franz liszt

Franz Liszt

(October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886)

Two hundred years ago, this prolific composer and renowned piano virtuoso was born in the Kingdom of Hungary, ushering in Lisztomania and the age of the Neudeutsche Schule. Surrounded by music as a child, he took an early interest in the piano, getting lessons from his father at the age of seven and composing at the age of eight. After the child prodigy made public appearances at concerts, his musical education was taken up by a group of wealthy patrons. He studied in Vienna with Carl Czerny and Antonio Salieri; and, after the death of his father, he spent most of his teenage years in Paris influenced by Hector Berlioz, Niccolò Paganini, and Frédéric Chopin, developing his skills and reputation as a piano virtuoso. Caroline Boissier describes his style during this time: "M. Liszt's playing contains abandonment, a liberated feeling, but even when it becomes impetuous and energetic in his fortissimo, it is still without harshness and dryness. ... [He] draws from the piano tones that are purer, mellower and stronger than anyone has been able to do; his touch has an indescribable charm. ... He is the enemy of affected, stilted, contorted expressions. Most of all, he wants truth in musical sentiment, and so he makes a psychological study of his emotions to convey them as they are. Thus, a strong expression is often followed by a sense of fatigue and dejection, a kind of coldness, because this is the way nature works."

By the time he was twenty-two, he had two new influences, Countess Marie d'Agoult and Felicité de Lamennais, who sparked a period of unprecedented creativity for Liszt. The countess left her marriage of convenience to join Liszt in Geneva, where they had three children over four years. Liszt spent the next decade touring Europe extensively, playing hundreds of concerts and creating a frenzy with his energetic performances. He gave away much of the proceeds to charity. In Kiev he met the Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who convinced him to give up touring and focus on composition. He spent fifteen years with her, composing, conducting, transcribing, and teaching in Weimar. They tried to get married; but she could not get a divorce. Following the deaths of two of his children, Liszt spent the next decade in Rome, joining a Franciscan order and retreating from public life. After being invited back to Weimar and then to Budapest to teach, Liszt began his "vie trifurquée" or threefold existence of travelling thousands of miles a year between Rome, Weimar and Budapest. In 1881, he fell down the stairs at a hotel in Weimar, from which point his health began to steadily decline until his death five years later at the age of seventy-four.

Grand Galop Chromatique

Liebestraum - Love Dream

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C- Sharp Minor

Années de pèlerinage - Years of Pilgrimage