Monday Musicale with the Maestro – August 17, 2020 – Celestial Visions: Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus

Celestial Visions: Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus

In this video we will feature Mozart’s motet Ave verum corpus (based on the Latin Hymn “Hail, True Body”) and transcriptions of Mozart’s setting by Liszt and Tchaikovsky.

Mozart’s setting of the hymn (for voices, organ, and strings) was written six months before his death, and as in his other late works, he seems to have one foot already in heaven. Think of the second act of his opera The Magic Flute or the Requiem, written on his deathbed. These late works have a rarefied, otherworldly atmosphere that has continued to intrigue and haunt lovers of his music.

The text of the hymn includes these lines:

Hail, true Body, born
Of the Virgin Mary
O sweet Jesus, O holy Jesus
O Jesus, son of Mary
Have mercy on me, Amen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uduY8lh6B_Q&utm_source=Durham+Symphony+Orchestra+Newsletter&utm_campaign=08b97daa18-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_03_01_17_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1f12ae1e52-08b97daa18-

Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt, one of the greatest musicians of the 19th century, seems to have been captivated by Mozart’s haunting setting. He adapted it for his piano work Evocations of the Sistine Chapel—an homage to the sacred space and its artwork.

During his lifetime Liszt was better known as a great piano virtuoso than as a great composer. In his middle years, however, he became a fervent Catholic and received minor clerical orders, adopting the title Abbé Liszt. The Pope even provided him with a room in the Vatican! There Lizst was inspired by the Sistine Chapel, one of the glories of the Vatican, with its magnificent ceiling featuring artwork by Michelangelo. My own visit to this space in 2001 was a wonderful and inspiring experience.
 

Liszt’s work begins by musing on a choral work written for exclusive use in the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week, the Miserere (“Have Mercy On Me, O Lord”)  by the 16th century Italian composer Gregorio Allegri.  Then, midway through, we hear Liszt’s adaptation of Mozart’s Ave verum corpus. The key is transposed from D to B major, and Liszt portrays the sanctity of the chapel by putting much of the music in the higher registers, thus emphasizing its relative nearness to heaven.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkAMKzRSrjc&feature=youtu.be&t=303&utm_source=Durham+Symphony+Orchestra+Newsletter&utm_campaign=08b97daa18-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_05_03_01_17_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1f12ae1e52-08b97daa18-

Liszt’s contemporary Tchaikovsky created a transcription which honors both versions of the Ave verum corpus.  From his teens to the end of his life, Tchaikovsky revered the works of his favorite composer, Mozart.  In 1887 he created a musical homage to him called Mozartiana, a collection of Mozart’s piano works that Tchaikovsky rewrote for a small classical orchestra typical of the period. The one work not originally for piano is the Ave verum corpus.

Instead of transcribing directly from Mozart’s original, however, Tchaikovsky takes the liberty of using a slightly altered version of Liszt’s Evocations of the Sistine Chapel. So this new version of the Mozart original is a transcription of a transcription!  Tchaikovsky alters the key from from B major to B-flat major (a more hospitable key for orchestra) and enhances Liszt’s celestial vision of the piece by adding—of course—a harp!  He even gives it a new title:  Preghiera (Prayer).

William Henry Curry
Music Director, Durham Symphony Orchestra

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