Liszt: St. Stanislaus

Liszt's third oratorio was to be a life of St. Stanislaus, the eleventh-century bishop of Kraków martyred by King Boleslaus II. Liszt returned to the project repeatedly throughout the 1870s and 1880s and, at the time of his death, left completed manuscripts for nearly half the work: the first and last of four scenes. The first scene, which includes an orchestral introduction, two choruses, some recitative, and an aria for mezzo-soprano, was composed in 1874. The fourth scene, composed during the 1880s, includes an orchestral interlude on two Polish national hymns, including Jeszcze Polska nie zginela (Poland has not fallen yet), the current national anthem of Poland; a setting of "De Profundis"; and the final chorus. These last two numbers represent some of Liszt's final thoughts in the area of composition, since he worked on them in the winter of 1885–86 and submitted them to his publisher about seven weeks before he died.