Origin of the theory of Liszt s piano revolution The theory of Liszt s revolutionising piano playing was apparently an invention of Lina Ramann She had in November 1876 asked Liszt whether his Umw lzung der Klaviertechnik Revolution of piano technique had been due to Paganini s Caprices on December 1 Liszt wrote to this that it was his biographer who had to decide since he himself was unable to take an objective point of view towards his foolish own productions It was his only consolation that they could have become even worse after all Lina Ramann s decision can be found in her Franz Liszt als K nstler und Mensch Erster Band Zweites Buch p 106 According to this Liszt s hands had been rather small and could hardly stretch a 9th From Paganini s Caprices according to Ramann Liszt took the idea how to play wider intervals and this was his entire revolution Ramann s theory is of course wrong There were others who wrote wide intervals as well for example Schumann Chopin Henselt Thalberg D hler Dreyschock and many further ones To this comes that the theme of Liszt s Clochette Fantasy was not taken from Paganini s Caprices but from a violin concerto and that there are no extraordinarily wide intervals in this particular piece It is to be presumed that Liszt himself read Ramann s theory with astonishment 85 22 19 160