Franz Liszt

A virtuoso pianist and pioneer of the symphonic poem, Franz Liszt established himself as one of the most innovative of the Romantic composers, whose turbulent, romantic life led him from idol to abbot. The son of a servant and cellist at the court of Prince Estherázy, Ferenc (Franz) Liszt was born in Raiding (Dobordján), in the Kingdom of Hungary, on October 22, 1811. Exposed to music from an early age, he began learning to play the piano at the age of five, and showed an early talent for improvising and playing his first pieces. Inspired by church music and the gypsy tunes of itinerant Roma, he received rigorous musical training at the same time, and gave his first concerts at the age of nine, in Sopron and Pressburg (Bratislava). In 1821, the family moved to Vienna, where the young Liszt took composition lessons with Antonio Salieri and piano lessons with Carl Czerny, who himself learned from Beethoven, who is said to have attended one of the prodigy's performances in 1823. That same year, his parents accompanied him to Paris in the hope of getting him into the conservatory directed by Luigi Cherubini, but his Hungarian nationality proved an obstacle to admission. The stay was nevertheless extended by lessons with Anton Reicha and Ferdinand Paër. Already the author of a Diabelli Waltz, Liszt composed variations on opera themes and an opera performed four times in 1824, Don Sanche. He also began a first version of his Études for piano. Much appreciated in England, where he played for King George V, the musician was overwhelmed by the death of his father in 1827. Plagued by a mystical crisis, he stopped giving concerts and withdrew from public life to study literature, philosophy and religion. His discovery of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and his encounters with the violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini stimulated his imagination and encouraged his return to composition with an unfinished symphony and the Grandes Études de Paganini. The composer also became a critic for the Gazette musicale de Paris, writing articles in which he defined his aesthetic conceptions. During the 1830s, his concert activity became frenetic, with over a thousand performances in eight years, giving rise to the concept of the "recital", performing alone on stage and in profile facing the audience, playing an entire program from memory. The formula flourished, and was quickly adopted by other pianists. His unrivalled technique and charisma drew crowds of applauders, creating an unprecedented craze that the writer Heinrich Heine described as "Lisztomania". 1833 saw the start of his love affair with Countess Marie d'Agoult, followed by a move to Geneva two years later and the birth of three children, Blandine, Cosima and Daniel. Their travels in Switzerland and Italy inspired the first two parts of Années de pèlerinage (1935-1939), a large piano triptych in which he invented the character of the traveler Oberman, musician and philosopher. He also composed the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses (1833-1852), the six Grandes études d'après Paganini (with the famous Campanella, 1838), Mazeppa (1840), the Trois sonnets de Pétrarque (1845), fifteen of the nineteen Rhapsodies hongroises (1846-1851 ; the cycle was completed in 1882-1885), the two Ballades (1845-1853), the six Consolations (1848), other pieces for piano and the Totentanz for orchestra ("Danse macabre", 1849). However, the couple separated in 1844, while the pianist continued to tour throughout Europe, from Lisbon to St. Petersburg. In 1847, Franz Liszt retired from the stage and settled in Weimar, Germany, where he was appointed Kapellmeister "Extraordinaire". He conducted concerts, organized festivals dedicated to Berlioz and Wagner, and taught a large number of pupils, including Hans von Bülow, who married his daughter Cosima before she fell in love with Wagner. For his part, Liszt became involved with Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, whom he wished to marry, but the church refused to annul his previous marriage. This period saw the completion of ambitious compositions such as the Études d'exécution transcendante (1851), the great Sonata in B minor (1853) and the Piano Concerto No. 1 (premiered 1855), followed by the Concerto No. 2 (1857). A supporter of the "New German School", Liszt supported the innovative musical movement and set an example by writing thirteen symphonic poems, including Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne (after Victor Hugo, 1847), Les Préludes (after Lamartine, 1848), Tasso, lamento e trionfo (inspired by Lord Byron, 1849), Mazeppa (1851) and Orphée (1854). Two other symphonic program works, inspired by Dante and Goethe respectively, the Symphonie Dante (1856) and the Faust-Symphonie (1857), reflect his artistic concept of combining music, literature and philosophy. However, opposition to his theories led to his resignation from the court in 1858. After the death of his son Daniel in 1859, and before Blandine's death in 1862, Liszt settled in Rome, where he revised several of his works and received minor orders in 1865, consecrating him abbot. His religiously-inspired music, already present in the Messe de Gran (1855) and the oratorio Christus (1855-1866), enters the heart of a more austere body of work, with great harmonic freedom in the Missa Choralis (1865), a Hungarian Mass for the coronation of Franz Joseph (1867) and a Requiem for male choir (1868). Virtuosity was reserved for the first Méphisto-Valse (1862), followed by three others until 1885. During these years, Liszt divided his time between master classes in Weimar and stays in Rome and Budapest, where he founded the Academy of Music, which opened in 1875 and bears his name. While the transmission of his knowledge kept him busy and exerted a great influence on young composers and performers, he set aside time to write his last piano pieces, in a refined, bold style that paved the way for modernity: Via Crucis (1879), Nuage gris (1881), La lugubre gondole (1882) and Bagatelle sans tonalité (1885) were written at a time of declining health. Alongside his compositions, Liszt was also a great transcriber for the piano, notably of symphonies and numerous opera arias, through pieces entitled Réminiscences, Paraphrases or Fantaisies. On July 31, 1886, while marking his presence at the Bayreuth Festival, Franz Liszt died at the age of 74.