Franz Liszt - Biography
Franz Liszt the great Hungarian composer and pianist was born October 22nd 1811 Raiding Hungary and died on July 31st 1886 in Bayreuth. His actual given first name was Ferenc the Hungarian version of Franz to an amateur violinist, Liszt by the time he nine had already enough skill to play at a concert level. Money was raised to send him to Vienna to study with the great piano pedagogue Czerny. When he was eleven he performed at his first major concert in Vienna. Beethoven who was a friend of Czerny came to the concert(he rarely came to concerts because of his deafness) and he evidently was so moved that he bent down to kiss the boy’s brow and loudly proclaimed that he had a brilliant future. He was also to take lessons from Salieri of Amadeus notoriety. Liszt fame was spreading rapidly as a boy prodigy he made a triumphant return to Peth (at that time Budapest was divided into two cities Buda and Peth divided by the Danube).The noted Esterhazy family that supported Haydn became sponsors of Liszt. At thirteen he attempted to enter the Paris Conservatory but was rejected. Liszt did decide to move to Paris with his father where he received private lessons from a Czech expatriate composer Reicha. Liszt by his late teens entered the brilliant artistic circle of Paris which included Berlioz, the great painter Delacroix and most significantly the famed violin virtuoso Paganini whom Liszt was to model himself after. This circle introduced Liszt who barely had a formal education to the great writers like,Dante,Hoffmann,Goethe and the great Roman poets who were to have a profound influence on him. He developed a form of brilliant piano pieces Fantasies and Etudes of staggering difficulty. Examples of the early piano pieces are the Paganini Etudes and the Years of Travel Switzerland a collection of pieces were Liszt create an alter ego Herr Oberman who describes his reaction as a traveler in Switzerland. Liszt in his youth was an extraordinarily handsome man of great personal charm who had a publicity mill similar to a rock star with stories of women fainting at the sight of him and tearing pieces of clothing from him (Ken Russell made a movie about Liszt in the seventies Liszztomania with Roger Daltry).
Liszt had a romantic attachment with a beautiful aristocratic woman the Comtesse D’Agoult who was to have three children out of wedlock with Liszt one of whom Cosima was to marry Wagner. Through her he met and became friends with the young Chopin whose music he would support and advocate for the rest of his life. After D’Agoult Liszt was to engage in a nearly lifelong relationship with the very eccentric noblewomen of Russian heritage Carolyn von Sayn-Wittgenstein who at the time was married and since Carolyn was an ardent Catholic she couldn’t divorce. Carolyn was like Chopin’s lover George Sand (women) a connoisseur of fine cigars and wrote a self published multi – volume history of religion; she endured all of Liszt’s infidelities and volatile personality swings. Liszt was to develop strong friendships with his great German contemporaries Schumann and Wagner. Schumann was to break with Liszt eventually over Liszt’s radical views on music (his famed pianist wife Clara didn’t like Liszt), Wagner was to become the most important person in Liszt’s professional life. In the late 1830’s he added a second volume of Years of Travel- Italy and the staggeringly difficult Transcendental Etudes. Liszt and Wagner in the late 1840’s became proponents of the “Music of the Future” which besides radical new musical techniques was intended to incorporate the influence of all the arts. Liszt at the time was to write his first major orchestral pieces Symphonic Poem a type of composition which he invented where a literary idea would be represented by single movement musical piece that could last from ten to thirty minutes he wrote twelve of these the most famous of which is the third in the series Les Preludes.
Liszt in 1848 accepted a position as the Court Kapellmeister at Weimar a small city in Eastern Germany but very significant culturally. In this post he was able to mount the world premiere of Wagner’s Lohengrin in 1850. He was also able to perform important works by Berlioz and Schumann. While at Weimar he wrote some of his greatest works such as the Piano Sonata in B minor, Dante and Faust Symphonies and his Two Piano Concertos. Liszt also created a music school in Weimar where for the next thirty years he taught dozens of men and women who were to become great pianists. Liszt along with Wagner was attacked by conservative musicians over the Music of the Future. The leading opponents to the Liszt Wagner School were to young musicians the famed violinist Joseph Joachim and Brahms. This controversy was to go on for the balance of the 19th century. Two of Liszt’s children with D’Agoult Daniel and Blandine died young. His daughter Cosima was to marry his assistant and greatest student Hans Von Bulow.
Liszt was going through a spiritual crisis as he turned fifty and moved to Rome with the intention of living out his life as a Franciscan Monk for the balance of his life. He was for the next five years to devote himself to the production of primarily sacred choral music such as the Psalms the oratorios St. Elizabeth and Christus along with a setting of the Mass to join his earlier settings. The crisis of spirit evidently healed itself by the mid 1860’s Liszt wisely decided to not take priestly orders and he returned to Weimar. A crisis of a different kind occurred when Cosima left Von Bulow to live with his best friend Wagner who was twenty four years older than his daughter .They had two children before their marriage in addition to the two children she had with Von Bulow; needless to say this put a great strain on his friendship with Wagner.
Liszt became a godfather to the young generation of Russian composers coming up and was early supporter of Tchaikovsky. He also offered encouragement to famed Norwegian composer Grieg. In fact he was unique among famous composers in having no jealousy and personal resentment of any of his colleagues and did as much as he could for young musical talent. Liszt besides his many original piano compositions did hundreds of Piano Transcriptions of well known Operas Beethoven Symphonies and Schubert Songs. Liszt also maintained a musical position at the Budapest Academy during the last fifteen years of his life. After some years he forgave Wagner and his daughter for their behavior and rejoined the Wagner circle.
Liszt as he was approaching old age started to face various infirmities exacerbated by a severe fall he had when he was seventy. He still had romantic entanglements well into his sixties one in fact where a young women pulled a gun on him (he talked his way out of it). He didn’t age well and his face developed large moles and his body often swelled with dropsy. The rigors of old age inspired him to write some of his most amazing music like The Water Games of the Villa D’este from the Third group of Years of Travel, Via crucis, Nuages Gris, Lugubre Gondola, R.W Venezia and At the Grave of Wagner were musically decades ahead of their time and have pre echoes of music that Debussy, Ravel and Bartok were to write. Even though he was ill he wanted to attend the first performance of Tristan und Isolde at the Bayreuth Festival. While on the train journey to Bayreuth he caught a bad cold which turned into pneumonia which his weakened heart couldn’t take and he died in Bayreuth with Cosima tending to him on July 31st 1886.He was buried next to Wagner on the grounds of the Wagner’s residence, Wahnfred.
Liszt after his death went through a period of re assessment where his works went into a period of critical eclipse. His many students kept his piano music before the public and a genius Pianist/Composer Feruccio Busoni made his music the central part of his repertoire. His music through recordings of his Choral Works on the Hungaroton label and his complete piano music on 95 cd’s from the Hyperion label. The problem with Liszt’s reputation is most music fans even informed ones only know the exciting but superficial Hungarian Rhapsodies or the saccharine Liebestraume but don’t know the deeply mystical St. Francis Legends or the profoundly moving sacred choral works.
