![]() ![]() Mephistopheles snatches the fiddle from the hands of a lethargic fiddler and draws from it indescribably seductive and intoxicating strains. Mephistopheles and Faust pass by, and Mephistopheles induces Faust to enter and take part in the festivities. ![]() There is a wedding feast in progress in the village inn, with music, dancing, carousing. The following program note, which Liszt took from Lenau, appears in the printed score: The first Mephisto Waltz is a typical example of program music, taking for its program an episode from Nikolaus Lenau's 1836 verse drama Faust (not from Goethe's Faust). ![]() James Huneker described the work's "langourous syncopated melody" as "one of the most voluptuous episodes outside of the Tristan score". While the work preceding it, Midnight Procession ( Der nächtliche Zug), is rarely given (though both works have been recorded together), the waltz has been a concert favorite, with its passion, sensuality and dramatics generating an emotional impact. ![]() The most popular of the series and, along with the third Waltz, most praised musically, the Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke: Erster Mephisto-Walzer ("The Dance in the Village Inn: First Mephisto-Waltz"), or the First Mephisto Waltz, is the second of two short works he wrote for orchestra under the title Zwei Episoden aus Lenaus Faust. Problems playing these files? See media help. ![]()
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