From song to silence, lute to Moog, the emotions, the artistic imagery and the “philos” of our souls are effectively and efficiently encoded in the archaic cipher we call music. Music has duly noted the soul of humanity from his times of fires in caves to his furies in computers. Great music literally is, in my estimation, the most efficient transmitter and effective preservationist of its composer’s living consciousness. My new series of “conscious recordings”, the medium of that very important message, is entitled: “Music as Living Consciousness.”. The second volume of this series presents masterworks from 4 composers. Its centerpiece is Liszt’s remarkably intimate and Confessional Self-Portrait, the Sonata in B minor. There are also Two Beethoven sonatas, (a tribute to the composer’s 250th Birthday), Mozart’s Fantasy and Rachmaninov’s Elegy. The latter works “bridge” the timeline from Beethoven’s era to its predecessor, and Liszt’s era to Rachmaninov’s.
The Mozart Fantasy incorporates traditional elements of his personality – Viennese concepts of “hero”, fate, entreaty, confusion, and his boisterous happy endings. Transmitting an equal treasure of personality, the depth of composedly conscious material of the two Beethoven Sonatas in F major and D major, opus 10, elevates their form to that of the nearly symphonic.
The Finale of the F Major Sonata is particularly rich in content, offering up a delightfully playful feast full of fun and good humor. The composer’s flair for the Dramatic clearly flourishes in the D Major Sonata’s second movement, largo e mesto, where Beethoven confesses his dire moral state at the time. The ever elegant, playful finale, restorative of his humor, relegates these pages to the very best of his great Legacy.
Liszt’s Sonata in B minor is a philosophical and dramatic triumph bringing an even more exciting and refined affirmation of my intent in these volumes – to offer listeners a truly aware presentation of the conscious material that IS the music, the stuff of soul. This is undoubtedly the most philosophically complex piano composition ever conceived. Like the two compositions presented in the first volume of our project – the “Symphonic Etudes” of Schumann and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures At An Exhibition” – this Sonata contains the philosophical, metaphysical worldview; the composer’s ideological “self-portrait”. Within such writings, their best Opuses, composers manage to express “their whole Selves”, their consciousness (and subconsciousness), at the peak of their vitality and creative maturity, and capture them within music.
The Sonata in B minor is densely saturated and allied with European history and culture, covering the panoply of themes central to understanding the entire modern history of our (Christian) era. In addition, Liszt compacts and includes these elements, narrating an all-inclusive map to the early biblical stories, the origins of man, civilization, and the Creator of Creation. The intriguing and complex Sonata’s opening considers the uneasy ferment of humanity’s fall from grace – the insidious seduction of Eve by the Satanic Snake, and the ejection of humanity from Eden. According to Liszt himself the first measures of the work represent this biblical scene, establishing the philosophical and dramatic foundations of the work’s entire narrative – “The fallen man” with his lost forever harmony, reflecting his inability to “heal his fate”.
It’s no secret that Milton’s “Paradise Lost” inspired the Sonata’s creation. Once a beloved woman who played a key role in Liszt’s private life exposed him to the complex poem, Liszt was smitten – the composer’s deeply emotional reaction to the narrative left an indelible impression that gave rise to an avalanche of thoughts and feelings that he poured out in his Sonata; it evolved into a philosophical self-portrait, an ideological “statement” – a general picture of his consciousness during a critical period in his life as he grew into maturity. Liszt passionately desired to find spiritual harmony in the “hell” of contradictions that were tearing him apart – the dramatic dualism of two strong but conflicting feelings: passionate love for a woman vs endless devotion to Christ and Faith.
One after another, Liszt draws the listener into his mad kaleidoscope of musical philosophical images-symbols of the theme of the fall of man: the mastery of the “Devil” in his soul, leading to pride, vanity, unrestrained “earthly pleasures”, sensual love, cruelty, and, finally, to the climax of the descent – the murder of a person, where all these philosophical themes are tinged with biblical allegory, from the images of Adam and Eve to Abel and Cain.
The breadth of cultural and historical coverage of the topics touched upon in Liszt’s Sonata philosophical narrative is striking: it touches upon the very historical foundations that root European christianity; from the earliest Gregorian chants, on which the main themes of the Sonata’s music are based, (in particular the theme of “Faith” (“Grandioso”) includes the most important Christian symbol – the Battle with the Huns of the fifth century AD. – the motives of which are reflected in the final section’s theme, following the “fugato” section’s “scene” of being possessed by the Devil.
The figure of Christ, defining Liszt’s consciousness, appears in the middle part of the story, after reaching the peak of cruelty and orgy of uncontrollable “earthly passions”. The tragic and defining moment of the evangelical drama are the scenes of the Crucifixion and the Last Word of Christ (Recitativo). Liszt deliberately times this musical appearance of the figure of Christ just at the moment violence has peaked in the end of the exposition (the “conditional first part”) to symbolize the author’s belief that, only through faith in Christ, and reverently keeping alive the image of His sacrifice, can one find the path to salvation. This is the defining thought of the consciousness within any deeply religious Christian. The huge variety of symbols, philosophical themes and biblical conflicts constitute an integral and passionate image of Liszt the man, himself, thus explaining his “Self” by demonstrating the “cultural and emotional content” of his consciousness, and its “religious and philosophical”, emotional “composition”.
This music is the true passionate romantic confession of a deeply emotional, religious European philosopher of the mid-nineteenth century. Thus, the sonata is not only an amazing piece of music, containing the personal experience of an extraordinary thinker, but also a unique document that captures in sounds the living consciousness (!) Of a highly intellectual Christian philosopher from the heyday of nineteenth century European romanticism.
Liszt self-identifies as a Christian humanist, remaining on the “Good” side, with Christ in his heart, differentiating evil from good at the end of the Sonata. First there is the decisive battle between Good and Evil, expressed in a virtuosic musical code symbolizing “Armageddon”. Next, as the Sonata moves towards its conclusion, comes a serene atmosphere signifying the final victory of Good over Evil; its theme of Faith is based on the ancient Gregorian chant “Crux Fidelis”, symbolizing the victory of Christ over the powers of darkness.
Liszt used the very last note of the Sonata to indicate the complete separation of the Good forces from that of the Evil coexisting within his soul (and the universe). In this gigantic fresco, Liszt mirrors the microcosm of his own life-struggle, to that of the macrocosm of human life and destiny; he raises and relates his personal philosophical and emotional problems to the general existential issues that still concern us to this day. This relevant fact will keep the sonata “contemporary” to humanity until people elevate their character from “Paradise Lost” – what Liszt yearns and cries for through this music.
Our Second volume concludes with Rachmaninov’s Elegy, an essay full of nostalgia, youthful feelings, hopes and love. His music provides listeners a conscious narrative of these emotions for the rest of his life.
Andrei Gavrilov © 2021
Literary edited by Todd Harris.