Hyperion Records

This piece comes from the opera of Wagner, whose long and storm-tossed friendship with Liszt is one of the most complex in musical history. Liszt’s enthusiasm and financial and practical support for the living composer he most revered is very well documented, as is the fact of Liszt’s being entrusted with producing and conducting the first performances of Lohengrin since Wagner was in exile on pain of death after his prominent support of the 1848 revolution. (Typically, Liszt received small thanks from Wagner for his efforts.) For some reason, Liszt issued the transcription of Elsa’s Bridal Procession with his flamboyant account of the ‘Entry of the Guests’ from Tannhäuser with which it scarcely belongs. Elsa’s Bridal Procession comes from the fourth scene of Act II as she is prepared for her wedding with Lohengrin, the Festspiel und Brautlied is the Prelude to Act III and the now-ubiquitous Bridal March, to which Liszt adds a shortened reprise of the Prelude. Elsa’s Dream—her vision of the knight—is found in the second scene of Act I, and Lohengrin’s Reproof forms part of the love music in the scene in the bridal chamber from Act III. Liszt’s faithful (and, in the case of the Prelude to Act III, sometimes treacherous-to-play) transcriptions furnish each of the quieter pieces with appropriate endings; Wagner’s original has them flow straight into ensuing transitions.

from notes by Leslie Howard © 1994