Franz Liszt (Hungarian name Liszt Ferenc) was born on October 22, 1811 in the village of Doborjan, near Sopron, Hungary. He was a famous Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer.
Biography and Career :
His father worked at the court of Count Esterházy, was a pianist and gave his child the first lessons of music at the age of six. The aristocrats remarked his talent and sent him and his family to Vienna and Paris. That’s why he never learned Hungarian well and preferred French.
Carl Czerny was the only teacher Liszt had ever had. Antonio Salieri taught him how to compose.
When he first met Frédéric Chopin they became friends, but after a time they became rivals. His friend for a lifetime was Camille Saint-Saens.
In 1823 Liszt gave a concert on the 13th of April and aft
er that left Vienna to travel.
On the 22nd of April 1832 he attended a concert of the great violinist Paganini and decided he wanted to be as good as or better than him, he wrote the "Grande Fantaisie de Bravoure sur La Clochette de Paganini" ("Great Bravura Fantasy on Paganini's La Campanella").
Between 1840-1841 Liszt took part in two tours of the British Isles arranged by Lewis Henry Lavenu, and other musicians and they gave 50 concerts around England which were most of them unsuccessful. In the second tour they had a little bit more success.
In 1847 Liszt met Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and they wanted to marry in 1860 but because she was married before and her husband was alive, the Roman Catholic authorities didn’t allow them. They remained friends but Liszt couldn’t pass over it.
Liszt renounced to give public performances at the piano in 1847 and in the next year he accepted the invitation of Maria Pavlovna of Russia to settle at Weimar, where he had been appointed Kapellmeister Extraordinaire in 1842 and remained there until 1861.
Liszt's daughter Cosima married Hans von Bülow in 1857.
In 1861 he went to Rome and from 1869 Franz spent his time in Rome, Weimar and Budapest where in the summer months he received students gratis.
He didn’t have a good relationship with his daughter because she converted to Protestantism upon her marriage to Wagner and left his father for him.
In the Hungarian Conservatoire of Budapest Liszt was a teacher from 1876 until he passed away.
On the 31st of July 1886 Liszt died in Bayreuth of pneumonia.
Important Works :
1826 "Etude in Twelve Exercises"
1832 "Grande Fantasie de Bravoure sur La Clochette"
1838 "Grandes Etudes de Paganini"
1841 "Réminiscences de Don Juan"
1848 "Three Concert Etudes" ("Trois Études de Concert"
1848-1853 "Années de Pèlerinage: Première Année — Suisse; Deuxième Année — Italie - Venezia e Napoli; Troisième Année"
1848-1861 "Twelve Symphonic Poems"
1853-1854 "Orpheus"
1850 "Prometheus"
1851 "Mazeppa"
1853 "Festklänge"
1858 "Hamlet"
1857 "Die Ideale", 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)
1851 "Transcendental Etudes"
1853 Piano Sonata in B minor
1853 Ballade No. 2 in B minor:Ballade No. 2 in H-Moll
1854 "Faust Symphony"
1857 "Dante Symphony"
1860" Mephisto Waltz No. 1" (piano solo)
1866 "Christus".
Quotes :
- "A theatre receives recognition through its initiative, which is indispensable for first-rate performances."
- "As the mother teaches her children how to express themselves in their language, so one Gypsy musician teaches the other. They have never shown any need for notation."
Franz Liszt Image : w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de
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