Liszt: Via Crucis

Featuring

Alessandro Marangoni
Marco Berrini
Ars Cantica Choir
Franz Liszt

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Performer Biography

Alessandro Marangoni, the pianist on this recording, graduated with honors in philosophy from the Università di Pavia with a thesis on Fernando Liuzzi's philosophy of music.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Liszt intended the keyboard instrument in Via Crucis to act as the historicus, or narrator, telling the holy story through rhetorical musical figures that evoke each Station's event.

Composition History

Franz Liszt started composing Via Crucis in 1873 and finished it in February 1879, hoping it would accompany the Pope's Good Friday celebration in Rome.

Performer Biography

Marco Berrini, the conductor, is the founding Artistic Director of the professional vocal ensemble Ars Cantica Choir and Consort, which has won numerous national and international prizes.

Notable Performances

Liszt's Via Crucis was never performed during his lifetime; its premiere took place in Budapest in 1929, and it was first published nine years later.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Liszt's 'poetics of evocation' in Via Crucis aims to make listeners relive the events of the Passion through musical themes, similar to the meditative practices suggested by St Ignatius of Loyola.

Compositional Technique

Via Crucis incorporates musical quotations from both Catholic and Lutheran traditions, including the hymn Vexilla Regis prodeunt and Lutheran chorales like O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden.