Franz Liszt: Mazeppa

Although this lecture is devoted to Liszt’s symphonic poem Mazeppa, I have to start with Beethoven all the same. No doubt this will remind you of the schoolboy who had only revised Saint Stephen for his history A-levels, so that when he reached the 1848 War of Independence he opened with: to understand the War of Independence, we must first say a little about Saint Stephen. Well, that is exactly how I feel about Beethoven—because I want to show you just how powerfully he shaped the Romantic era. Several of Beethoven’s overtures can be counted as programme overtures. The best known is the Leonore Overture No. 3, but I might also name the King Stephen Overture, so dear to us, and the overture from the incidental music he wrote for Goethe’s drama Egmont.

What these overtures have in common is that they lay out the characteristic themes and figures of the stage work, and in their structure the leading role falls not to the usual tonal plan but to strong dramatic contrasts. I would go so far as to say that, as you listen, the story or the situation behind the play rises unbidden to mind. The Egmont Overture is easy to enjoy as programme music even if you don’t know the story. Its grave, almost cruel opening, its restless, combative main section, its sudden and near-frightening interruption, and its exultant, all-but-triumphant close set a hero or a fight for freedom plainly before us—defeat and glorification alike. The overture, as I said, opens with grave, unyielding, almost terrifying chords.