Franz Liszt
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Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. He was a renowned performer throughout Europe during the 19th century, noted especially for his showmanship and great skill with the keyboard. Today, he is generally considered to be one of the greatest pianists who ever lived. Liszt also contributed greatly towards the Romantic idiom; he is credited with the invention of the symphonic poem.
A photo of Franz Liszt late in life, by Nadar.Liszt studied and played at Vienna and Paris and for most of his early adulthood toured throughout Europe giving concerts. He is credited with inventing the modern piano recital, where his virtuosity won him approval by composers and performers alike. 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 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 among the most technically challenging in the repertoire.
His music is well loved in part because of its melodic and emotional harmonies. He would often add a few pages of flamboyance to his music to impress the young women. He deeply loved women and wrote many love songs for them.[1]
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Years of Pilgrimage
1.2 Liszt in Weimar
1.3 In retirement
2 Musical style and influence
2.1 Liszt's virtuosity and technical reforms
2.2 Piano recital
3 Noted works
4 Literary Works
5 See also
6 Media
7 References
8 External links
9 Further reading
[edit]
Biography
A statue of the young LisztLiszt 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, �dám Liszt, was Hungarian and his mother was Austrian-born Anna Liszt, née Lager.
Franz was a weak and sickly child, and was surrounded from his early childhood with music. His father, who worked at the court of Count Esterházy, was himself a pianist and cellist (he used to play in Esterházy's summer orchestra in Eisenstadt); he organized chamber music evenings with amateur musicians from the surrounding villages, in which his old friends from Eisenstadt occasionally took part.
Liszt displayed incredible talent at a young age, easily sight-reading multiple staves at once. His father 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 taught by Beethoven's student Carl Czerny, the only piano teacher Liszt ever had. His father had first taken 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 Beethoven gave him a kiss for his marvelous playing. An account of the episode can be found in the separate article Liszt and Beethoven.