Liszt was credited with the creation of the symphonic poem, an irony since his greatest artistic contributions came in his works for piano. His thirteen symphonic poems, however, have achieved a measure of popularity, especially the third, Les Préludes. This work not only became widely known, it also developed some notoriety during World War II, owing to the use of a fanfare from it by Goebbels for Nazi propaganda radio announcements. Of course, Liszt had absolutely nothing to do with that. He transcribed his symphonic poems for two pianos, but until recent times, they have received little attention in their transformed guise.

Arguably, Liszt was not distinctive or imaginative in his orchestration. He sought help on various occasions, for instance, from Joachim Raff and others because he felt uncomfortable in the practice. Some have contended that his transcriptions for two pianos of the symphonic poems, on the whole, are actually better than their orchestral counterparts.

In the case of Les Preludes, the bombast of some of the brass writing sounds more tasteful in this literal two-piano adaptation, and overall the work comes across effectively, not least because Liszt was in his element on the piano, able to capture orchestral sonorities when feasible and capable of supplanting them with convincing writing when not.

Les Preludes has roots going back to Liszt's choral work, Les Quatre Éléments. The composer intended to use the music as an overture to the choruses, but later fashioned it into his third symphonic poem. He also added to the title, d'après Lamartine (after Lamartine), whose poetry in Nouvelles méditations poétiques he felt shared a similar artistic temperament with his music. After the work's premiere, Liszt arranged the work for piano, four hands (S. 591), then for two pianos.

The solemn opening theme of Les Preludes seems to augur the opening of Franck's D Minor Symphony in the orchestral version, but does not have that effect in this two-piano arrangement. Yet this section is still convincingly rendered, as are the brass proclamations that follow. The romantic variant of the theme that is next heard also fits well on the piano here and in all its later incarnations.

The sinister music that comes near the middle of the work may actually sound better on two pianos than for orchestra, though when the strings take up the romantic theme on its second appearance, their greater sensuality may be preferable. In the closing sections, the pianos may not quite achieve the same level of triumph that the often brass-dominated writing does, but at least there is little hint of bombast.

In the end, the two-piano version captures about as much of the scoring as the orchestra version. Moreover, it offers an alternate view of the music that makes it a more valid incarnation than Liszt's efforts in transcribing music not suited to the piano, such as his arrangements of the Beethoven Symphonies.

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