Franz Liszt (1811-86) was one of the major composers of the
19th century and certainly its greatest pianist. As no recordings exist of
Liszt at the keyboard it is not possible to say whether his skills have ever
been exceeded, but contemporary accounts of his performances suggest that he
should rank highly on any list (pardon the pun) of all-time greats.
Franz (or Ferencz to use his Hungarian name) Liszt was born
at Raiding near Sopron in Hungary on 22nd October 1811. His father Adam was in
the service of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, who until 1790 had been the patron of
Joseph Haydn. One of Adam’s functions was to play the cello in the court
orchestra at the Prince’s Hungarian palace at Esterhaza.
Adam recognised Franz’s musical ability very early and gave
him piano lessons from the age of seven. Only two years later Franz was giving
public concerts, after which (in 1821) a group of wealthy Hungarians sponsored
him to go to Vienna, with his whole family, and receive a proper musical
education in both performance and composition. While in Vienna Franz gave more
concerts and met Beethoven and Schubert.
In 1823, the Liszt family moved to Paris, but Franz was
refused admission to the Conservatoire because he was not French. Instead, he
was given private tuition and in turn gave many concerts, including on visits
to England where he was hailed as “the next Mozart”. His early compositions
included a one-act opera that was performed at the Paris Opera in 1825.
Franz found the constant touring and adulation as an “infant
prodigy” to be a considerable strain and he decided to cut back, giving serious
thought to training as a priest. However, his father died suddenly in 1827 and
Franz, without Adam’s continual support, had to earn a living by giving piano
lessons in Paris.
After an unfortunate love affair with one of his pupils,
which ended when the girl’s father insisted on the attachment being ended,
Franz went through a period of self-doubt and did virtually nothing for two
years until the revolution of 1830 gave him fresh impetus to compose and he
started work on his “Revolutionary Symphony”. He came under the influence of
Berlioz, Chopin and Paganini, all of whom he admired greatly.
In 1834, he met the already married Comtesse Marie d’Agoult,
with whom he began a long-running affair which produced three children. They
lived together for four years, mainly in Switzerland and Italy, although their
relationship later broke down. His “Transcendental Studies” belong to this
period.
In 1839, Liszt resumed his life as a travelling virtuoso
pianist, inspired by the need to raise funds to build a monument to Beethoven
in Bonn, Germany. It was while he giving a series of concerts in Vienna that he
visited his native Hungary for the first time since his childhood and was inspired
by the gypsy music that he heard. This was later to lead to his “Hungarian
Rhapsodies”, which are among his most popular works today.
Liszt toured widely until 1847, being lionised wherever he
went. He still found time to compose, producing many songs and choral works as
well as pieces for the piano. However, his peripatetic life put too much strain
on his relationship with the Comtesse and they finally separated in 1844.
In 1847, when performing in Kiev, Liszt met Princess
Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, with whom he would be associated for the rest of
his life. She persuaded him to give up his career as a virtuoso and concentrate
on composing. After settling at Weimar in eastern Germany in 1848, where he
stayed until 1861 as “Director of Music Extraordinary” to the Grand Duchess,
Liszt began his most productive period as a composer, his works including
twelve symphonic poems, his “Faust” and “Dante” symphonies, two piano
concertos, his “Totentanz” for piano and orchestra, and other major works for
solo piano.
He also conducted the works of other composers, including Wagner,
Schumann and Berlioz. His promotion of their works, and those of composers from
the past such as Bach and Beethoven, did much to popularise them and create a
fresh audience for music that might otherwise have been lost.
His relationship with Wagner suffered a setback when Liszt’s
married daughter Cosima began an affair with the German composer, and it was
not until 1872 that Liszt and Wagner were reconciled.
Liszt moved to Rome in 1861, where he was unsuccessful in
gaining permission to marry the Princess due to the Pope’s refusal to sanction
her divorce. While at Rome Liszt wrote mainly religious music and he also took
the four minor orders of the Catholic Church. Although he was often referred to
as the “Abbé Liszt”, and wore clerical dress, he never became a priest.
In 1869, he was invited to return to Weimar, where he gave
master classes in piano playing, and from 1871 he did the same at Budapest. For
the rest of his life he made regular journeys between his three bases of
Weimar, Budapest and Rome. He gave advice to many younger composers, including
Borodin, Saint-Saens and Debussy.
In 1886, he made a final tour that included London and
Paris, and in July visited the festival at Bayreuth, where he fell ill and died
on 31st July at the age of 74.
As well as being a piano virtuoso, and the first pianist to
give complete recitals that lasted for a whole evening, Liszt made a permanent
contribution to the world of music by revolutionising keyboard technique. As a
composer he invented the musical form of the one-movement symphonic poem and he
expanded the musical language of his time, both in terms of harmony and in his
concept of the “transformation of themes” by which all the motifs in a work
derive from a single basic idea.
Many of his works have proved to be enduringly popular and
his solo works for the piano have been essential elements of the repertoire of
most concert pianists down to the present day.
© John Welford
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