FuneraillesAdaptation for orchestra of the piano work by Franz Liszt

January 1970 began with the music for a film about the life of Franz Liszt, Szerelmi álmok (Dreams of Love). I hesitated a little to accept this new order because I had not only to write the musical accompaniment for the film but also adapt the music of Liszt.

As a film score is made up of short passages, it was not possible to use Liszt’s works in their entirety and I don’t like making such “patchworks”.

I ended up instrumenting several pieces of the great Master, including an extract from his piano work Funérailles.

After seeing the film, my son András encouraged me to orchestrate the whole piece. — Ferenc Farkas