Franz Liszt
He was the keyboard star who sent all of Europe into raptures, and in his final years he sat down at that keyboard once more, wearing a cassock.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
The people around him ⏳🌊
- FamilyAdam Liszt
The father who recognized his son's gift and gave him his first piano lessons.
- TeacherCarl Czerny
In Vienna he taught Liszt a solid keyboard technique.
- InfluenceNiccolò Paganini
His 1832 performance in Paris kindled in Liszt the resolve to become the Paganini of the piano.
- FamilyMarie d'Agoult
Together they wandered through Switzerland and Italy, and she bore him three children: Blandine, Cosima and Daniel.
- PatronageCarolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein
She urged him to settle in Weimar and, as his lifelong companion, sustained Liszt's creative work.
- FriendshipRichard Wagner
He stood with Liszt in the New German School that Liszt led; his marriage to Liszt's daughter Cosima cooled their friendship for a time, but the two were later reconciled.
I. The prodigy of Raiding · 1811–1823 (age 0–12)
(Birth) Liszt was born in October 1811 in Raiding, in the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austrian Empire (today Austria). His father, Adam Liszt, worked for the princely house of Esterházy and was an amateur musician who played the cello and piano, a man who had known Haydn and Hummel at close range. His mother, Anna Lager, was Austrian, and Liszt grew up an only son, cradled in his parents' hopes. (Keyboard) At around six he began learning the piano from his father, and his gift showed itself at once. His father taught the boy himself and kept a strict hand on his practice, and the young Liszt spent most of his hours at the keyboard rather than among children his own age. (Patronage) At nine he played in Sopron and Pressburg and made his name as a prodigy. Moved by what they heard, Hungarian noblemen pooled six years' worth of tuition, and with this money the family moved to Vienna in 1822. (Teachers) In Vienna he studied piano with Carl Czerny and composition with Antonio Salieri. A story has it that after a concert in 1823 Beethoven kissed the boy on the forehead; whether or not it happened, it was retold for generations as a symbol linking the two.
II. Paris, loss and wandering · 1823–1830 (age 12–19)
(Rejection) In 1823 he went to Paris, but the Conservatoire refused to admit him because he was a foreigner. He took private lessons instead with Ferdinando Paër and Anton Reicha, and soon became the talk of the salons. (Stage) In 1825, at the age of thirteen, he saw his opera “Don Sanche” premiered at the Paris Opéra. He went on touring across England and France, while his father, Adam, managed his schedule and his earnings. (Bereavement) In 1827 his father died suddenly in Boulogne-sur-Mer. The sixteen-year-old Liszt returned alone to Paris and scraped by from day to day giving piano lessons. (First love) He fell in love with one of his pupils, the young countess Caroline de Saint-Cricq, but her father forbade the marriage on account of their difference in rank. The heartbreak drove a young man already shaken by loss into a religious crisis. (Seclusion) For a time he turned his back on society, buried himself in devotional books and even considered becoming a priest. When the clamor of the July Revolution of 1830 shook Paris he sketched a “Revolutionary Symphony,” but this work, never finished, reveals the turmoil within him in those years.
III. Paganini and Marie d'Agoult · 1830–1847 (age 19–36)
(Shock) In 1832 he heard Niccolò Paganini play in Paris and was electrified. Liszt resolved to achieve on the piano what Paganini had achieved on the violin, and he threw himself into practice until his fingers split. (Salons) In the same years he grew close to Hector Berlioz and Frédéric Chopin, and the three influenced one another. Chopin's delicate touch and Berlioz's orchestral imagination left their traces on Liszt's later works. (Elopement) He fell in love with Countess Marie d'Agoult, a married woman, and in 1835 the two left together for Switzerland. In the years of wandering through Italy that followed, three children were born: Blandine, Cosima and Daniel. (Frenzy) From 1839 he set out on concert tours across the whole of Europe. Heinrich Heine called the spectacle of fainting audiences fighting over his gloves and locks of his hair “Lisztomania.” Liszt gave a large share of the fortune he earned toward the Beethoven monument in Bonn and toward relief for the victims of the 1838 Pest flood. (Rupture) For all the glitter of his fame, his relationship with d'Agoult grew more and more strained, and in 1844 the two parted. The children were left to grow up with Liszt's mother in Paris.
These études translate the shock of Paganini into the language of the piano, and “La Campanella” in particular became the emblem of his keyboard virtuosity.
- In “La Campanella” (“The little bell”) the right hand darts swiftly between narrow intervals, drawing from the treble a clear ring like that of a real bell.
- Carrying the leaps and variations of Paganini's original violin caprice over to the piano, the work contains passages in which one hand must play two voices at once, notorious among pianists as a formidable hurdle.
- In the stretches of rapid octaves and repeated notes, interpretations diverge sharply depending on whether the pianist keeps the wrist supple and the sound light or presses the keys down by force.
Written after he had passed through his love for Marie d'Agoult and their parting, this piece recasts a song for piano, and the sense of the original lyric, “love as long as you can,” is steeped into its melody.
- The slowly flowing right-hand melody carries the singing (cantabile) style over to the piano, so the key to performing it is drawing each phrase out long, as a singer would.
- In the middle section broken chords (arpeggios), which unroll a harmony one note at a time, pass between the hands and spread like ripples around the melody.
- At the climax, the sudden swell in volume and the widening of the register are often heard as the moment when long-suppressed feeling bursts forth.
A cycle that turns into piano music the impressions he drew from the landscapes, paintings and poems he encountered while wandering through Switzerland and Italy with Marie d'Agoult.
- In the first volume, “Les cloches de Genève” opens with chords that imitate bells, beginning low and gradually spreading outward.
- The second volume's “Sonetto 104 del Petrarca” portrays the poet's lovesick torment through melody alone, without words, and the breathing between phrases lies at the heart of its interpretation.
- “Après une lecture du Dante” paints images of the Inferno with heavy chromatic progressions in the low register, then breaks free into a bright major key in its latter half, creating a striking contrast.
IV. Kapellmeister in Weimar · 1848–1861 (age 37–50)
(Settling) On an 1847 concert tour in Kyiv he met Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who became his lifelong companion. The following year he all but gave up his dazzling tours and settled in Weimar as court Kapellmeister, devoting himself to composing and conducting. (New German School) In 1850 he premiered Richard Wagner's “Lohengrin” and became the center around which young composers gathered. It was then that he created the genre of the symphonic poem, an orchestral work bearing a program, and wrote “Les préludes” and a number of others. (Proposal) Carolyne spent years petitioning the Holy See in Rome to annul her first marriage so that she and Liszt could be formally united. On the eve of their wedding in 1861, opposition tangled up with political interests brought the ceremony to a final cancellation. (Pupils) In his Weimar years Liszt established the practice of teaching young pianists free of charge, which later became the prototype of the modern masterclass. Taking no fees, he chose his pupils on talent alone.
A monumental work regarded as the summit of his years of immersion in composition at Weimar, it is esteemed today as the peak of the Romantic piano literature.
- Within a single movement, a few short, seedlike themes recur in changing shapes, binding the whole work into one.
- The short figure repeated low in the opening returns as the piece unfolds in altered guises, now as a heroic melody, now as a menacing bass.
- In the fugal passage of the latter half, several voices pile up one upon another as if chasing the same theme at staggered intervals, driving the tension to its height.
- Lasting some thirty minutes without a pause, it is counted among the sternest tests of a pianist's concentration and stamina alike.
The defining work of the symphonic poem genre, it takes as its program a line from Lamartine: “What is life but a series of preludes to that unknown song whose first solemn note is sounded by death?”
- The short figure that rises from the low strings in the opening and slowly swells is the core motif, returning in ever-changing shapes throughout the piece.
- The pastoral middle passage, led by the winds in a tranquil melody, paints a quiet interlude in life.
- The march-like brass tutti near the end is widely heard as a depiction of struggle and triumph, and is counted as the work’s emblematic moment.
A work that carries the melodies and rhythms of Hungarian Gypsy music into the language of the piano, it is steeped in the Hungarian identity of Liszt, who spent his life wandering across Europe.
- The slow, weighty “lassan” section follows the Gypsy-band custom of drawing listeners in, as if first stilling their hearts.
- The fast “friska” that follows, with its ever-quickening tempo and dazzling octave runs of interlocking fingers, has become a staple concert encore.
- The cadenza is left open for the performer to embellish at will, so the same piece shows a different face in every pianist’s hands.
V. A priest in Rome · 1861–1869 (age 50–58)
(Grief) In 1859 Liszt’s son Daniel died at the age of twenty, and in 1862 his daughter Blandine died of complications after childbirth. The deaths of his children, one after another, drove Liszt, already drawn toward religion, into deeper faith. (Rome) After his hopes of marriage were thwarted, Liszt moved to Rome and lived in places such as the monastery of Madonna del Rosario. In 1865 he received minor orders in the Catholic Church and came to be known as “Abbé Liszt.” (Sacred music) In these years he devoted himself to religious music, including the oratorio “Christus” and settings of the Mass. In 1867 he composed the “Hungarian Coronation Mass” for Emperor Franz Joseph’s coronation as King of Hungary, renewing his bond with his homeland.
The piece began with the impression left on Liszt by “The Triumph of Death,” a fresco in the cemetery of Pisa; completed in 1849, it was twice revised and polished, in 1853 and 1859.
- The entire work is built from variations on the Gregorian chant “Dies irae (Day of Wrath),” and this ancient melody of death returns again and again in changing forms.
- In the opening, where orchestra and solo piano trade heavy chords, the music calls to mind a funeral march.
- The hammering, percussive attacks and rapid octaves of the later pages are why the piece is regarded as a forerunner of the percussive piano writing of the 20th century.
VI. Between three cities · 1869–1886 (age 58–75)
(Triangle) In his last years Liszt lived his so-called “threefold life,” moving among three cities: Rome, Weimar and Budapest. When the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music was founded in Budapest in 1875, he became its first president and poured his energy into training the next generation. (Son-in-law) His daughter Cosima married the conductor Hans von Bülow, then left him for Richard Wagner, and for a time a chill hung between Liszt and Wagner. With the years the two men reconciled, and when Wagner died in Venice in 1883, Liszt left behind the memorial piece “R.W. — Venezia.” (Twilight) His late works grew ever sparser and more experimental in harmony. Pieces such as the 1878 “Via Crucis” are said to stand closer to the music of the 20th century than to the audiences of their own day. (The end) In July 1886, in the midst of the Bayreuth Festival, he died of pneumonia. He was buried in Bayreuth.
A late sacred work that follows the fourteen scenes of Jesus bearing the cross, it shows clearly the stripped-bare harmonic language Liszt arrived at in his final years.
- Strange chords that stray from diatonic or familiar chromatic progressions appear often, and the work is praised for foreseeing the harmonic language of the early 20th century.
- Of its versions for choir, organ and piano, the solo organ version in particular reveals the work’s intent most clearly when heard in the resonance of a church.
- Its bare, almost unadorned melodies stand in sharp contrast to the dazzling virtuosity of the young Liszt, marking the point where his musical journey came full circle.
Lesser-known stories
The story goes that ahead of a London concert in 1840, Liszt’s manager first used the word “recital” on the program. Until then, a solo concert customarily meant sharing the stage with other performers, but Liszt established the practice of filling the stage alone for nearly two hours. He also turned the piano sideways so the audience could see both his profile and the hands at work on the keyboard, an arrangement that remains standard at solo recitals to this day. Liszt gave a large share of the considerable income from his tours to charity. According to the financial records compiled by his biographer Alan Walker, a steady stream of donations went to the Beethoven monument beside Bonn Minster, to relief for the victims of the great Pest flood of 1838, and to various charitable hospitals and schools. Behind his glittering fame, he often lived frugally when it came to himself. In his final years, as he moved among Weimar, Rome and Budapest, he charged no fee to any young pianist who came to him. Testimonies survive from his students, who numbered in the hundreds, and it is said that he even provided room and board for those who were struggling. This seems not unrelated to his memory of having been educated, as a young man, through the patronage of aristocrats.
Glossary notes 📚🔎
Symphonic poem
(The word) Gyohyangsi (交響詩) joins gyohyang (交響), ‘sounding together,’ with si (詩), ‘poem’ — a poem written in the resonance of an orchestra. (In music) Unlike a symphony, which follows a fixed structure of movements, it is an orchestral piece that paints a story, a picture or the content of a poem within a single movement. Liszt first established the form in works such as Les Préludes. It is easiest to grasp if you imagine explaining a scene from a comic with music alone.
Cadenza
(The word) It comes from the Italian cadere, ‘to fall.’ Originally it meant the close of a piece (the cadence). (In music) It refers to the passage where the orchestral accompaniment stops and the soloist alone shows off their technique freely. It is often played as an improvisation, with no written score. Think of the moment in choir class when one singer takes a brief solo and embellishes it to their heart’s content.
Fugue
(The word) It comes from the Latin fuga, ‘flight.’ One voice enters as if running away, and another follows as if in pursuit. (In music) It is a form in which a single short subject enters in several voices one after another, staggered in time, and the voices intertwine. It resembles a round, in which the next singer takes up the same tune a beat later. In a fugue, however, the following voice often begins at a different pitch. (Elsewhere) In psychology, as in “fugue state,” the word also describes a condition in which a person loses their memory and behaves strangely, as if fleeing from their own self.
Oratorio
(Etymology) From the Italian oratorio, meaning a prayer hall; the word originally referred to music sung at prayer gatherings. (In music) A large-scale vocal work on biblical or religious subjects, performed by soloists, chorus and orchestra. Unlike opera, it tells its story through song alone in the concert hall, without costumes or acting.
Dies irae (day of wrath)
(Etymology) Latin for 'day of wrath,' it is the Gregorian chant melody once sung about the Last Judgment in the Catholic requiem Mass. (In music) This ancient melody became a favorite quotation for composers wishing to evoke death or judgment. Liszt's Totentanz is one of many works into which composers have quietly slipped this brief tune.
Csárdás (lassan·friska)
(Etymology) From the Hungarian csárda, meaning 'tavern,' the word denotes a Hungarian folk dance. (In music) A form that pairs a slow, heavy introduction, the 'lassan,' with an ever-quickening 'friska.' Several of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies follow this structure. Picture a dance that begins as a slow walk, gathers speed, and finally breaks into a run.
Broken chord (arpeggio)
(Etymology) Arpeggio comes from the Italian arpa, meaning 'harp': to play a chord as though plucking a harp. (In music) A way of playing in which the notes of a chord are not struck together but unfolded one by one in a flowing succession. Pianists often use it to evoke the sound of a harp or a guitar accompaniment.