Franz Liszt - Biography - IMDb Franz Liszt Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Trivia (2) Overview (4) 6' 1" (1.85 m) Mini Bio (1) Franz Liszt, the virtuoso pianist and composer, was the most famous concert superstar of the 19th century. He was born in what was then the Austrian Empire. His father was Hungarian and his mother was Austrian. At age 6 he took music lessons from his father, Adam Liszt, who worked at the Court of Count Esterhazy, the main sponsor of Liszt's education and career. Liszt continued his music studies in Vienna under Carl Czerny and Antonio Salieri . In 1823, at the young age of 12, Liszt moved with his parents to Paris. There he enjoyed an early friendship with Frédéric Chopin , but later they became rivals. At that time young Liszt began his career of a travelling virtuoso. He was adulated all-over Europe, from Ireland to Russia. His concert performances included his own compositions, regarded by many as the most difficult piano music ever written.

His elegant, worldly manners in combination with diabolic cynicism and his impressive stage presence and supernatural virtuosity gave cause for rumors, that he must have made a deal with the Devil. His "Mephisto Waltz" depicts the Devil playing a Paganini-style violin on the piano. Franz Liszt became a friend of many important cultural figures of his time. He attended the Paris premiere of the "Symphonie Fantastique" by Hector Berlioz and the two composers became good friends. Liszt shared mutual respect with Mikhail Glinka . He also admired Aleksandr Borodin and promoted his first symphony for performances in Western Europe. Liszt was a friend of Richard Wagner , who was Liszt's son-in-law, until their differences led to cooler relationship in their later years. Liszt's influence on his fellow musicians was legendary. He made superb piano transcriptions of symphonies, operas and large orchestral works of other composers, such as Ludwig van Beethoven , Hector Berlioz , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Wagner . Operas and symphonies in Liszt's transcriptions became valuable repertoire of many pianists.

Liszt lived and travelled with the married Countess Marie D'Agoult for 12 years and they had three children. In 1847, in Russia, Liszt met the beautiful and wealthy Princess Carolyne Wittgenstein, who soon left her husband for Liszt. In 1848 he became the Director of Music at the Court of Weimar. There, living with Carolyne in her mansion, he composed and revised his most important music, including the "Dream of Love", dedicated to Carolyne. The Church did not allow Liszt to marry Carolyne and also did not allow Carolyne to divorce Wittgenstein, with whom she had a daughter. In 1861 Liszt settled in Rome where Carolyne bought a home and they tried to marry again, but the Church did not terminate Carolyne's marriage until her husband died in 1864. She then changed her mind and lived with unmarried Liszt, who was stuck in this painful situation until the end of his life. Under her influence, he became a religious man and in 1865 Pope admitted Liszt into Holy Orders and commissioned the church music.

Since 1870s Liszt taught at the Budapest Conservatory and also participated with Wagner in several concert events in Bayreith. He spent his last years between Rome, Weimar, Budapest and Bayreuth, where he died in 1886. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov Trivia (2) He eloped to Switzerland with Countess Marie d'Agoult. Their idealistic relationship eventually disintegrated in 1844. Together, Liszt and d'Agoult had three children: daughters Blandine (born 1835) and Cosima (born 1837), and son Daniel (born 1839). Daniel died in 1859 at the tender age of 21. Liszt would write "Two Episodes from Lenau's Faust" and "Les Morts" to honour his memory. In 1862, his daughter Blandine died in childbirth.

His other daughter, Cosima, later left her husband to be with composer Richard Wagner , to whom she bore daughters Isolde in 1865 and Eva in 1867 and son Siegfried in 1869 before they finally married in 1870. Franz Liszt | Classical-Music.com Past Issues Franz Liszt Franz Liszt was a controversial figure in his day. More than 200 years on, he still is. As composer, performer and human being alike, he is multifaceted and paradoxical. At his concerts women swooned in the aisles – but though a ladies’ man and fabled lover, he was always attracted to the Church and ultimately took holy orders; and though a public showman, he was also a creative visionary whose most adventurous works pointed towards those of his son-in-law, Richard Wagner, and beyond. Often misrepresented, he is a seminal figure in the musical landscapes of both the 19th and 20th centuries.

Back in the 1980s, it was fashionable to dismiss his over-the-top opera fantasies, to sigh condescendingly at the rhetorical excesses of the Sonate: Après une lecture de Dante, to groan over the flashy transcriptions of Schubert songs. Some pianists tried to rescue Liszt from the impure taint of technical display, accentuating the epic, abstract qualities of the B minor Sonata but downplaying its showiness. Today, though, countless pianists go overboard in the opposite direction, crashing through the Hungarian Rhapsodies and fantasies on Don Giovanni and Rigoletto as fast and loudly as possible, paying scant attention to their wealth of colour and detail. Liszt was born on 22 October 1811 in Raiding, a village in the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, Adam Liszt, was a musician himself, a cellist in the orchestra at the Eszterházy court, where he performed under the baton of Haydn and even, once, Beethoven.

Liszt left his native Hungary before he was a teenager, but his music flows with the mesmeric magic of the gypsy players he had encountered as a child. A child prodigy, he studied in Vienna with Carl Czerny before moving to Paris and giving concert tours when he was 12. His compositional studies began under the tutelage of Ferdinando Paer, but at 14, he underwent a profound religious coup de foudre and begged his father to let him become a priest. The request was refused, but the death of his father only a year later was a blow which left a lasting impact on the youngster’s complex psyche. He suffered a breakdown in the late 1820s, his disillusion with music worsened by a romantic let-down. Rescue came in two startling forms. One was the 1830 Revolution in Paris, which injected him with fresh idealism and energy. The other was a concert by Niccolò Paganini in April 1832. That evening inspired Liszt’s future. He would become, he decided, as great a pianist as Paganini was a violinist.

He undertook solo concert tours on a scale never seen before; the notion of the piano recital as we know it now was his invention, designed for himself, and the virtuosity of his compositions was unprecedented in the scope of piano music. The result was the fabled ‘Lisztomania’ which swept Europe. Yet controversy and jealousy were never far from this newly invented phenomenon, the international superstar. His personal life was dramatic: in 1835 he eloped to Switzerland with the married Marie d’Agoult, with whom he lived for four years and had three children. His fever-pitch recitals were condemned by many on grounds of poor taste, but perhaps out of jealousy. Nevertheless, Liszt remained on friendly terms with many of his peers including Mendelssohn, Chopin and Schumann. He maintained his spiritual leanings, too, which emerged in compositions such as the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. Some of his finest works sprang from extra-musical inspiration, for example Années de Pèlerinage, a musical evocation of the landscape, art and poetry of Switzerland and Italy.

If his orchestral music never reached the same peak of inspiration as his output for solo piano, he is credited with inventing the symphonic poem. Although most of his contributions to this genre of story-telling in music are rarely heard now – Hungaria? Hamlet? Battle of the Huns, anyone? – these works were hugely influential, not least on Wagner and, later, Strauss; and the ambition of his Faust Symphony made up for the brashness of Les préludes. At the other extreme, his substantial repertoire of solo songs amply displays the influence of Schubert. Liszt abandoned Lisztomania in 1847, retiring from the concert platform aged 36 and settling in Weimar, where he had been appointed ‘Kapellmeister extraordinaire’. The same year, he met the Princesse Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who moved in with him and hoped to marry him after a tortuous process extracting herself from her previous marriage. The story goes that the pair intended to marry on Liszt’s 50th birthday, but the plans fell through.

Some say that this was because Carolyne’s divorce was not finalised; others that she changed her mind because Liszt had spent her fortune and still indulged in love affairs. Liszt’s volte face was extreme: in 1865 he joined a Franciscan monastery in Rome, taking minor orders and becoming the Abbé Liszt. From then on he divided his time between Rome, Weimar and Budapest, and between teaching and composing. When his daughter Cosima eloped with Wagner from her marriage to the conductor Hans von Bülow, the religious Liszt declined to speak to her for years. But he continued to champion Wagner’s music. Musically, Liszt’s late piano music – notably such works as Nuages gris and Bagatelle sans Tonalité – find him exploring the outer reaches of harmonic language in a way that not even his son-in-law had yet attempted. Liszt remained, to his death in July 1886, a Byronic, Romantic individual. To represent him as lyrical and passionate without virtuosity is to misrepresent his nature; to display his music as shallow showmanship is to deny his massive intellectual and spiritual vitality.

Perhaps we’re still trying to get the measure of Franz Liszt – but that’s as good a reason as any to keep on trying. Jessica Duchen Franz Liszt (Composer, Arranger) - Short Biography Franz Liszt (Composer, Arranger) Born: October 22, 1811 - village of Doborján, near Sopron, Hungary Died: July 31, 1886 - Bayreuth, Germany Franz Liszt [Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc] was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. He studied and played at Vienna and Paris and for most of his early adulthood toured throughout Europe giving concerts. His virtuosity earned him approbations by composers and performers alike throughout Europe. His great generosity with both time and money benefited the lives of many people: victims of disasters, orphans and the many students he taught for free. He also contributed to the L.v. Beethoven memorial fund. His piano compositions include works such as his Piano Sonata in B minor, and two piano concertos, which have entered the standard repertoire.

He also made many exuberant piano transcriptions of operas, famous symphonies, Paganini Caprices, and Schubert Lieder. As would be expected from a pianist-composer of Liszt's virtuosity, many of his piano compositions are amongst the most technically challenging in the repertoire. Biography Liszt was born in the village of Doborján, near Sopron, Hungary, in what was then the Austrian Empire (Doborján is now Raiding in Austria after the Treaty of Trianon of 1920). His baptism record is in Latin and lists his first name as Franciscus. The Hungarian variant Ferenc is often used, though Liszt never used this himself. His father, Ádám Liszt, was Hungarian and his mother was Austrian-born Anna Liszt, née Lagen. Liszt displayed incredible talent at a young age, easily sight-reading multiple staves at once. His father, who worked at the court of Count Esterházy, gave him his first music lessons when he was six years old. Local aristocrats noticed his talent and enabled him to travel to Vienna and later to Paris with his family.

As a result, Liszt never fully learned Hungarian; his later letters and diaries show that he came to regret this deeply. One letter to his mother begins in faltering Hungarian, and after an apology continues in French (his preferred language). In Vienna he was educated in piano technique by Carl Czerny . His father had wanted him to be taught by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, but Hummel's fees were too high. Antonio Salieri taught him the technique of composition and fostered the young Liszt's musical taste. He formed an early friendship with Frédéric Chopin , but later fierce competition turned the men into rivals. He was a lifelong friend of Camille Saint-Saëns , and the latter dedicated his Symphony #3 in C Minor to Liszt. On April 13, 1823, Liszt gave a concert, and it is often said that the 53-year-old Ludwig van L.v. Beethoven gave him a kiss for his marvelous playing. An account of the episode can be found in the separate article Liszt and L.v. Beethoven . Road to Pilgrimage Liszt left Vienna in 1823 to travel.

In Paris, he attended a concert by the virtuoso violinist Paganini and became motivated to become the greatest pianist of his day. He often took to seclusion in his room, and was heard practicing for over 10 hours a day. In 1832 he wrote the Grande Fantaisie de Bravoure sur La Clochette de Paganini ("Great Bravura Fantasy on Paganini's La Campanella"). A shorter piece using the same thematic content was included in the 1838 Etudes d\'Execution Transcendante d'apres Paganini (Etudes for Transcendental Technique after Paganini). Also composed in this period were the 12 Grandes Etudes (Liszt later rewrote these into the 12 Transcendental Etudes in 1851). He fraternized with such noted composers of his time as F. Chopin , Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann , and Richard Wagner, the last of whom his daughter later married. He was very widely read in philosophy, art and literature and was on friendly terms with the painter Ingres and the authors Heine, Lamennais, H.C.

Andersen, and Baudelaire, who addressed his prose poem "Le thyrse" to Liszt. From 1835 to 1839 Franz Liszt lived with Marie Catherine Sophie de Flavigny, ex-wife of the Comte d'Agoult. She is better known by her pen name, "Daniel Stern." They had two daughters, Blandina (1835-1862) and Cosima (1837-1930), and one son, Daniel (1839-1859). In 1840-1841 Liszt took part in two tours of the British Isles arranged by the young musician and conductor Lewis Henry Lavenu, accompanied by Lavenu's half brother Frank Mori, two female singers and John Orlando Parry, an all round musician, singer and entertainer (who vividly recorded the tour in his diary). Between August 17 and September 26, they gave 50 concerts around England which were generally unsuccessful, having an average attendance of 140.

The second tour which encompassed Liverpool, Ireland and Scotland from November 1840- January 1841 was mildly more successful, with audiences of more than 1200 in Dublin. The tour was however a financial failure, and Liszt waived his promised 500 guineas a month fee. In 1847 Liszt met Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. The Princess was an author, whose one work was published in 16 volumes, each containing over 1600 pages. Her longwinded writing style had some effect on Liszt himself. His biography of F. Chopin and his chronology and analysis of Gypsy music (which later inspired Béla Bartók ) were both written in the Princess' loquacious style. The couple had intended to marry in 1860, but since the Princess had been previously married and her husband was still alive, the Roman Catholic authorities would not approve the wedding. Liszt and Princess Carolyne remained friends, although Liszt never recovered from being unable to marry her.

During the years in which he performed regularly in public, he was almost universally acknowledged (even by musical conservatives who disliked his compositions) as the foremost pianistic executant and interpereter. His main rival in public esteem as a virtuoso was Sigismond Thalberg, who specialized in salon music, especially operatic fantasies. Thalberg's reputation has faded, and in current opinion, only F. Chopin is comparably significant among romantic pianists. Liszt in Germany In 1848, Liszt gave up public performances on the piano and went to Weimar , remaining there until 1861. During this period he acted as conductor at court concerts and on special occasions at the theatre, gave lessons to a number of pianists, including the great virtuoso Hans von Bülow , who married Liszt's daughter Cosima in 1857. He also wrote articles championing Berlioz and Wagner, and produced those orchestral and choral pieces upon which his reputation as a composer mainly rests. His efforts on behalf of Wagner, who was then an exile in Switzerland, culminated in the first performance of Lohengrin in 1850.

The compositions belonging to the period of his residence at Weimar comprise two piano concertos, in E flat and in A, the Totentanz, the Concerto pathetique for two pianos, the Piano Sonata in B minor, sundry Etudes, fifteen Rhapsodies Hongroises, twelve orchestral Poemes symphoniques, Eine Faust Symphonie, and Eine Symphonie zu Dantes Divina Commedia, the 13th Psalm for tenor solo, chorus and orchestra, the choruses to Herder's dramatic scenes Prometheus, and the Graner Fest Messe. In 1851 he published a revised version of the 1838 Etudes d'Execution Transcendante d'apres Paganini, now titled Grandes Etudes de Paganini (Grand etudes after Paganini), the most famous of which is La Campanella, a study in octaves, shakes (trills) and leaps. In retirement Liszt retired to Rome in 1861.

He joined the Franciscan order in 1865, receiving the tonsure and four Minor Orders of the Catholic Church (namely, Porter, Lector, Exorcist and Acolyte). From 1869 onwards, Abbé Liszt divided his time between Rome, Weimar and Budapest where during the summer months he continued to receive pupils gratis, including Alexander Siloti . During this time, his relationship with Wagner grew more strained. Cosima left Bülow, who abused her, for Wagner in 1869. The intensely devout Catholic Liszt was personally repulsed by his new son-in-law, but continued to champion his music, and regularly attended the Bayreuth Festival. From 1876 until his death he also taught for several months every year at the Hungarian Conservatoire of Budapest. He died in Bayreuth on July 31, 1886 as a result of pneumonia which he contracted during the Bayreuth Festival hosted by his daughter, Cosima.

At first he was surrounded by some of his more adoring pupils, including Arthur Friedheim, Alexander Siloti and Bernhard Stavenhagen, but they were denied access to his room by Cosima shortly before his death at 11:30pm. He is buried in the Bayreuth Friedhof. Musical style and influence The majority of Liszt's piano compositions reflect his advanced virtuosity; however he was a prolific composer, and wrote works at several levels of difficulty, some being accessible to intermediate- (and even beginner-) level pianists. Abschied (Farewell) and Nuages Gris are examples of this less virtuosic style, as are at least some of the six Consolations. In his most popular and advanced works, he is the archetypal Romantic composer. Liszt pioneered the technique of thematic transformation, a method of development which was related to both the existing variation technique and to the new use of the leitmotif by Richard Wagner. He also largely invented the symphonic poem, or tone poem, in a series of single-movement orchestral works composed in the 1840s and 1850s.

His poems all came from classical literature, including "Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne," based on a Victor Hugo poem of the same title, and "Les preludes" from Lamartine. Liszt's "First Mephisto Waltz" was based on Lenau's Faust, and he composed a second waltz from the poem in 1881. Other pieces are based on works by Lord Byron, Goethe and Dante. Liszt's symphonic poems, although successes, were criticised because they were not Absolute music. His transcriptions met with less criticism. As a transcriber of even the most unlikely and complicated orchestral works, he created piano arrangements which stood on their own merits; many other pianist-composers followed his example. While his Hungarian nationalist works are widely recognized, his understanding of form, expression and use of virtuosity for musical effect are more apparent elsewhere. Later works of the composer such as Bagatelle sans tonalité ("Bagatelle without Tonality") foreshadow composers who would further explore the modern concept of atonality.

His thoroughly revised masterwork, Années de Pélerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage"), arguably includes his most provocative and stirring pieces. This set of three suites ranges from the pure virtuosity of the Suisse Orage (Storm) to the subtle and imaginative visualizations of artworks by Michaelangelo and Raphael in the second set. Années contains some pieces which are loose transcriptions of Liszt's own earlier compositions; the first "year" recreates his early pieces of Album d'un voyageur, while the second book includes a resetting of his own song transcriptions once separately published as Tre sonetti del Petrarca ("Three sonnets of Petrarch"). The relative obscurity of the vast majority of his works may be explained by the immense number of pieces he composed. To Franz Liszt's honor, he helped found the Liszt School of Music in Weimar , which bears his name. - Besides, Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest (a music school and a concert hall) is also named after him. His piano works have always been well represented in concert programs and recordings by pianists throughout the world. Many of his works have been recorded a multitude of times.

However the only pianist who has recorded his entire pianistic oeuvre is the Australian Leslie Howard . This massive undertaking included a number of premiere recordings. Noted works (1822) Variation on a Theme by Diabelli (S/G147, R26) (1826) Etude in Twelve Exercises, including No. 10 in F Minor (1832) Grande Fantasie de Bravoure sur La Clochette, variations (S/G420, R321) (1833) Arrangement of "Scaffold March" from Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique (S/G470, R136) (1833) Divertissement on the Cavatina "I tuoi frequenti palpiti" from Pacini's La Niobe (S/G419, R230) (1838) Grandes Etudes de Paganini, including No. 3, "La Campanella"; and No.

5, "La Chasse" (revised 1851) (1841) Feuilles d'album ('Album Leaves'), (S/G165) (1841) Réminiscences de Don Juan, (S/G418) (1842) Valse-Impromptu, (S/G213) (1848) Trois Études de Concert No. 3, Un Sospiro ("A sigh"), Etude No. 39 (piano solo) (S/G144, R5) (1848-53) Années de Pèlerinage: Première Année ן¿½ Suisse; Deuxième Année ן¿½ Italie - Venezia e Napoli; Troisième Année (1848-61) Twelve Symphonic Poems Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne, (1848-9) (after Victor Hugo) Tasso: lamento e trionfo, (1849) (after Byron) Les préludes, after Lamartine (1848, rev.

before 1854) Orpheus, (1853-4) Die Ideale (1857), after Schiller (1849) Piano Concerto no. 1 in E-flat Major (S/G124) (1849) Piano Concerto no. 2 in A Major (S/G125) (revised 1861) (1849) Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses, (S/G173) a collection of solo piano pieces, including the often-performed No. 7, Funérailles (1849) Totentanz ('Dance of death') (S/G126ii), piano concerto. (revised 1853-1859) (1850) Liebesträume No.

3 ("Dreams of Love") in A♭ Major (piano solo) (S/G541, R211) (1851) Transcendental Etudes (Prelude, Molto Vivace, Paysage, Mazeppa, Feux Follets, Vision, Eroica, Wilde Jagd, Ricordanza, Allegro Agitato Molto, Harmonies du soir, and Chasse-niege. Known well for being technically difficult, notedly Mazeppa and Feux Follets) (S/G139, R2B) (1851) Nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies (S/G244, R106) - Rhapsody No. 2 became famous in the modern day as a popular piece for accompaniment of animated cartoons, during the golden age of animation; Rhapsody No. 19 in D Minor (1885) is also of note. (1853) Piano Sonata in B minor (S/G178, R21) (1854) Faust Symphony (1855) Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H for organ, rev.

1870 (1857) Dante Symphony (1860) Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (piano solo) (S/G514, R181) (1866) Christus (S/G498b) (1881) Nuages Gris ('Grey clouds') (S/G199, R78) (1885) Bagatelle sans tonalité Note: Although Liszt provided opus numbers for his works during his lifetime, these are rarely used today. Instead, his works are usually identified using one of two different cataloging schemes: More commonly used in English speaking countries are the "S" or "G" numbers, derived from Humphrey Searle catalogue of the 1960s, The Music of Liszt. Less commonly used is the "R" number, which derives from Peter Raabe's 1931 catalogue Franz Liszt: Leben und Schaffen. Literary Works Franz Liszt wrote about many subjects, such as: a necrology of Paganini; the position of music in Italy; Robert and Clara Schumann ; F. Chopin ; Robert Franz ; L.v.

Beethoven 's Fidelio; Felix Mendelssohn 's A Midsummer Night's Dream; the Goethe's Foundation at Weimar; Wagner's Lohengrin and Tannhäuser; the music of the Hungarian gypsies; John Field's nocturnes; Berlioz's Harold in Italy; and much more. His letters and musical essays are published in 6 volumes. Some literary works that appeared under his name were actually written by Marie d'Agoult and Carolyn von Sayn-Wittgenstein. However, a work only he could have wrhimself is a "Manual of Pianoforte Technique" for the Geneva Conservatoire. This has never seen the light of day, but there is no reason to believe it never existed. It is now considered a lost work. It would provide an invaluable insight into the playing style of probably the greatest pianist who ever lived. Source: Wikipedia Website Contributed by Aryeh Oron (April 2006) Arrangements of J.S. Bach's Works Title Variations on Motif from Cantata BWV 12 (Mvt.

2) Use of Chorale Melodies in his works Title Bibliography Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years (1811-1847) by Alan Walker, Cornell University Press, Revised Edition (1993) ISBN 0801494214 Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years (1848-1861) by Alan Walker, Cornell University Press, Reprint (1993) ISBN 0801497213 Franz Liszt: The Final Years (1861-1886) by Alan Walker, Cornell University Press, reprint (1997) ISBN 0801484537 The Death of Franz Liszt: Based on the Unpublished Diary of His Pupil Lina Schmalhausen by Lina Schmalhausen, annotated and edited by Alan Walker, Cornell University Press (2002) ISBN 0801440769 The Piano Master Classes of Franz Liszt 1884-1886: Diary Notes of August Gollerich by August Gollerich, edited by Wilhelm Jerger, translated by Richard Louis Zimd

ars, Indiana University Press (1996) ISBN 0253332230 Franz Liszt | Hungarian composer | Britannica.com Hungarian composer César Franck Franz Liszt, Hungarian form Liszt Ferenc (born October 22, 1811, Raiding, Hungary —died July 31, 1886, Bayreuth , Germany ), Hungarian piano virtuoso and composer.

Among his many notable compositions are his 12 symphonic poems, two (completed) piano concerti, several sacred choral works, and a great variety of solo piano pieces. Franz Liszt, oil on canvas by Henri Lehmann, 1840; in the Carnavalet Museum, Paris. G. Dagli Orti—IGDA/© DeA Picture Library Youth and early training Liszt’s father, Ádám Liszt, was an official in the service of Prince Nicolas Eszterházy , whose palace in Eisenstadt was frequented by many celebrated musicians. Ádám Liszt was a talented amateur musician who played the cello in the court concerts. By the time Franz was five years old, he was already attracted to the piano and was soon given lessons by his father. He began to show interest in both church and Gypsy music . He developed into a religious child, also because of the influence of his father, who during his youth had spent two years in the Franciscan order. Franz began to compose at the age of eight. When only nine he made his first public appearance as a concert pianist at Sopron and Pozsony (now Bratislava, Slovakia).

His playing so impressed the local Hungarian magnates that they put up the money to pay for his musical education for the next six years. Ádám obtained leave of absence from his post and took Franz to Vienna, where he had piano lessons with Carl Czerny , a composer and pianist who had been a pupil of Ludwig van Beethoven , and studied composition with Antonio Salieri , the musical director at the Viennese court. He gave several concerts in Vienna, with great success. The legend that Beethoven attended one of Liszt’s concerts and kissed the prodigy on the forehead is considered apocryphal—but Liszt certainly met Beethoven. Liszt moved with his family to Paris in 1823, giving concerts in Germany on the way. He was refused admission to the Paris Conservatoire because he was a foreigner; instead, he studied with Anton Reicha, a theorist who had been a pupil of Joseph Haydn’s brother Michael, and Ferdinando Paer , the director of the Théâtre-Italien in Paris and a composer of light operas. Liszt’s Paris debut on March 7, 1824, was sensational.

Other concerts quickly followed, as well as a visit to London in June. He toured England again the following year, playing for George IV at Windsor Castle and also visiting Manchester, where his New Grand Overture was performed for the first time. This piece was used as the overture to his one-act opera Don Sanche, which was performed at the Paris Opéra on October 17, 1825. In 1826 he toured France and Switzerland, returning to England again in the following year. Suffering from nervous exhaustion, Liszt expressed a desire to become a priest. His father took him to Boulogne to take sea baths to improve his health; there Ádám died of typhoid fever. Liszt returned to Paris and sent for his mother to join him; she had gone back to the Austrian province of Styria during his tours. Britannica Stories EU Considers Rules For Robots Liszt now earned his living mainly as a piano teacher, and in 1828 he fell in love with one of his pupils.

When her father insisted that the attachment be broken off, Liszt again became extremely ill; he was considered so close to death that his obituary appeared in a Paris newspaper. After his illness he underwent a long period of depression and doubt about his career. For more than a year he did not touch the piano and was dissuaded from joining the priesthood only through the efforts of his mother. He experienced much religious pessimism. During this period Liszt took an active dislike to the career of a virtuoso. He made up for his previous lack of education by reading widely, and he came into contact with many of the leading artists of the day, including Alphonse de Lamartine , Victor Hugo , and Heinrich Heine . With the July Revolution of 1830 resulting in the abdication of the French king Charles X and the coronation of Louis-Philippe, he sketched out a Revolutionary Symphony. Listen: “campanella, La” Excerpt from La campanella (“The Bell”), number three of … Between 1830 and 1832 he met three men who were to have a great influence on his artistic life.

At the end of 1830 he first met Hector Berlioz and heard the first performance of his Symphonie fantastique . From Berlioz he inherited the command of the Romantic orchestra and also the diabolic quality that remained with him for the rest of his life. He achieved the seemingly impossible feat of transcribing Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique for the piano in 1833, and he helped Berlioz by transcribing other works of his and playing them in concert. In March 1831 he heard Niccolò Paganini play for the first time. He again became interested in virtuoso technique and resolved to transfer some of Paganini’s fantastic violin effects to the piano, writing a fantasia on his La campanella . At this time he also met Frédéric Chopin , whose poetical style of music exerted a profound influence on Liszt.

Years with Marie d’Agoult Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies In 1834 Liszt emerged as a mature composer with the solo piano piece Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, based on a collection of poems by Lamartine, and the set of three Apparitions. The lyrical style of these works is in marked contrast to his youthful compositions, which reflected the style of his teacher Czerny. In the same year, through the poet and dramatist Alfred de Musset , he met the novelist George Sand and also Marie de Flavigny, countess d’Agoult , with whom he began an affair. In 1835 she left her husband and family to join Liszt in Switzerland; their first daughter, Blandine, was born in Geneva on December 18. Liszt and Madame d’Agoult lived together for four years, mainly in Switzerland and Italy, though Liszt made occasional visits to Paris.

He also taught at the newly founded Geneva Conservatory and published a series of essays, “ On the Position of Artists, ” in which he endeavoured to raise the status of the artist—who up to then had been regarded as a kind of superior servant—to that of a respected member of the community . Liszt commemorated his years with Madame d’Agoult in the first two books of solo piano pieces collectively named Années de pèlerinage (1837–54; Years of Pilgrimage), which are poetical evocations of Swiss and Italian scenes. He also wrote the first mature version of the Transcendental Études (1838, 1851); these are works for solo piano based on his youthful Étude en 48 exercices, but here transformed into pieces of terrifying virtuosity. He transcribed for the piano six of Paganini’s pieces—five studies and La campanella—and also three Beethoven symphonies, some songs by Franz Schubert , and further works of Berlioz.

He made these transcriptions to make the work of these men more available and thus spread the appreciation of their music, which was still greatly neglected at that time. Liszt also wrote a number of fantasias on popular operas of the day and dazzled audiences with them at his concerts. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest His second daughter, Cosima, was born in 1837 and his son, Daniel, in 1839, but toward the end of that year his relations with Madame d’Agoult became strained and she returned to Paris with the children. Liszt then returned to his career as a virtuoso to raise money for the Beethoven Memorial Committee in Bonn for the completion of its Beethoven monument. For the next eight years Liszt traveled all over Europe, giving concerts in countries as far apart as Ireland, Portugal, Turkey, and Russia. He continued to spend his summer holidays with Madame d’Agoult and the children on the island of Nonnenwerth in the Rhine River until 1844; then they finally parted, and Liszt took the children to Paris.

Liszt’s brilliance and success were at their peak during these years as a virtuoso. Everywhere he was received with great adulation; gifts and decorations were showered on him, and he had numerous mistresses, including the dancer Lola Montez and Marie Duplessis. Nevertheless, he still continued to compose, writing songs as well as piano works. His visit to Hungary in 1839–40, the first since his boyhood, was an important event. His renewed interest in the music of the Gypsies laid the foundations for his Hungarian Rhapsodies and other piano pieces composed in the Hungarian style. He also wrote a cantata for the Beethoven Festival of 1845, his first work for chorus and orchestra, and some smaller choral works. Compositions at Weimar In February 1847 Liszt met the princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein at Kiev and later spent some time at her estate in Poland. She quickly persuaded him to give up his career as a virtuoso and to concentrate on composition. He gave his final concert at Yelizavetgrad (Kirovograd) in September of that year.

Having been director of music extraordinary to the Weimar court in Germany since 1843, and having conducted concerts there since 1844, Liszt decided to settle there permanently in 1848. He was later joined by the princess, who had unsuccessfully tried to obtain a divorce from her husband. They resided together in Weimar, and Liszt now had ample time to compose, as well as to conduct the court orchestra in operas and concerts. This was the period of his greatest production: the first 12 symphonic poems, A Faust Symphony (1854; rev. 1857–61), A Symphony to Dante’s Divina Commedia (1855–56), the Piano Sonata in B Minor (1852–53), the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major (1849; rev. 1853 and 1856), and the Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major (1839; rev. 1849–61).

(A third piano concerto , in E-flat, composed in 1839, was left unperformed during his lifetime and was not discovered until 1988.) During the period in Weimar Liszt also composed the Totentanz for piano and orchestra, revised versions of the Transcendental and Paganini Études and of the first two books of the Années de pèlerinage, choral works, and numerous others. Some of these works had been sketched out in the 1840s or earlier, but, even so, his productivity in this period remains astonishing. Franz Liszt, lithograph by Joseph Kriehuber, 1846. Courtesy of the Museo Teatrale alla Scala, Milan Trending Topics Lady Flora Hastings The avant-garde composers of the day regarded Weimar as the one city where modern composers could be heard, and many of them came to Liszt as pupils. The so-called New German school hoisted the banner of modernism, which naturally annoyed the more academic musicians.

Some members of the Weimar court also were upset by Liszt’s continued support of the composer Richard Wagner , who had had to flee in 1849 with Liszt’s help from Germany to Switzerland because of his political activism. The straitlaced citizens of Weimar also objected strongly to the princess openly living with Liszt, and the grand duchess of Weimar was under pressure from her brother, Nicholas I of Russia, to ban Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein from all court functions. Furthermore, the grand duke who originally appointed Liszt died in 1853, and his successor took little interest in music. Liszt resigned five years later, and, though he remained in Weimar until 1861, his position there became more and more difficult. His son, Daniel, had died in 1859 at the age of 20. Liszt was deeply distressed and wrote the oration for orchestra Les Morts in his son’s memory. In May 1860 the princess had left Weimar for Rome in the hope of having her divorce sanctioned by the pope, and in September, in a troubled state of mind, Liszt had made his will.

He left Weimar in August of the following year, and after traveling to Berlin and Paris, where he saw Marie d’Agoult, he arrived in Rome. He and the princess hoped to be married on his 50th birthday. At the last moment, however, the pope revoked his sanction of the princess’s divorce; they both remained in Rome in separate establishments. Eight years in Rome For the next eight years Liszt lived mainly in Rome and occupied himself more and more with religious music. He completed the oratorios Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth (1857–62) and Christus (1855–66) and a number of smaller works. He hoped to create a new kind of religious music that would be more direct and moving than the rather sentimental style popular at the time. Liszt was one of the few 19th-century musicians to be interested in Gregorian plainsong, but his efforts were frowned on by the ecclesiastical authorities, and much of his sacred music remained unpublished until many years after his death. In 1862 his daughter Blandine died at the age of 26.

Liszt wrote his variations on a theme from the J.S. Bach cantata Weinen, Klagen (Weeping, Mourning) ending with the chorale Was Gott tut das ist wohlgetan (What God Does Is Well Done), which must have been inspired by this event. The princess’s husband died in 1864, but there was no more talk of marriage, and in 1865 Liszt took the four minor orders of the Roman Catholic Church, though he never became a priest. In 1867 he wrote the Hungarian Coronation Mass for the coronation of the emperor Francis Joseph I of Austria as king of Hungary. This commission renewed his links with his native land. Meanwhile, his daughter Cosima , who, at the age of 19, had married Liszt’s favourite pupil, Hans von Bülow , was having an affair with Richard Wagner. She had an illegitimate child by Wagner, which led to a quarrel between the two composers that lasted until 1872.

Last years In 1869 Liszt was invited to return to Weimar by the grand duke to give master classes in piano playing, and two years later he was asked to do the same in Budapest . From then until the end of his life he divided his time between Rome, Weimar, and Budapest. After a reconciliation with Wagner in 1872, Liszt regularly attended the Bayreuth festivals. He appeared occasionally as a pianist in charity concerts and continued to compose. His music began to lose some of its brilliant quality and became starker, more introverted, and more experimental in style. His later works anticipate the harmonic style of Claude Debussy , and one late work called Bagatelle Without Tonality anticipates Béla Bartók and even Arnold Schoenberg . Franz Liszt, undated photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. In 1886 Liszt left Rome for the last time. He attended concerts of his works in Budapest, Liège, and Paris and then went to London—his first visit there in 45 years—where several concerts of his works were given. He then went on to Antwerp, Paris, and Weimar.

He played for the last time at a concert in Luxembourg on July 19. Two days later he arrived in Bayreuth for the festival. His health had not been good for some months, and he went to bed with a high fever, though he still managed to attend two Wagner performances. His final illness developed into pneumonia, and his condition was not helped by the callous behaviour of Cosima, who left him alone in order to supervise the running of the festival. He died on July 31. Franz Liszt seated at the piano. Bain News Service/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-ggbain-06155) Assessment Liszt was not only the greatest piano virtuoso of his time but also a composer of enormous originality and a principal figure in the Romantic movement . As a composer he radically extended the technique of piano writing, giving the instrument not only brilliance but a full and rich, almost orchestral sound. Most of his compositions bear titles and are representations of some natural scene or of some poetic idea or work of literature or art.

Liszt extended the harmonic language of his time, even in his earlier works, and his later development of chromatic harmony helped lead eventually to the breakdown of tonality and ultimately to the atonal music of the 20th century. Liszt also invented the symphonic poem for orchestra and the method of “ transformation of themes,” by which one or two themes in different forms can provide the basis for an entire work—a principle from which Wagner derived his system of so-called leitmotifs in his operas. As a pianist Liszt was the first to give complete solo recitals, and he did a great deal to encourage the performance of music by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Wagner, and Robert Schumann by transcribing their works for piano and playing them in his concerts at a time when they were insufficiently appreciated. He also helped younger composers, including Edvard Grieg , Mily Balakirev , Aleksandr Borodin , and Claude Debussy, and he taught a number of pupils who themselves became famous virtuosos.

Apart from his more than 700 compositions, Liszt was the author of books on Frédéric Chopin, Hungarian Gypsy music, Wagner’s Lohengrin and Tannhäuser, John Field’s nocturnes, the lieder of Robert Franz , and the Goethe Foundation in Weimar. His published essays and correspondence fill many volumes. A controversial figure in his time, he was attacked for his innovations , and his rivals were jealous of his brilliance and panache. For a long time he was regarded merely as a superficial composer of brilliant trifles, but in recent years his true stature has been seen more clearly as that of a composer who revolutionized the music of his time and anticipated numerous later developments. As Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein said, “Liszt has flung his spear far into the future.” Franz Liszt | ArkivMusic Franz Liszt Biography Born: 1811 Died: 1886 Country: Hungary Period: Romantic Liszt was the only contemporary whose music Richard Wagner gratefully acknowledged as an influence upon his own.

His lasting fame was an alchemy of extraordinary digital ability -- the greatest in the history of keyboard playing -- an unmatched instinct for showmanship, and one of the most progressive musical imaginations of his time. Hailed by some as a visionary, reviled by others as a symbol of empty Romantic excess, Franz Liszt wrote his name Read more across music history in a truly inimitable manner. From his youth, Liszt demonstrated a natural facility at the keyboard that placed him among the top performing prodigies of his day. Though contemporary accounts describe his improvisational skill as dazzling, his talent as a composer emerged only in his adulthood. Still, he was at the age of eleven the youngest contributor to publisher Anton Diabelli's famous variation commissioning project, best remembered as the inspiration for Beethoven's final piano masterpiece. An oft-repeated anecdote -- first recounted by Liszt himself decades later, and possibly fanciful -- has Beethoven attending a recital given by the youngster and bestowing a kiss of benediction upon him. Though already a veteran of the stage by his teens, Liszt recognized the necessity of further musical tuition.

He studied for a time with Czerny and Salieri in Vienna, and later sought acceptance to the Paris Conservatory. When he was turned down there -- foreigners were not then admitted -- he instead studied privately with Anton Reicha. Ultimately, his Hungarian origins proved a great asset to his career, enhancing his aura of mystery and exoticism and inspiring an extensive body of works, none more famous than the Hungarian Rhapsodies (1846-1885). Liszt soon became a prominent figure in Parisian society, his romantic entanglements providing much material for gossip. Still, not even the juiciest accounts of his amorous exploits could compete with the stories about his wizardry at the keyboard. Inspired by the superhuman technique -- and, indeed, diabolical stage presence -- of the violinist Paganini, Liszt set out to translate these qualities to the piano. As his career as a touring performer, conductor, and teacher burgeoned, he began to devote an increasing amount of time to composition.

He wrote most of his hundreds of original piano works for his own use; accordingly, they are frequently characterized by technical demands that push performers -- and in Liszt's own day, the instrument itself -- to their limits. The "transcendence" of his Transcendental Etudes (1851), for example, is not a reference to the writings of Emerson and Thoreau, but an indication of the works' level of difficulty. Liszt was well into his thirties before he mastered the rudiments of orchestration -- works like the Piano Concerto No. 1 (1849) were orchestrated by talented students -- but made up for lost time in the production of two "literary" symphonies (Faust, 1854-1857, and Dante, 1855-1856) and a series of orchestral essays (including Les prï¿½ludes, 1848-1854) that marks the genesis of the tone poem as a distinct genre. After a lifetime of near-constant sensation, Liszt settled down somewhat in his later years.

In his final decade he joined the Catholic Church and devoted much of his creative effort to the production of sacred works. The complexion of his music darkened; the flash that had characterized his previous efforts gave way to a peculiar introspection, manifested in strikingly original, forward-looking efforts like Nuages gris (1881). Liszt died in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 31, 1886, having outlived Wagner, his son-in-law and greatest creative beneficiary. Read less Featured Franz Liszt CDs & DVDs: Superstar, ladies' man: Happy 200th Franz Liszt | Reuters Wed Feb 9, 2011 | 10:30 AM EST Superstar, ladies' man: Happy 200th Franz Liszt 1/5 A statuette of German composer Ludwig van Beethoven decorating a music-case is seen with a statue of Hungarian composer Ferenc Liszt in the background in a museum February 5, 2011.

Reuters/Laszlo Balogh + 2/5 Hungarian pianist Jeno Jando plays one of Ferenc Liszt's pianos in Budapest's Liszt museum February 5, 2011. Reuters/Laszlo Balogh + 3/5 Hungarian pianist Jeno Jando is reflected in a portrait of Ferenc Liszt as he plays at a piano in Budapest's Liszt museum February 5, 2011. Reuters/Laszlo Balogh + 4/5 The first edition of musical notes composed by Hungary's Ferenc Liszt is seen on display at a museum February 5, 2011. Reuters/Laszlo Balogh + 5/5 Director of Budapest's Liszt museum Zsuzsanna Domonkos points to Ferenc Liszt special desk February 5, 2011. Reuters/Laszlo Balogh + By Michael Roddy | BUDAPEST BUDAPEST (Reuters Life!) - He was the world's first musical superstar, a bigger-than-life personality with a wild mane of hair who seated adoring women around his piano onstage and had his own "mania" cult long before the Beatles.

This year marks the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt, that demon of the keyboard who made women swoon, men gape and rivals jealous. But his music is often deemed second rate, and while his piano works and concertos are played, many casual listeners may know him best from Tom & Jerry television cartoons ("Cat Concerto"). "I think he's criticized too many times considering that he was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century," said pianist and conductor Zoltan Kocsis, music director of Hungary's National Philharmonic Orchestra and the country's Liszt year "ambassador." Liszt, the grand man of Hungarian music, who in Hungary goes by the first name Ferenc, was born in the then-Hungarian, now Austrian, village of Doborjan, on Oct 22, 1811. Kocsis, who has performed Liszt's music for decades and orchestrated some of his piano works, is perfectly aware of Liszt's reputation as a grandmaster flash of the 19th century. Contemporary caricatures of him, legs akimbo, fingers flashing, have an echo today in the style of the Chinese pianist Lang Lang.

The caricatures say "showman," not deep thinker. "They say he didn't really write masterpieces, he didn't reach the height of Wagner or other composers, but I think a composer's value should be established from the peaks, not the valleys," Kocsis said. This year, anyone with the remotest interest in Liszt will have every opportunity to test out Kocsis's, and other musicians', opinion that Liszt not only invented the modern piano recital, he also paved the way for Debussy, Bartok and even Wagner -- who, among other things, was Liszt's son in law. "Liszt was ahead of his era at least by 30 years, so of course his contemporaries didn't really understand him," said pianist Jeno Jando, playing an excerpt from a Liszt rhapsody for Reuters Television on one of Liszt's own pianos in Budapest's Liszt Museum. The museum is a treasure trove for anyone trying to understand the "Lisztomania" that gripped Europe, including a solid-silver piano music stand dripping with silvery violins and horns that is so over the top it could only have been Liszt's.

"He was an extraordinary personality, pointing forward, not only by developing piano technique to where Rachmaninov continued it but he used the piano as if it was a symphonic orchestra," Jando said. WORLD LISZT DAY From Seoul to Beijing to the concert halls of Europe and the U.S., this is the year to hear not only Liszt's famous Faust Symphony, Mephisto Waltz and Hungarian Rhapsodies, but also little-known church works and more rarely heard showpieces like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony he transcribed for the piano. Hungary will re-enact a famous "piano duel" between Liszt and a rival (the rival was deemed the better pianist but the main woman judge concluded "there is only one Liszt"). There will be a dramatization of the life of this globe trotter, ladies' man (he fathered three children out of wedlock, with another man's wife), and religious mystic who in later life wore priestly robes and had a private audience with the Pope.

It all comes to a head on Oct 22, which the Hungarians have declared "World Liszt Day," an occasion for orchestras and choirs across the globe to perform his infrequently heard Christus Oratorio. Seoul and Beijing have signed up, as have a half dozen Hungarian cities, but anyone else is welcome. "It's not closed," said Orsolya Erdody, a violinist and the office director of Hungarofest, the organizing body, who wants as many choruses and orchestras as possible to participate. Erdody, a Liszt booster if ever there was one, says she originated a plan that could, if not entirely close off debate over Liszt's ambiguous heritage, at least make everyone flying to Hungary think he's Hungarian: name the airport after him. "It's important to have something from the Liszt year which will be there, will remain for a long time, for our children and that's why I think it would be an important act to give the Budapest airport another name, which is even an international name, so everybody in the world knows Liszt Ferenc," she said. There's more to this than simple national pride. Liszt's father, though a German speaker, was Hungarian.

But his mother was Austrian, his mother tongue was German, his best language was French, he never really learned Hungarian and his hometown became part of Austria after World War One and was renamed Raiding. To top it off, he is buried in Bayreuth, that musical temple to his son-in-law, the ultra-German Wagner. "FOR US HE IS AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN" "For us he was an Austro-Hungarian," said Sigrid Weiss, who handles media relations for the Liszt events in Raiding. It's not a debate that the naming of one airport is going to resolve. Nor does it end with the famous quote from Liszt: "Je suis Hongrois" -- his way of saying "I am a Hungarian" in French, possibly because he didn't know the Hungarian. What may prove the point, though, is Liszt's music. "Liszt did not live in Hungary but he felt homesick all the time," said Petra Kiss, a piano student at Budapest's Liszt Academy.

"As a Hungarian I feel he is close to me and I can understand his personality." "He had a very diverse character, his late religious works that he wrote after his daughter died and his love left him are very different...so he must have been a very extreme person." (Additional reporting by Krisztina Fenyo, editing by Paul Casciato) ADVERTISEMENT

Question: Which composer was Franz Liszt’s son-in-law?
Answer: Wagner