Naïve's Liszt: Via Crucis features pianist
Brigitte Engerer and the chorus
Accentus under
Laurence Equilbey in works often thought to be among
Liszt's most uncharacteristic: three movements from his lengthy piano suite Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and the whole of his late choral work Via Crucis (1879). Although more than 25 years separate these works, what they have in common is their deep religiosity, effective use of negative space, and extreme economy of means. We view them as "uncharacteristic" as
Liszt's popular warhorses and glittery, sighing salon music so dominates the popular perception of his music.
Liszt's religious music reveals a side of him that shunned the trappings of temptation and self-glorifying hedonism, and in Via Crucis he achieves a kind of transcendent plainness while retaining his typical approach to drama and tendencies toward exploratory harmony. In its textural nakedness and unrelieved mood of penitential asceticism, the sound world of Via Crucis nearly anticipates that of
Erik Satie's Rosicrucian cycle, in itself very innovative, yet more than a decade in the future when
Liszt put the finishing touches on this piece. Recordings of Via Crucis are not common, and this one is certainly welcome, though perhaps it falls slightly short of the ideal.