Faust Overture Faust Overture The Faust Overture is a concert overture by German composer Richard Wagner. Wagner originally composed it between 1839 and 1840, intending it to be the first movement of a "Faust Symphony" based on the play "Faust" by German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Realizing that he would not finish the planned symphony, Wagner revised the piece between 1843 and 1844, incorporating ideas from the other planned movements, and creating instead a single-movement concert overture. He made a final revision in 1855. The work is one of Wagner's few compositions intended for the concert hall, rather than the theatre.
Overture in C, "In Memoriam" alone can bring." The overture enjoyed considerable popularity in the composer's own lifetime, but it was rarely heard in the 20th century. Only two recordings were made before 1992. Since that time, however, the piece has been recorded several more times. The composition is structured as a single multi-tempo movement marked "Andante religioso - Allegro molto" and lasts around eleven to twelve minutes in performance. The critic Andrew Lamb writes that, although the composer described the overture as an outpouring of grief, The piece's dark, slow texture has its main theme in the major key, as seen here in its