St. Landry democrat., 1886-09-18
FRANZ LIST.
Sketch of the Recently Deceased Compos.
er's Life-His Principal Works.

pkctph OI INC ncCehlAy DcSeASOu SoHPVos
er's Life-His Principal Works.
Franz LISTS death deprives the
world of one OF the greatest pianists
the world has ever seen, and one of the
greatest composers. His early piano.
forte works gained instantaneous sue
cess, because when interpreted by him
their effect was irresistible; and no
doubt much of the power he had been
able to WELD during his life has been
due to his position as pianist. In
this country he was never heard, but
his praises have been echoed and re-
echoed so often that we have also coma
to look upon him as the greatest pian-
list, as though he had lived and won
his fame among US.
Many of his compositions. both for
piano and orchestra. are we'll known
here. Indeed, as a composer for Or
chestra his popularity here is more
general than it is in Europe, for there
are cliques in Germany, which, while
acknowledging his supremacy as a
pianist, have regarded him as sort OF
emfant terrible among composers. His
name, for instance, has never appeared
on the programmes of such conserva-
tive organizations as the Gewandhaus
orchestra of Leipsic. Here, however,
his finest compositions have been fire.
quently played by the philharmonic
society and its rivals of other days and
to-day, and some of his works, like his
symphonic poems, "Tasso" and ''Les
Preludes," are heard quite as frequent.
ly as any other classic symphonies.
Liszt himself often acknowledged the
welcome his works received in Ameri-
ca by his gracious bearing toward the
Americans whom he had met, and fire.
quently expressed to them his gratitude
for the ready appreciation awarded his
works I'm this country, saying that he
could never forget that his orchestral
works were known and understood here
long before they were known and un.
derstood in his own country.
Personally Liszt was very charming.
He seemed to play upon human nature
with touch as light, yet as sure, az
that to which his instrumentresponded.
His manners were winning. his bearing
gracious, his conversation brilliant,
and he drew to himself Princes and
mobiles as easily as he did musicians.
He was friend of the Grand Duke of
Weimar and of Pho Mono. and had re-
ceiyed tribute from Kings and En-
perors, yet he was always ready to help
along the humblest members of his
profession.
He was born at Raiding, in Hungary,
on October %, 1911. His father was
musician and gave him his first instruc-
ton. When he was nine years old a
Hungarian nobleman who had heard
him perform expressed his qualification
by sending him to Vienna and later to
Paris to study. In 1928 he played in
small cities, and, returning to Paris in
1926, won instantaneous success. With
the exception of few years which he
devoted to religious studies, his life was
q succession of artistic triumphs, until
hisfatter days, which he spent among
his friends in Weimar, Pesth and Rome.
To musical literature he contributed a
s'Life of Chopin" 1.-THE Gypsies and
their Music, and articles for different
musical periodicals.
A few months before his death he
visited Paris and London, where he re-
peated the triumphs of his younger
years. Society llonized him, and he
received great ovations whenever he
appeared in public. A description of
the great artist as he appeared during
his visit in London contained this:
cat seventy-fye Franz Liszt has re-
tanned the noble, marked, severe fea-
lures that were SO characteristic, but
they are slightly pulled out with
age, which lends to his face a
semi-monarchial expression. His
hair, which he wears long and
tumbled as of yore, is entirely
white. His eyes have lost neither their
piercing, falcon glance, nor the sudden
twinkle of irresistible humor. He is
tall and spare. with sinewy limbs,
wrists supple and firm as steel, inn
mense long fingers and powerful hands,
wearied by the incessant hammering OF
The keys; but when he sits down before
the instrument, preluding by few
chords, he can still evoke the impet-
nous. frenzied work of harmony which
ever obeyed his call in earlier days
N. Y. San.