Franz Liszt  

“Le concert, c'est moi.”   -Franz Liszt 

In the year 1811 a great comet appeared in the sky.  In October, when the comet shone brightest, the small son of Adam and Maria Anna Liszt was born in the small town of Raiding, Hungary.  Some believed that the comet was an omen of greatness for the child.

Adam Liszt was a minor musician in the service of the Austrian Prince Esterhazy, who had a summer estate in Raiding.  He introduced music early to young Franciscus (Franz for short).  The boy soon showed such enormous talent that by the time he was 11, his father took leave of the prince and moved to that great center of music, Vienna.

In Vienna Franz took piano lessons from the great teacher Carl Czerny, and composition from Antonio Salieri.  They must have harbored mixed feelings about their new student.  Liszt was as headstrong as he was talented, and was inclined to disagree with his masters.  Once he even tried to trick his father into thinking Czerny was a poor teacher by forging lesson notes in his scores.  Needless to say, it didn’t work.

The lessons, however, soon fell by the wayside.  Liszt’s father wanted him heard.  So, like Mozart before him, he made waves as a child prodigy.  He charmed audiences, including kings and queens, especially with his ability to sight-read and improvise on the piano.

When Liszt was 15, his father died, which ended his career as a prodigy.  He went to live in Paris with his mother, supporting the family by giving lessons.  Liszt suffered a great deal of depression and disillusion during this time.  He became deeply religious and began to read widely, making up for his lack of formal education as a boy.  The Revolution of 1830, however, snapped him out of his melancholy and he flung himself into the artistic society of 19^th century Paris.

Young Liszt was fanatic about practice.  He would spend hours at the piano, practicing scales, arpeggios, trills and tremolos sometimes 10 or 12 hours a day. 

All his hard work paid off.  By the time Liszt reached his early 20’s, many believed him to be the greatest pianist who ever lived.

Liszt, who loved to perform, took full advantage of his incredible ability.  He invented the concept of the touring popular musician.  Striding onto the stage in a swirling cape and white gloves, which he removed with a dramatic flourish, he inflamed audiences with passionate virtuosity.  

19^th century fans went crazy for this handsome young performer whose fingers flew like fire over the keyboard.  Soon all Europe clamored to hear him perform.  “Lisztomania” swept across Europe, the ladies in particular swooning in adoration.

His popular appeal was made more intense by scandal.  Liszt was involved in numerous romantic affairs, some real, some rumor.  The most notable was his elopement with the Comtesse Marie d'Agoult, a married woman with two young children who divorced her husband to run off with the handsome performer.  The two lived together for over a decade and had three children, although they never married.  But in the end, Liszt’s long absences during concert tours and rumors of his affairs with other women ended the relationship.

Liszt’s behavior might have been over the top, but it was balanced by a genuine good nature and deeply felt religious beliefs.  He was extremely generous, pioneering the idea of raising money by giving benefit concerts.  He was the first person to attempt to use music as therapy for the sick and depressed.  And he shared his talents freely with other musicians, teaching others and promoting their works without asking anything in return.  He had an incredible impact as a teacher, inventing the piano recital and the master class.  (So if you take piano and dread having to perform in recitals, blame Liszt!)

Near the end of his life, Liszt gave up the stage and took orders in the Catholic Church.  He died of pneumonia at the age of 75 in Bayreuth, Germany, surrounded by devoted and adoring students and friends.

Liszt’s life is so fascinating that it is easy to get carried away by the drama and overlook his accomplishments as a composer.  But that would be a mistake, as his contribution in this area is huge. 

The Romantic movement held that emotion and intuition are as important to the understanding of truth as reason and logic. Romantic musicians infused their work with emotional power and feeling.  They also took much inspiration from the natural world.

Franz Liszt personified the ideals of the Romantic era and was a central figure in the movement. His free spirit is as evident in his compositions as it was in his personal and professional life. 

Liszt is best known for his invention of the symphonic poem.  In this new musical form, he ditched the convention of arranging pieces into highly structured movements separated by pauses.  Instead, began to write single-movement pieces that transformed a theme through several stages of development.  This resulted in a fluid, uninterrupted statement in which the flow of emotion need not be blocked by pauses or excessive structure.  

This innovative new approach, along with his experiments with atonality and other unconventional ideas, was scorned by many of the critics of his day.  In fact, Liszt himself discouraged his pupils from performing his works in public for fear of damaging their careers. 

However, the world has grown to appreciate his genius.  As is often the case, the radical ideas rejected by one generation are embraced by the next.  Liszt’s dynamic musical ideas influenced – and continue to influence- many if not most of the composers who followed him.