Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo (Liszt)

Franz Liszt composed his Tasso, Lamento e trionfo (Tasso, Lament and Triumph) in 1849, revising it in 1850–51 and again in 1854. It is numbered No. 2 in his cycle of 13 symphonic poems written during his Weimar period.

Liszt's first sketch for this work is dated August 1, 1849. He had heard the principal theme for Tasso in Venice, Italy several years earlier, however, using it in the 1840 version of his piano piece "Chant do Goldolier" in Venezia e Napoli. Liszt completed the 1849 version of Tasso as an overture in two sections, giving it to August Conradi to orchestrate. This version was performed in Weimar, Germany on the centennial of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's birth as an overture to his drama Torquato Tasso. Liszt later corrected Conradi's score and had Joachim Raff produce a new score in 1850–51. Liszt then revised this score extensively, adding a central section. This version was performed on April 19, 1854 in Weimar, conducted by Liszt.

Goethe's portrayal of Tasso focuses primarily with his position as court poet of the Este family in Ferrara within the political intrigues of court life. Liszt, however, was more drawn to the poet's inner conflicts and the seven years he spent in St. Anna's Hospital, an insane asylum. It was actually the suffering and eventually triumphant Tasso that inspired Liszt's imagination. In his preface to Tasso, Liszt refers not only to Goethe but also to Lord Byron's poem on Tasso, even admitting to being influenced by the latter. He adds:

Tasso loved and suffered at Ferrara, he was avenged at Rome, and even today lives in the popular songs of Venice. These three moments are inseparable from his immortal fame. To reproduce them in music, we first conjured up the great shade as he wanders through the lagoons of Venice even today; then his countenance appeared to us, lofty and melancholy, as he gazes at the festivities at Ferrara, where he created his masterworks ; and finally we followed him to Rome, the Eternal City, which crowned him with fame and thus pays him tribute both as martyr and as poet.

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