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Its redemptive ending inspired Mahler to mind-blowing music, Gounod wrote one of the greatest soprano roles for its tragic heroine, and some of us first encountered it via Tintin, but, argues AN Wilson, it was Liszt who most fully realised the visionary genius of Goethe’s epic work of literatureIf anyone wanted to know what it was like to blow your mind with a piece of music, they could do worse than listen to the closing movement of Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony – and its great chorus of human voices proclaiming that the Eternal Feminine will lead us on upwards. The closing passage of Goethe’s Faust.In Mahler’s own words: “Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving.” It was his “gift to the nation … a great joy-bringer”. Continue reading...