Best remembered for his extraordinary advancement of piano technique, Franz Liszt saw himself in quite a different light: as an innovative composer prepared to move beyond convention into uncharted waters. He and Richard Wagner were allies in Zukunftsmusik, the "music of the future," a new approach that was liberated from all prescribed rules of musical form. Liszt invented the tone poem, and this work is his most famous example.

Inspired by Goethe's great verse drama, A Faust Symphony premiered in 1857. The three-movement work musically depicts the essence of Faust, Gretchen, and Mephistopheles, the characters who drive Goethe's tale. Brilliantly innovative and endlessly fascinating in its transformations of thematic materials, the work has influenced many major composers, including Strauss and Debussy, and remains frequently studied, performed, and recorded. This affordable edition was reproduced from an authoritative text and features an informative Introduction by a renowned expert on Liszt.