Faust- Two Episodes from Lenaus Faust / Faust Overature

Liszt: 2 Episodes from Lenaus Faust / Wagner: A Faust Overture / Berlioz: 8 Scenes from Faust Liszt (Composer), Wagner (Composer), Berlioz (Composer) / Crf / Oprf / Sado The concept and repertoire make this a disc of unusual interest. Berlioz's Eight Scenes from Faust eventually became, greatly enlarged, The Damnation of Faust. Interestingly, Mephistopheles is a tenor; later he would become a baritone and Faust would get the tenor part. Wagner's Faust Overture is a fine piece, seldom played, and hard to program outside of compilations such as this one, perhaps owing to it's rather conservative, German romantic style. Liszt's two pieces, the first of which is the famous Mephisto Waltz No. 1, seldom get performed together, as the composer intended. Yet the ensuing Nocturnal Procession is quite wonderfully atmospheric, and this diptych remains one of Liszt's finest orchestral pieces in any genre. The performances are very solid, the solo singing quite good, with alert playing and conducting. This is one of those releases that, while rewarding on it's own, also undoubtedly will fill a couple of gaps in many record collections.