Liszt: Festklänge
Festklänge ("Festive Sounds"), Franz Liszt's seventh symphonic poem, was written in Weimar in 1853 and was intended for Liszt's upcoming marriage to Princess Carolyne - a marriage which never took place for reasons elaborated on below.
[Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein in an 1847 daguerrotype]
Carolyne Princess zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (1819-1887) was a Polish-Ukrainian noblewoman best known for her 40-year relationship with Franz Liszt. The princess was the only child of wealthy parents, members of the untitled Polish nobility, whose vast land holdings in Podolia included more than 30,000 serfs. In 1836, just two months after her 17th birthday (and under pressure from her father), Carolyne married Prince Nicholas von Sayn-Wittgenstein, an officer in the Russian service who was also a member of an old noble house. They lived together briefly in Kiev (where Nicholas served as governor), but she was unhappy in the city and moved to her country home at Woronińce, one of her family's many estates. They had one child, Marie Pauline Antoinette. Princess Carolyne was a fervent Roman Catholic, but separated from her husband after only a few years of marriage. Her father died in 1844, leaving her a fortune.
On February 2, 1847, while on a business trip to Kiev (so sell the grain harvest of her vast estate), she attended a piano recital given by Franz Liszt during his third tour of the Russian Empire, at the height of his international fame. After meeting him in person, she invited him to Woronińce, first for her daughter's 10th birthday party and then for an extended stay. Carolyne had fallen in love with Liszt, and Liszt, whose relationship with Marie d'Agoult had ended at the end of 1843, reciprocated her feelings. In September 1847, he began living with Carolyne in Woronińce, where he composed significant portions of the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses.
In 1848, Liszt moved to the Grand Duchy of Weimar, where he had been appointed Kapellmeister. Carolyne, who had previously raised a million rubles by selling a large piece of land, fled the Russian Empire with her infant daughter in April 1848 and joined Liszt in Weimar, where the couple would remain for over a decade. Liszt was very busy as conductor of the Weimar court orchestra and at various music festivals, where he promoted the music of Berlioz and Wagner. He was also busy composing - piano music, but also his first orchestral music in the form of the Symphonic Poems and the Faust and Dante Symphonies. Finally, in Weimar, he gathered around him a large circle of students, many of whom went on to become famous in their own right.
Franz and Carolyne lived at the Altenburg in Weimar - a time when Carolyne supported Liszt in every way. Historians debate the extent of her influence; among other things, it has been suggested that she did much of the actual writing of several of Liszt's publications, especially his 1852 Life of Chopin. What is certain is that she inspired Liszt to write numerous compositions and also gave a new direction to his lifestyle. Liszt, who had been touring for years, involved in numerous amorous adventures, and more of a magical virtuoso than a diligent composer, was transformed under her influence into a conscientious worker with clear intellectual and emotional goals. Sunday matinees with artist friends were also initiated by Carolyne: here they made music together with Richard Wagner and Hector Berlioz, who had a special friendship with Carolyne; Berlioz dedicated his opera Les Troyens to her. Carolyne maintained an extensive correspondence with Liszt and many others, which is of vital historical interest.
But even though Liszt and Carolyne were sponsored by the art-loving Grand Duchess Dowager Maria Pavlovna, who was influential throughout Europe, they faced social difficulties because they lived together without being married, which was not acceptable in the 19th century. Prince Nikolaus, who had remained in Russia, initially refused a divorce on financial grounds, but in 1855 an amicable settlement was reached whereby he and Carolyne were divorced under both Protestant and Russian Orthodox law. Prince Nicholas remarried in 1857, while their daughter Marie, who had grown up with her mother, married Prince Konstantin Hohenlohe in Weimar in 1859.
But in order for Liszt and Carolyne, both devout Catholics, to finally marry, Carolyne's first marriage had to be annulled by the Pope. So Carolyne went to Rome in May 1860, where she obtained the annulment on September 24 of that year. She immediately planned the next step and organized the wedding with Liszt, which was to take place on his 50th birthday, October 22, 1861, in the church of San Carlo al Corso. But at the last moment - Liszt had just left Weimar for Rome in the fall of 1861 - the princess's jealous relatives (afraid to loose the inheritance) obtained a reversal of his decision from Pope Pius IX.
This failure quickly affected their relationship. While Carolyne began to focus more and more on spiritual matters, Liszt also decided to take the lower orders in 1865. Although his ordination did not include a vow of chastity, the two had grown apart. Carolyne spent the rest of her life in theological study and spiritual practice at her home in Via Babuino, Rome, where most of her posthumous writings were composed. She died there in 1887, having corresponded with Liszt until his death in 1886. Liszt divided his time between Hungary, Weimar, and Rome, working as a conductor and master class teacher, and continuing to compose, now mostly sacred works such as his great oratorio Christus.
Festklänge was written long before that, when both Franz and Carolyne had high hopes for a speedy marriage. The symphonic poem begins with a percussion and woodwind fanfare, followed by a rising trumpet figure and the introduction of the main theme in the clarinets, bassoons and strings - a joyous, somewhat pastoral march. The middle section includes both a polonaise in tribute to the princess's Polish origins and music in the style of a verbunkos, alluding to the composer's own Hungarian ancestry. Typical of Festklänge and Liszt's other symphonic poems is that they are not exclusively dependent on their source material: the composer's aim was to distill the essence of the poetic concept rather than to reproduce it.
Symphonic Poems