For All We Know

Liszt: Faust Symphny: 3. Mephistopheles (Part 1/3)

Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Sir Georg Solti

“The finale—“Mephistopheles”—is one of the most ingenious movements Liszt ever penned. Mephistopheles is the spirit of negation—in Goethe’s words, “der Geist, der stets verneint.” He cannot create; he can only destroy. How to portray him in music? Liszt’s solution is brilliant. He gives Mephistopheles no themes of his own, but allows him instead to penetrate those of Faust, which become distorted and cruelly mutated. The symbolism is too obvious to require further comment. Invaded by evil, Faust’s themes struggle to retain their identity but are torn to tatters. Mephisto’s main allegro theme turns out to be a mocking echo of Faust’s motif of “Passion.” All Faust’s themes—different aspects of his character—are gradually drawn into the circle of Hell. His motif of “Pride” is the last to yield.

There is an outbreak of jubilation from the orchestra. The entire “Mephistopheles” movement, in fact, is a huge parody of the “Faust” movement, and in it Liszt dazzles us with a brilliant display of thematic transformations. Is this the first time in musical history that one movement has been unrolled across another?”

(Alan Walker, Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years, 1848-1861)