Orpheus

In his preface to the symphonic poem Orpheus. Liszt invokes the ennobling power of music and the 'mild power of art', which he regarded as being personified in an exemplary manner by the figure of Orpheus. Two harps represent the hero's lyre; their arpeggios accompany the horns' Orpheus motif, which is later illuminated in many different ways, to the masterfully orchestrated, 'unspeakably mysterious, pleasant sound' (as Liszt himself described it) with which the composition according to Camille Saint-Saëns floats away rather than just ends - everything is woven from sunbeams and star-shine. Outstanding: ClassicsToday.