Comments on: Holy Touch http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2007/10/05/holy-touch/ The glamorous life and thoughts of a concert pianist. Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:34:50 -0500 hourly 1 By: bosie88 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2007/10/05/holy-touch/comment-page-1/#comment-3184 bosie88 Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:03:49 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2007/10/05/holy-touch/#comment-3184 I have always regarded Liszt's "Benediction de dieu dans la Solitude" as an extremely successful example of the union of the sacred and sensual. The slowly developing religious ecstasy is indeed blatantly sexual but still resonates as a serious vision rather than as pure sensual bombast. The balance Liszt achieves is extraordinary. The listener is viscerally excited by the relentless buildup at the same time aware that there is something more transcendent going on. I think it has something to do with the almost magical description of nature in the figuration accompanying the expansive main theme. In any case perhaps the fault lies more with our own age's dreary notions of what constitutes the "sacred" rather than on Liszt's limitations as a composer. I would certainly go to church more often if it was more like this piece... I have always regarded Liszt’s “Benediction de dieu dans la Solitude” as an extremely successful example of the union of the sacred and sensual. The slowly developing religious ecstasy is indeed blatantly sexual but still resonates as a serious vision rather than as pure sensual bombast. The balance Liszt achieves is extraordinary. The listener is viscerally excited by the relentless buildup at the same time aware that there is something more transcendent going on. I think it has something to do with the almost magical description of nature in the figuration accompanying the expansive main theme. In any case perhaps the fault lies more with our own age’s dreary notions of what constitutes the “sacred” rather than on Liszt’s limitations as a composer. I would certainly go to church more often if it was more like this piece…

]]> By: Arabella http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2007/10/05/holy-touch/comment-page-1/#comment-3180 Arabella Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:27:57 +0000 http://jeremydenk.net/blog/2007/10/05/holy-touch/#comment-3180 I really wanted to jump up with an impassioned defense of Liszt, and then realised, after far too much thought, that I hadn't got one. The only marginal success I can think of is the second ballade, which seems an attempt to find the sacred from the sensual by standing in one place and thinking very hard about it; a shift in perspective, with the same theme. Demonstrating the various transformations of love (Alkan's Op. 35 No. 10 goes the other way) through modulation from minor to major is quite a clever idea, but 'self-righteous' seems a very apt description of the third repetition of theme in B major... Perhaps Liszt realised that the duality wasn't quite reconciled, though - the substitution of the final restrained and slightly equivocal ending rather than Love In All Its Transcendent And Sacred Glory (with lots of octaves) seems to me an acceptance of slightly confused and conflicted humanity? I really wanted to jump up with an impassioned defense of Liszt, and then realised, after far too much thought, that I hadn’t got one. The only marginal success I can think of is the second ballade, which seems an attempt to find the sacred from the sensual by standing in one place and thinking very hard about it; a shift in perspective, with the same theme. Demonstrating the various transformations of love (Alkan’s Op. 35 No. 10 goes the other way) through modulation from minor to major is quite a clever idea, but ’self-righteous’ seems a very apt description of the third repetition of theme in B major…

Perhaps Liszt realised that the duality wasn’t quite reconciled, though – the substitution of the final restrained and slightly equivocal ending rather than Love In All Its Transcendent And Sacred Glory (with lots of octaves) seems to me an acceptance of slightly confused and conflicted humanity?

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