Liszt: Mazeppa
Mazeppa is the 6th symphonic poem by Franz Liszt. It is based on a poem by Victor Hugo and incorporates musical material from Liszt's earlier, fourth Etude d'exécution transcendante.
The Etude itself had a long history: at the age of fifteen (1826), Liszt published twelve piano pieces entitled "Étude en 48 exercises dans les tons majeur et mineurs". In 1838, he revisited these compositions and republished the collection under the new title "24 Grandes études". Seven years later (1840), Liszt revised the fourth study and titled it Mazeppa. This newly conceived study was reworked to express the elements of Victor Hugo's poem from the 1829 collection Les Orientales. Mazeppa was revised for the last time in 1851, and the new version was titled "Transcendental Étude No. 4". The final version of the piano étude led to the orchestrated symphonic poem Mazeppa, composed in 1850 during Liszt's tenure as Weimar court kapellmeister and premiered on April 16, 1854.
The Etude itself had a long history: at the age of fifteen (1826), Liszt published twelve piano pieces entitled "Étude en 48 exercises dans les tons majeur et mineurs". In 1838, he revisited these compositions and republished the collection under the new title "24 Grandes études". Seven years later (1840), Liszt revised the fourth study and titled it Mazeppa. This newly conceived study was reworked to express the elements of Victor Hugo's poem from the 1829 collection Les Orientales. Mazeppa was revised for the last time in 1851, and the new version was titled "Transcendental Étude No. 4". The final version of the piano étude led to the orchestrated symphonic poem Mazeppa, composed in 1850 during Liszt's tenure as Weimar court kapellmeister and premiered on April 16, 1854.
[Mazeppa by Horace Vernet]
Hugo's poem introduces Mazeppa as a Ukrainian nobleman who becomes a page at the court of John Casimir, King of Poland. For a love affair with the wife of a Podolian count, Mazeppa is punished by being tied naked back to back on a wild horse as it races across the steppe. Mazeppa nearly dies of hunger and exhaustion. After a few days, the horse collapses in death, and Mazeppa is rescued by Ukrainian Cossacks, who make him their leader. Mazeppa has a vision of the victorious Cossack nation.
The music of the symphonic poem is not characterized throughout by the wildness of the opening ride, but also has a slow, contemplative and visionary middle section. At the end there is a Cossack march, introduced by fanfares, symbolizing the rescue by the army and the glorious ending.
Finally, a historical note: Ivan Stepanovych Mazeppa (1639-1709) was a Ukrainian military, political, and civic leader who served as Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host in 1687-1708. In the early 18th century, when the Russian Empire lost significant territory in the Great Northern War, Peter I decided to reform the Russian army and centralize control over his empire. In Mazeppa's view, the strengthening of Russia's central power could jeopardize the broad autonomy granted to the Cossack hetmanate by the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654. Attempts to assert control over the Zaporozhian Cossacks included demands that they fight in all of the tsar's wars, instead of just defending their own lands against regional enemies as stipulated in previous treaties. Now the Cossack forces were forced to fight in distant wars in Livonia and Lithuania, leaving their own homelands unprotected from the Tatars and Poles. Ill-equipped and not properly trained to fight on the level of modern European armies, the Cossacks suffered heavy losses and low morale. The Hetman himself began to feel his position threatened, as calls grew for him to be replaced by one of the many generals in the Russian army. The last straw in souring relations with Tsar Peter was his refusal to commit a significant force to defend Ukraine against the Polish king Stanislaw Leszczynski, an ally of Charles XII of Sweden, who threatened to attack the Cossack Hetmanate in 1708. Peter expected that King Charles of Sweden would attack and thought that he could not spare forces. In Mazeppa's opinion, this was a blatant violation of the Pereyaslav Treaty, since Russia refused to protect the territory of Ukraine and left it to its own devices. As the Swedish and Polish armies advanced on Ukraine, Mazeppa allied himself with them on October 28, 1708, in the hope that this would lead to Ukrainian independence - unfortunately, Tsar Peter the Great won the war, ending Mazeppa's hopes of bringing Ukraine under the control of Sweden, which had promised Ukraine independence in a treaty. Mazeppa fled with Charles XII to the Turkish fortress of Bendery, where Mazeppa soon died.
After Ukraine's independence in 1991, Mazeppa was proclaimed a national hero in Ukraine's official historiography and mainstream media for being the first hetman after the Pereyaslav Treaty to take a stand against the Tsar, who had reneged on the treaty. In Russia, however, he was vilified as a traitor and excommunicated by the Orthodox Church. In Ukraine, several monuments have been erected to honor Mazeppa as a national hero, and he also appears on a Ukrainian banknote.
Tchaikovsky also wrote an opera about Mazeppa (based on a poem by Pushkin), but the composer focused on Mazeppa's legendary love affair with the daughter of the Ukrainian nobleman Kochubey and concocted a bloodthirsty tale of mad love, kidnapping, political persecution, execution, and vengeful murder that is a far cry from the historical Mazeppa (the same goes for Liszt, who also drew on the legend, but at least foreshadows the hoped-for triumph of the Cossacks).
Mazeppa was too modernist (or even avant-garde) for Liszt's contemporaries. At a performance under Liszt in Leipzig, the beautiful music was almost brought to a halt by hisses from the audience, and the critics were even more negative than with Liszt's other symphonic poems.
The music of the symphonic poem is not characterized throughout by the wildness of the opening ride, but also has a slow, contemplative and visionary middle section. At the end there is a Cossack march, introduced by fanfares, symbolizing the rescue by the army and the glorious ending.
Finally, a historical note: Ivan Stepanovych Mazeppa (1639-1709) was a Ukrainian military, political, and civic leader who served as Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host in 1687-1708. In the early 18th century, when the Russian Empire lost significant territory in the Great Northern War, Peter I decided to reform the Russian army and centralize control over his empire. In Mazeppa's view, the strengthening of Russia's central power could jeopardize the broad autonomy granted to the Cossack hetmanate by the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654. Attempts to assert control over the Zaporozhian Cossacks included demands that they fight in all of the tsar's wars, instead of just defending their own lands against regional enemies as stipulated in previous treaties. Now the Cossack forces were forced to fight in distant wars in Livonia and Lithuania, leaving their own homelands unprotected from the Tatars and Poles. Ill-equipped and not properly trained to fight on the level of modern European armies, the Cossacks suffered heavy losses and low morale. The Hetman himself began to feel his position threatened, as calls grew for him to be replaced by one of the many generals in the Russian army. The last straw in souring relations with Tsar Peter was his refusal to commit a significant force to defend Ukraine against the Polish king Stanislaw Leszczynski, an ally of Charles XII of Sweden, who threatened to attack the Cossack Hetmanate in 1708. Peter expected that King Charles of Sweden would attack and thought that he could not spare forces. In Mazeppa's opinion, this was a blatant violation of the Pereyaslav Treaty, since Russia refused to protect the territory of Ukraine and left it to its own devices. As the Swedish and Polish armies advanced on Ukraine, Mazeppa allied himself with them on October 28, 1708, in the hope that this would lead to Ukrainian independence - unfortunately, Tsar Peter the Great won the war, ending Mazeppa's hopes of bringing Ukraine under the control of Sweden, which had promised Ukraine independence in a treaty. Mazeppa fled with Charles XII to the Turkish fortress of Bendery, where Mazeppa soon died.
After Ukraine's independence in 1991, Mazeppa was proclaimed a national hero in Ukraine's official historiography and mainstream media for being the first hetman after the Pereyaslav Treaty to take a stand against the Tsar, who had reneged on the treaty. In Russia, however, he was vilified as a traitor and excommunicated by the Orthodox Church. In Ukraine, several monuments have been erected to honor Mazeppa as a national hero, and he also appears on a Ukrainian banknote.
Tchaikovsky also wrote an opera about Mazeppa (based on a poem by Pushkin), but the composer focused on Mazeppa's legendary love affair with the daughter of the Ukrainian nobleman Kochubey and concocted a bloodthirsty tale of mad love, kidnapping, political persecution, execution, and vengeful murder that is a far cry from the historical Mazeppa (the same goes for Liszt, who also drew on the legend, but at least foreshadows the hoped-for triumph of the Cossacks).
Mazeppa was too modernist (or even avant-garde) for Liszt's contemporaries. At a performance under Liszt in Leipzig, the beautiful music was almost brought to a halt by hisses from the audience, and the critics were even more negative than with Liszt's other symphonic poems.
Symphonic Poems