard in the cartoons and so on, or this one Or some of the more favorite tunes from the Hungarian Rhapsodies like this one,

Which you all know is Liebestraum or the famous Eb Major Piano Concerto Really, a handful of pieces, mostly ones you remember from childhood, like this one After all, how much of Liszt's music do most people know anyhow? Of course, the reason you don't know what it is, is that it's so rarely played. And what's more, it's from his greatest piece, the Faust Symphony. And yet it's by one of the most famous composers of all time, Franz Liszt. And I'll bet very few, if any, of you know what it is. Original CBS Television Network Broadcast Date: 13 February 1972

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