Origin of the theory of Liszts piano revolution   The theory of Liszts revolutionising piano playing was apparently an invention of Lina Ramann She had in November  asked Liszt whether his Umwlzung der Klaviertechnik Revolution of piano technique had been due to Paganinis Caprices on December  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 Ramanns decision can be found in her Franz Liszt als Knstler und Mensch Erster Band Zweites Buch p According to this Liszts hands had been rather small and could hardly stretch a th From Paganinis Caprices according to Ramann Liszt took the idea how to play wider intervals and this was his entire revolution Ramanns theory is of course wrong There were others who wrote wide intervals as well for example Schumann Chopin Henselt Thalberg Dhler Dreyschock and many further ones To this comes that the theme of Liszts ClochetteFantasy was not taken from Paganinis 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 Ramanns theory with astonishment