"THE YOUTH OF HERCULES," SYMPHONIC POEM No. 4: Op. 50
La Jeunesse d'Hercule, first performed in Paris, at a concert in the Théâtre du Châtelet, January 28, 1877, bears as a preface to the score the following note (in French):
"LEGEND
"Mythology relates that Hercules, upon entering life, saw two paths opening before him, the path of pleasure and the path of virtue.
"Indifferent to the seductions of Nymphs and Bacchantes, the hero chooses the path of struggles and combats, at the end of which he perceives, through the flames of the funeral pyre, the reward of immortality."
The music has been interpreted as a succession of characterizations in this order: "(1) Irresolution [Andante sostenuto: muted[133] violins; wood-wind, strings, and wood]; (2) character of the path of virtue [Allegro moderato: strings, without mutes, in full harmony]; (3) seductiveness of the nymphs [Andantino]; (4) allurements of the Bacchantes [Allegro: flutes at first, later other wood-wind, strings and wood, full orchestra]; (5) renewed questionings [Adagio: strings, horns, wood-wind]; (6) choice of the path of virtue and consequent struggles [Andante sostenuto and Allegro animato: the theme of Virtue played by clarinet, afterwards by oboe; later, the theme of pleasure heard in the wood-wind against harp arpeggios]; (7) the funeral pyre and immortality beyond [Maestoso: triumphant supremacy of the theme of Virtue, in an orchestral apotheosis]."