Thread: Symphonic (Tone) Poems Recommendations

Hello dear TC members

I've only heard a few symphonic or tone poems, and there are 3 that I really enjoy.

They are:

R. Strauss - Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life)
R. Strauss - Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration)
Dvorak - The Wild Dove

I'd like some recommendations for other great symphonic/tone poems?

Thanks a bunch!

Hi there, CN (that has a nice, quasi-nationalistic ring to it, doesn't it?):

I share your love for Heldenleben and Transfiguration. My favorite R. Strauss tone poems remain Also Sprach Zarathustra and Don Juan. In fact, I love them all except for Don Quixote and Bourgeois Gentilhomme (not disliking them- just not crazy about them)... and Sinfonia Domestica

I'll leave the advocacy of the abbreviated Sibelius works (Finlandia, En Saga, etc.) to more capable hands

If I can bend the taxonomy a little bit, let me cite Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet. Called a "fantasy-overture;" at almost 20 minutes, it kind of defies the size parameter for "overture." I think it rates a mention here.

Sibelius: Finlandia, Night Ride and Sunrise, and Pohjola's (sp?) Daughter

Bax: Tintagel

Rimsky-Korsakov: Stenka Razin

Elgar: In the South

Shostakovich: October (!!)

R. Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche ("Merry Pranks") and, or course, Also Sprach Zarathustra

Debussy: La Mer and Prélude à L'après-Midi D'un Faune (Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun)

Anyway, that's a start.

How about these:

Smetana: Die Moldau
Liszt: Héroïde funèbre and about a dozen others
Berwald: Erinnerung an die Norwegischen Alpen
Balakirev: Tamara
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition and Night on Bald Mountain
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade

You realize, of course, that asking for tone poems is like asking for symphonies or concertos or operas. But as long as you realize that...

Any of the other ones by Dvorak. Wild Dove is the best of the lot, I think, but so what? The others are good, too.

And if you really like that romantic Czech stuff, and who doesn't, then you don't want to miss Smetana's offerings: Hakon Jarl, Wallenstein's Camp, Richard III. And of course, Ma Vlast, which is a group of six tone poems. (Don't just settle for Moldau. The other five are all better.)

I keep expecting Kurkikohtaus to jump in here on the Sibelius side, but I'm tarred o' waitin', so The Bard, Tapiola, Oceanides, Nightride and Sunrise, En Saga, and Pohjola's Daughter are all very fine. And Sibelius gives you a package deal, too: Lemminkainen. (Again, don't settle for Swan of Tuonela from this suite. The other three are all better.)

And Nielsen wrote some nice tone poems, too. Helios, Saga-Drom, Pan and Syrinx, and Rhapsodic Overture: An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Islands. Those are all worth a listen.

But, and this is a BIG BUT, all these people are dead. I don't know if that matters to you. But buying music by people who are alive puts food on their tables, you know, so...

Paul Ruders' Gong is very nice, especially if you get the performance by Segerstam. (The other one is just OK.)

And Iancu Dumitrescu. You deserve to have the Musique Action '98 cd with Dumitrescu's New Meteors and Pulsars, Avram's Nouvelle Axe, Cutler's Life on Earth, and Hodgkinson's Black Death and Errors in Construction. (Ana-Maria, Chris, and Tim are all alive, too.)

But calling those things "tone poems" may not be quite the thing. (One could practically call any old piece of electroacoustic music a "tone poem," now, couldn't one? But I'm not sure the composers would go for that designation, so don't tell 'em I sent you.) And anyway, to do that might be to get on a slippery slope.

But if it's January, and you've got a sled, a slippery slope is just exactly what you want, isn't it? (Or July and a long stretch of mud ending in a pond. That's nice, too.)

Thank you all for your recommendations. Obviously, the classification for symphonic/tone poems is much broader than I thought.

Otherwise I would definitely have included Mussorgky - Pictures at an Exhibition, as well as both Debussy's La Mer and Prelude d'un apres-midi d'une faune.

I thought tone poems were normally 1 mvt. works? Or is that a misconception?

Would Schumann's Cello Concerto thus fall in this category?

Schumann pasted three movements together because he didn't like people applauding in-between movements.

Originally Posted by Chi_town/Philly

I'll leave the advocacy of the abbreviated Sibelius works (Finlandia, En Saga, etc.) to more capable hands

Originally Posted by Eric683

Sibelius: Finlandia, Night Ride and Sunrise, and Pohjola's Daughter

Originally Posted by some guy

I keep expecting Kurkikohtaus to jump in here on the Sibelius side, but I'm tarred o' waitin', so The Bard, Tapiola, Oceanides, Nightride and Sunrise, En Saga, and Pohjola's Daughter are all very fine. And Sibelius gives you a package deal, too: Lemminkainen. (Again, don't settle for Swan of Tuonela from this suite. The other three are all better.)

For the love of Sam, people, give me some time. I have 2 weeks off from the orchestra now and have to catch up on many missed hours of Diablo II.

These Sibelius recommendations cover about every single Tone-Poem that he wrote, so you may be in a bit of a fluff trying to get to them, ChamberNut. I think the worst thing you could do is to buy a "Sibelius: Tone Poems" CD and listen to all of them at once, hoping for some sort of satori.

So I will make a bold suggestion that I have not suggested elsewhere. Since you are a sophisticated listener and not a mere casual music liker, cut to the chase with Sibelius and go immediately to TAPIOLA. It is the last major orchestral piece that he ever wrote (The incidental music to THE TEMPEST came later) and it is his final and definitive word on a form that spanned his entire career, from En Saga (1892) to Tapiola (1926).

But beware... this piece is not for the faint of heart, it is not big and flashy and full of effects and obvious tone-painting as are the works of Strauss and Smetana. It is more of an internal rendition of the feeling that one might have upon accidentally wandering into Tapio's enchanted forest. It will require repeated listening's to a good recording (Vanska: Lahti Symphony) to have it grow on you, but once it does, the rewards are grand. Go for it!



P.S. And when you're done, don't forget a pretty little piece from his suite from Kuolema... I can't remember the name...

Hey big K, we know you're busy. That was just us covering for you. And leaving you the best tidbit of all for your very own, eh? That's a good recommendation for a seasoned listener. (I started with En Saga, myself, but that was long ago, and I was much less sophisticated then than ChamberNut is now. Or was I?)

What's the little piece from Kuolema? I can't remember, either!

Originally Posted by ChamberNut

Would Schumann's Cello Concerto thus fall in this category?

If you listen this Schumann work, I'm entitled to suggest Vieuxtemps 4th concerto.

Originally Posted by Manuel

If you listen this Schumann work, I'm entitled to suggest Vieuxtemps 4th concerto.

Just curious - Why?

Don't forget the poems of Liszt! After all, he was the guy who started it all. Well, I know the poems derive from orchestral overtures, but Liszt began with this name and defined it thoroughly with his 15 Poems. Strangely, they are rather unknown, and only one of them enjoys some reputation and is performed regularly. I admit that it seems I have some "thing" for them so instead of recommending them all, I made a list of those I think are the most accessible and had the most influence.

Les Preludes (this one has the best reputation)
Tasso: lamento e trionfo
Promotheus
Mazeppa
Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe

Originally Posted by opus67

Just curious - Why?

Sorry, I should have written:

"If you list this Schumann work, I'm entitled to suggest Vieuxtemps 4th concerto."


As Berlioz said, Vieuxtemps 4th is more a symphonic work than a concertant one.

Ah, okay. I have not listened to the fourth yet...should do so, one of these days.

Originally Posted by Saturnus

Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe

That's an obscure one. On listings of Liszt's works, I haven't, frankly, ever seen this tone poem. And yet I've heard of it and surely it does exist, since you've heard it played. How come this weird situation?