Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc; the surname is pronounced as the English word 'list', that is /lɪst/) (October 22 1811 – July 31 1886) was a Hungarian ^[1] virtuoso pianist and composer of the Romantic period of German descent. He was a renowned performer throughout Europe during the 19th century, noted especially for his showmanship and great skill with the piano. Today, he is considered to be one of the greatest pianists in history, despite the fact that no recordings of his playing exist. Liszt is frequently credited with re-defining piano playing itself, and his influence is still visible today, both through his compositions and his legacy as a teacher. He also contributed greatly towards the Romantic idiom in general, and he is credited with the creation of the symphonic poem.

Liszt studied and played at Vienna and Paris and for most of his early adulthood toured throughout Europe giving concerts. He is credited with the innovation of the modern piano recital, in which his virtuosity won him approval by composers and performers alike. His great generosity with both time and money benefited many people: victims of disasters, orphans, and the many students he taught for free. He also contributed to the Beethoven memorial fund.

Many of his piano compositions have entered the standard repertoire, including the Hungarian Rhapsodies, Transcendental Etudes (Études d'exécution transcendante), Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage), the Piano Sonata in B minor, and two piano concertos. He also made many piano transcriptions of operas, famous symphonies, Paganini Caprices (some of the most demanding works of the violin repertoire in his day), and Schubert lieder. Many of his piano compositions are among the most technically challenging in the repertoire. Liszt was himself a composer of lieder and choral music, of symphonic poems and other orchestral works. His compositions for organ are lauded and well-established in the organ repertoire.

Biography

Liszt was born in the village of Doborján (now Raiding, Austria) in the Habsburg Empire, near Sopron. His Catholic baptism record records his first name as Franciscus (the latinised version of Franz). His parents were Adam and Maria 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 Prince 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.

His father gave him his first music lessons when he was six years old. Franz quickly displayed incredible talent, easily sight-reading the most difficult music he could find, often even reading multiple staves at once. Local aristocrats noticed his talent and enabled him to travel to Vienna and later to Paris with his family.

In Vienna he was taught by Beethoven's student Carl Czerny, who proved to be the only professional 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 "Organ Symphony" (Symphony No. 3 in C Minor) to Liszt.

Although he always considered himself a Hungarian, Liszt never became fluent in the Hungarian language; 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).^{[citation needed]}

On April 13, 1823, Liszt gave a concert which is supposed to have impressed Beethoven to such an extent that he personally congratulated Liszt, kissing him on the forehead.^{[citation needed]} An account of the episode can be found in the separate article "Liszt and Beethoven".

Years of pilgrimage

Liszt left Vienna in 1823 to travel. In Paris, he studied composition with Ferdinando Paer and Anton Reicha. On April 20 1832, 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 practising for over 5 hours a day. In 1832/34 he wrote the Grande Fantaisie de Bravoure sur La Clochette de Paganini ("Grand 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 (Studies of Transcendental Execution inspired by Paganini). Also composed in this period were the 12 Grandes Etudes (Liszt later rewrote these into the 12 Transcendental Etudes in 1851). From 1835 to 1839 he lived with Marie d'Agoult and had three children with her: Blandina, Cosima and Daniel.

He fraternized with such noted composers of his time as Frédéric Chopin, Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann, and Richard Wagner, who later married Liszt's daughter Cosima. He was very widely read in philosophy, art and literature and was on friendly terms with the painter Ingres and the authors Heine, Lamennais, Hans Christian Andersen, and Baudelaire, who addressed his prose poem "Le thyrse" to Liszt.

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 (and pupil of Sigismond Thalberg) Frank Mori, two female singers, and John Orlando Parry, a musician, singer and entertainer (who vividly recorded the tour in his diary). Between August 17 and September 26, they gave 50 concerts around England some of which had an attendance of 140 or less. The second tour which encompassed Liverpool, Ireland and Scotland from November 1840- January 1841 attracted even smaller audiences, although Liszt had audiences of more than 1,200 in Dublin. The tour was a financial failure, and Liszt himself lost a large amount of money ^[2].

After 1842, when "Lisztomania" swept across the European continent, Liszt's recitals were in an overwhelming demand. His admirers praised and courted him, and ladies reputedly fought over his handkerchiefs and green silk gloves as souvenirs, which they often ripped to pieces in their struggle. Some of Liszt's contemporaries saw this kind of worship as vulgar and inappropriate, and eventually came to despise Liszt because of it.

During the years in which he appeared regularly in public, he was almost universally acknowledged (even by musical conservatives who disliked his compositions) as the foremost piano performer. 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 Chopin is comparably significant among romantic pianists.

Liszt in Weimar

In 1847, Liszt gave up public performances on the piano and in the following year finally took up the invitation of Maria Pavlovna of Russia to settle at Weimar, where he had been appointed Kapellmeister Extraordinaire in 1842, 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 (before she was married to Wagner). 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 major and in A major, 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. Much of Liszt's organ music comes from this period, including the Prelude and Fugue on the theme B-A-C-H (later arranged for solo piano).

Also in 1847 Liszt met Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. The Princess was an author, whose major work was published in 16 volumes, each containing over 1,600 pages. Her longwinded writing style had some effect on Liszt himself. His biography of Chopin and his chronology and analysis of Gypsy music (which later inspired Béla Bartók) were both written in the Princess's 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, eventually intervening in dramatic fashion only moments before the couple were to take their vows. Although Liszt and Princess Carolyne remained friends, the stress of trying to persuade the Church authorities to let them marry, only to have their efforts eventually be in vain, proved an emotional blow from which neither completely recovered.

In 1851 he published a revised version of his 1837 Douze Grandes Etudes, now titled Etudes d'Execution Transcendante, and the following year the Grandes Etudes de Paganini (Grand etudes after Paganini), the most famous of which is La Campanella (The Little Bell), a study in octaves, trills and leaps.

In retirement

Liszt moved to Rome in 1861, in anticipation of his marriage to Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein. In 1865, he received 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. His daughter Cosima (see previous section) left Bülow for Wagner in 1869. Devout Catholic that he was, he was deeply hurt by his daughter's conversion to Protestantism upon her marriage to Wagner, and for a number of years, Liszt did not correspond with either, even while championing the music of his new son-in-law. Eventually, they were reconciled and Liszt subsequently attended the Bayreuth Festival.

From 1876 until his death he also taught for several months every year at the Hungarian Conservatoire at 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, 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

Liszt was a prolific composer. Most of his music is for the piano and much of it requires formidable technique, although in his later years his compositional style became less overtly virtuosic and more harmonically experimental. (A famous example of this later style is Nuages Gris, it can also be seen to some extent in the third volume of the Années de Pèlerinage.)

In his most famous and virtuosic 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. In the 1840s and 1850s he invented the symphonic poem, which is a single-movement orchestral work usually based on a literary work or a character sketch. Liszt's inspiration 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. Other pieces are based on works by Lord Byron, Goethe and Dante. Liszt's symphonic poems represent his ideal and philosophy of "The Music of the Future", in which music and art and literature would all join together in a grand synthesis. Although the symphonic poems were generally successes, they were often criticised by those who preferred the traditional absolute music as exemplified by Johannes Brahms.

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.

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. The project took almost 15 years to complete, and comprised 95 full-length CDs. Howard was awarded a place in the Guinness Book of Records for having completed the largest recording project ever in the history of music (including both pop and classical). The series has also earned several Gramophone Grands Prix du Disque, and a special award from the Hungarian government. This massive undertaking included a number of premiere recordings, including many unpublished pieces, recorded from manuscript, which had not been played by anyone since Liszt himself.

Late works

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 Pèlerinage ("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 di 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.

Liszt helped found the Liszt School of Music Weimar [2] as well as the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. Throughout his later years Liszt took on many private students and his influence as a pedagogue was immense. Among his students were Eugen d'Albert, Arthur Friedheim, Sophie Menter, Moriz Rosenthal, Emil von Sauer, and Alexander Siloti.

Liszt's virtuosity and technical innovations

Liszt's playing was described as theatrical and showy, and all those who saw him perform were stunned at his unrivalled mastery over the keyboard. Perhaps the best indication of Liszt's piano-playing abilities comes from his Douze Grandes Etudes and Paganini Studies, written in 1837 and 1838 respecively, and described by Schumann as "studies in storm and dread designed to be performed by, at most, ten or twelve players in the world". To play these pieces, a pianist must connect with the piano as an extension of his own body (Walker, 1987).

Liszt claimed to have spent ten or twelve hours each day practising scales, arpeggios, trills and repeated notes to improve his technique and endurance. All of these piano techniques were frequently applied in his compositions, often resulting in music of extreme technical difficulty (his Transcendental Etude No.5 "Feux follets" is an example). He would challenge himself and his immaculate fingering by presenting random problems to his playing.

During the 1830s and 1840s — the years of Liszt's "transcendental execution" — he revolutionised piano technique in almost every sector. Figures like Rubinstein, Paderewski and Rachmaninoff turned to Liszt's music to discover the laws which govern the keyboard.

While revolutionary and famously spectacular, Liszt's playing was far from mere flash and acrobatics. He also was reported to have played with a depth and nobility of feeling that would move sturdy men to tears. It seems that this quality to his playing may have continued to develop during his life, overtaking the youthful fire and bravura. Indeed, reports of his playing in old age include observations that it was surprisingly and distinctly subtle and poetic, with great purity of tone and effortlessness of execution; in distinction to the more tumultuous "Liszt school" of playing, which by then had already started to become traditional in Europe. Examination of the late piano works seems to back up this expressive requirement, where the composer seems to be deliberately rejecting the showiness of his earlier works.

Liszt was also a brilliant sight reader and stunned Edvard Grieg in the 1870s by playing his A Minor Piano Concerto perfectly by sight. Decades earlier Liszt had played Chopin's studies at sight, prompting Chopin to write that he was consumed by jealousy, and wished to steal from Liszt his manner of playing his own pieces. This is all the more remarkable when one remembers that Liszt was playing at sight from a hand-written manuscript.

Piano recital

The term "recital" was first used by Liszt at his concert in London of June 9, 1840, although the term had been suggested to him by the publisher Frederick Beale, and his career model is still followed by performing artists to this day. Before Liszt no one had given a piano-only concert. There would always have been a chamber work, or some songs too. It was Liszt who elevated the piano to its status today, and who demonstrated that a satisfying concert can be given by the piano alone. To this day there is no other instrument for which this can be said.

Liszt's recitals traversed the European continent from the Urals to Ireland. He would often play before as many as three thousand people. He was the first solo pianist to play entire programmes from memory, and the first to play with the piano at right angles to the platform, with its lid open, reflecting sound across the auditorium.

Noted works

Although Liszt provided opus numbers for some of his earlier works, they 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 the catalogue compiled by Humphrey Searle during the 1960s.^[3]
• Less commonly used is the "R" number, which derives from Peter Raabe's 1931 catalogue Franz Liszt: Leben und Schaffen.

Works with Opus numbers

Works from his childhood

• Huit Variations op.1
• Seven Variations on a melody by Rossini op.2
• Impromptu Brillant sur des Thèmes de Rossini et Spontini op.3
• Deux Allegri di Bravura op.4

These above works were published 1824, Opus number 5 was left unused.

• Etude in Twelve Exercises op.6, first published 1826. Later edition published by Hofmeister, Leipzig, as op.1 in March 1839.

Works from his youth

• Grande fantaisie sur une Tyrolienne de l'Opéra La Fiancée de Auber op.1. 1st version 1829, first performance by Liszt on April 7, 1829, Paris; 2nd version 1835, first performance by Liszt on October 1, 1835, Geneva.
• (1832-34) Grande Fantasie de Bravoure sur La Clochettede Paganini op.2, first performance by Liszt November 5, 1834, it was a complete fiasco for Liszt.^{[citation needed]}
• Opus numbers 3 and 4 were left unused.
• (1835) Trois morceaux de salon op.5, revised 1838.
  • Fantaisie romantique sur deux airs suisses.
  • Rondeau fantastique sur le thème "Il contrabandista" de Manuel Garcia, first performance by Liszt on January 28, 1837, Paris.
  • Divertissement on the Cavatina "I tuoi frequenti palpiti" from Pacini's La Niobe, first performance by Liszt on April 1, 1836, Geneva.
• (1835) Valse di bravura op.6, first performance by Liszt on May 28, 1836, Paris.
• (1835-36) Réminscences des Puritains op.7. Revised English edition 1840 (?), first performance by Liszt on May 5, 1836, Lyon.
• (1835-36) Deux fantaisies sur les motifs des Soirées musicales de Rossini op.8, revised 1840.
  • La Serenata e l'Orgia op.8 no. 1, first performance by Liszt on May 18, 1836, Paris.
  • La Pastorella dell’Alpi e li Marinari op.8 no.2
• (1835) Réminiscences de la Juive de Halévy op.9, first performance by Liszt on May 18, 1836, Paris.
• (1835-36) Trois airs suisses op.10
• (1836) Réminiscences des Huguenots op.11, revised 1842, first performance by Liszt on April 9, 1837, Paris.
• (1837) Grand galop chromatique op.12, it was Liszt's most popular concert piece during the time of his tours. Liszt played it at a private soirée given on April 6, 1838 by the Baroness Watzlar, Thalberg's mother, in Venice, on April 19, 1838; together with Clara Wieck in a four handed version at a soirée given by Haslinger in Vienna, and for the first time in a regular concert on May 2, 1838, in Vienna.
• (1839) Réminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor 13, 1st part ("Andante finale") published in the beginning of 1840, first performance by Liszt on November 5, 1839. Triest, the 2nd part, published as "Marsch und Cavatine" in 1841 (without Opus number), first performance by Liszt on December 2, 1839, Vienna.

Works without Opus numbers (selection)

• (1822) Variation on a Theme by Diabelli (S/G147, R26)
• (1833-34) Piano arrangement of the Sinfonie fantastique by Berlioz (Rèveries - Passions, Un Bal, Scène aux Champs, Marche du Supplice, Songe d'une nuit de Sabbat), first performance of the movements Un bal and Marchen du supplice ("March to the Scaffold") by Liszt on December 28, 1834, Paris.

• (1837) Hexameron, Variations de bravoure sur une marche de Bellini, Introduction by Liszt, 1st variation by Thalberg, 2nd variation by Liszt, 3rd variation by Herz, 4th variation by Pixis, 5th variation by Czerny, 6th variation by Chopin, finale by Liszt. First performance by Liszt on December 10, 1837, Milan. The Hexameron was from 1837 to 1847 one of Liszt's most frequently played concert pieces. There are versions for four hand piano and for piano and orchestra by Liszt as well.

• (1840) Réminiscences de Robert le diable, first performance by Liszt on November 6, Hamburg.^{[citation needed]}
• (1840-41) Réminiscences de Don Juan, first performance by Liszt on September 25, in Frankfurt, Liszt played from the manuscript score.
• (1841-43) Réminscences de la Norma.
• (1841) Feuilles d'album ('Album Leaves').
• (1842) Fantasy on melodies from Don Juan and Figaro; left unpublished by Liszt; was published 1911 by Busoni; it was not "completed" by Busoni but shortened by about a half.
• Consolations; 1st version was composed late 1843/early 1844 and left unpublished by Liszt; 2nd version composed 1849.
• (1848) Ballade No. 1 in D flat (In original German:Ballade No. 1 in Des-dur), some materials were taken from an album leaf Dernière illusion, ecrit pour Marie ("Last illusion, written for Mary") from the end of 1845; in the French edition it has the title Le croiser ("The crusaer").
• (1853) Ballade No. 2 in B minor (German: Ballade Nr. 2 in h-Moll).
• (1848) Three Concert Etudes (French: Trois Études de Concert); No. 3, Un Sospiro ("A sigh"), (S/G144, R5).
• (1835-82) Années de Pèlerinage: Première Année — Suisse; Deuxième Année — Italie - Venezia e Napoli; Troisième Année; an early version of the first part had been published as Années de Pèlerinage, 1re année in June 1841 in Paris; in 1841 a second part "Italy" and a third part "Germany", were planned by Liszt. An early version of Venezia e Napoli containing altogether four pieces was engraved by Haslinger in the beginning of 1840 but left unpublished by Liszt. From the first piece of these, he later took materials for his Symphonic Poem Tasso.
• (1833-51 (?)) Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses, (S/G173) a collection of solo piano pieces, including the well known No. 7, Funérailles.
• (1843-50) Liebesträume No. 3 ("Dreams of Love") in A-flat Major (piano solo) (S/G541, R211).

• (1850) Mazurka brillante.
• (1852) Transcendental Etudes (Prelude, Molto Vivace, Paysage, Mazeppa, Feux Follets, Vision, Eroica, Wilde Jagd, Ricordanza, Allegro Agitato Molto, Harmonies du soir, and Chasse neige. Known well for being technically difficult, notedly Mazeppa and Feux Follets) (S/G139, R2B), Composed 1837 (in most parts based on the 1826 studies), revised 1852)
• (1851) Grandes Etudes de Paganini, including No. 3, "La Campanella"; and No. 5, "La Chasse" (Composed 1838-39, revised 1851). The first version was published in Februar 1841 without dedication by Schonenbeger, Paris, and in autumn 1841 with dedication to Clara Schumann by Haslinger, Vienna.
• (1851-53) Piano Sonata in B minor (S/G178, R21).
• (1843-52) Valse-Impromptu, (S/G213).
• (1850) Polonaise No. 1 in C minor.
• (1851) Polonaise No. 2 in E Major; it was exceptionally popular in Lisz's times.^{[citation needed]}
• (1851) Scherzo and March.
• (1852) 3 Valses Caprice.
  • Valse de bravoure, revised version of the Valse di bravura op.6.
  • Valse mélancolique, revised version of a prior version from 1840.
  • Valse de concert sur deux motifs de Lucia et Parisina de Gaetano Donizetti, revised version of the "Valse a capriccio sur deux motifs de Lucia et Parisina de Gaetano Donizetti" from 1841. First performance of the older version by Liszt on October 11, 1841, Liège (Lüttich), Liszt played from the manuscript score.
• (1853) Soirées de Vienne, 9 Valses-Caprices d'après Fr. Schubert, No. 6 was most popular and one of the last pieces having been by Liszt at th end of his life.
• (1839-85) Nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies (S/G244, R106) - among them the most famous Rhapsody No. 2; Rhapsody No. 6 (1854) is well known for its finale with octaves; the Rhapsodies No. 16 - No. 19 are seldom played but also of note.

• (1860) Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (piano solo) (S/G514, R181).
• (1863) Two Concert-Studies
  • 1. Waldesrauschen
  • 2. Gnomenreigen
• (1863) Slavimo Slavno Slaveni! for organ (S503, R196).
• (1863) Légende No. 2: St François de Paule.
• (1877) Dem Andenken Petőfis.
• (1881) Nuages Gris ('Grey clouds') (S/G199, R78).
• (1880-81) 2nd Mephisto Waltz.
• Mephisto Waltzes No. 2 - 4, No. 2 (1880-81), No. 3 (1883), No.4 (1885).
• Four Valses oubliées, No. 1 (1881), No. 2 (1883), No. 3 (1883), No. 4 (1883 (?)).
• (1885) Bagatelle sans tonalité (S216a).
• (1855) Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H for organ, rev. 1870.
• (1832-35) Malédiction.
• (1834) Symphonic Lélio Fantasy.
• (1830-1849) Piano Concerto no. 1 in E-flat Major (S/G124).
• (1839-1861) Piano Concerto no. 2 in A Major (S/G125) (revised 1861).
• (1849) Totentanz ('Dance of death') (S/G126ii), for piano and orchestra. (revised 1853-1859).
• (1854) Faust Symphony.
• (1857) Dante Symphony.
• (1848-61) Symphonic Poems
  • Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne (also known as Berg-Symphonie), (1848-9) (after Victor Hugo)
  • Tasso: lamento e trionfo, (1849) (after Byron)
  • Les Préludes, after Lamartine (1848, rev. before 1854)
  • Orpheus, (1853-4)
  • Prometheus, (1850)
  • Mazeppa, (1851), after Hugo.
  • Festklänge, (1853); an elaborated version of the first movement of a Revolution Symphony from 1830.
  • Héroïde funèbre, (1849-50)
  • Hungaria, (1854)
  • Hamlet, (1858), after Shakespeare.
  • Hunnenschlacht, (1857), after a painting by Kaulbach.
  • Die Ideale (1857), after Schiller
  • Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe (1881), after a painting by Zichy; it was in a first version made for piano.
• (1866) Christus (S/G3)

Literary works

He wrote about many subjects, including: a necrology of Paganini; the position of music in Italy; Robert and Clara Schumann; Chopin; Robert Franz; Beethoven's "Fidelio"; Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"; the Johann Wolfgang von 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 many more. His letters and musical essays are published in 6 volumes.

Some literary works that appeared under his name were written with the aid of Marie d'Agoult and Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein; a number of revisions were left to Caroline von Sayn-Wittgenstein in Liszt's later years. However, a work only he could have written himself is a "Manual of Pianoforte Technique" for the Geneva Conservatoire. This has never been discovered however, and no conclusive proof that such a work was completed has ever been produced. According to Walker, it is unlikely to ever have existed.^[4] Despite this, a history of the work has been detailed by Robert Bory.^{[citation needed]} If in fact it was completed, it is believed to be a technical manual for use of student pianists. It is now considered a lost work, which if discovered would provide an invaluable insight into the playing style of one of the greatest pianists who ever lived, and may well be of use to future pianists aspiring to play his works.

Media

See also

• Category:Compositions by Franz Liszt
• War of the Romantics

Notes

Bibliography

• Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years (1811-1847) by Alan Walker, Cornell University Press, Revised Edition (1993) ISBN 0-8014-9421-4
• Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years (1848-1861) by Alan Walker, Cornell University Press, Reprint (1993) ISBN 0-8014-9721-3
• Franz Liszt: The Final Years (1861-1886) by Alan Walker, Cornell University Press, reprint (1997) ISBN 0-8014-8453-7
• 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 0-8014-4076-9
• 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 Zimdars, Indiana University Press (1996) ISBN 0-253-33223-0
• Liszt by Serge Gut, De Falois, Paris (1989) ISBN 287706042X

References

• Walker, Alan. Franz Liszt, The Virtuoso Years (revised edition) Cornell University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8014-9421-4.
• Walker, Alan. Franz Liszt, The Weimar Years Cornell University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-8014-9721-3.

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