The Death of Franz Liszt Based on the Unpublished Diary of His Pupil Lina Schmalhausen
Walker, author of a highly regarded, three-volume biography of  Liszt and winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize, here  offers a slender but remarkable addition to the scholarship on  the great Hungarian composer. While combing the Goethe and  Schiller Archives in Weimar, along with the papers of Liszt  biographer Lina Ramann, he ran across the diary of Lina  Schmalhausen, a student of Liszt who became a devoted caregiver  to her elderly master when he fell ill in Bayreuth in July 1886.  Carefully translated and copiously annotated here by Walker, the  diary convincingly debunks the sanitized version of Liszt's  death, which had the composer passing away peacefully from  pneumonia, surrounded by loving relatives. In fact, Liszt was  ignored by his cold daughter Cosima (who had fallen out with her  father after marrying Richard Wagner) and attended by  incompetent doctors. Schmalhausen's account makes for riveting,  at times horrifying reading, and Walker is to be commended for  bringing it to light. Recommended for all music  collections.Larry Lipkis, Moravian Coll., Bethlehem, PACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.