Biography
Franz Liszt was universally renowned for being the most gifted pianist in the world, and his awesome technique led him to write fiendishly difficult music.
Chopin was, it appears, quite disparaging of Liszt’s talents, and is quoted as saying that ‘he is an excellent binder who puts other people’s works between the covers’.
There is an element of truth in this remark, as Liszt was a prodigious arranger of other composer’s works – eventually amounting to some nine hundred transcriptions.
At the time that he wrote these pieces he was also about the only person who could actually perform them!
However, it is now accepted that he was also a composer of some fine music in his own right and he holds a high ranking position in the field of romantic piano music.
The story of Liszt’s life makes very interesting reading.
One of the themes that keeps recurring in all the history books is that he was blessed with remarkable sexual athleticism.
He lived for a long time with a Countess who was the mother of his children, one of whom later went on to marry the celebrated opera composer Richard Wagner.
Liszt had a following all over Europe which gave him the sort of adulation and fanaticism accorded to the pop stars of the 1960s, and tales of his sexual exploits are rife.
When he was just eleven years old the family moved to Vienna, where he was placed with two of the finest tutors of the day: Czerny for lessons in piano and Mozart’s rival Salieri for composition.
As a youngster Liszt gave successful concerts in Vienna, and his talent and work was admired by Beethoven and Schubert, amongst others, who agreed with the popular notion that he was the young prodigy following in the footsteps of Mozart – quite an accolade!
Liszt was constantly in demand as a concert pianist and he spent many years travelling around Europe, delighting audiences wherever he went.
Throughout this time he was always trying to come to terms with his spirituality.
He had been brought up with a strong church background and his father had at one time been a Franciscan novice.
However, his religious upbringing did not stop him from living with his lover, the Countess Marie d’Agoult, and having children out of wedlock.
They finally separated in 1844, and following this break-up Liszt took the children to live with his mother in Paris.
Career-wise this was a time of enormous success for Liszt, and in 1847 he met a woman who almost made him settle down for good.
This was the Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, whom he had met in Kiev.
She persuaded him to stop touring and concentrate on a more stable career as a composer.
This he duly did, with spectacular results, writing what are now regarded as some of his finest compositions.
He spent most of this period in Weimar and stayed there until the tragic deaths of his son Daniel (aged only twenty) and daughter Blandine (aged twenty-eight).
It was at this time that he finally had the urge to get married – this time to the Princess of Rome.
Sadly the marriage was not to take place, as the Pope denied her the right to divorce her existing husband.
Liszt then became heavily involved with the church again and even went as far as taking the four minor orders of the Catholic Church, whilst all the time concentrating on writing religious music.
However, he never actually became a priest and spent his last years giving master classes on the piano and advising and teaching the up and coming composers of the day, who included such people as Borodin, Fauré, Saint-Saëns and Debussy.
Liszt had a greater talent for writing for the orchestra than Chopin and he was the first to develop the symphonic poem – an extended one-movement piece of music depicting a story or a painting, for example.
He was also the first to give a complete concert of solo piano music – now called a piano recital.
He was quite rightly hailed as being one of the finest keyboard virtuosi ever to have lived, not only performing his own works but also pioneering some of the great works of his predecessors Bach, Beethoven and Schubert.
Piano Concerto No. 1
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Flat Major: Allegro maestoso
1849, Concerti, Orchestral
Liszt wrote his First Piano Concerto with the deliberate intention of writing a show-stopper that would bring the audience cheering to their feet. Riddled with pounding cadenzas, wrenching melodies and delightful accompaniments, this really is a work for a showman.
Les Préludes
Les Préludes: No. 3
1856, Orchestral
This symphonic work is based on a poem by Lamartine which attempts to represent life as a series of preludes to some unknown future existence. A gorgeous tune rides through the moods of the music, which range from passion to pageantry.
Hungarian Rhapsodies
Hungarian Rhapsodies for Orchestra No. 2
1858, Orchestral
Liszt, along with Bartók, has long been credited with the rediscovery of Hungarian folk music, especially when he wrote his nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies. These seem to capture perfectly the Gypsy melodies and rhythms with which the composer was so enamoured.