Hungarian Romantic composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt (1811-1886) is best known for 'symphonic poem' also known as 'tone poem.' His Hungarian Rhapsodies, Transcendental Studies, and Liebestraume ("Dream of Love") for the piano remain popular.
His primary interests in life were threefold - religion, music, and the arts, perhaps we can add the fourth, female companionship - in equal fervor.
Liszt was taught the piano by his father and later by Carl Czerny in Vienna, where he made his debut establishing himself as a remarkable concert pianist by age 12. In Paris he studied theory and composition, then travelled widely in Europe, writing the opera Don Sanche in Paris. There, he also met Chopin and Berlioz.
When he became the musical director and conductor at Weimar, he championed the music of Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner. Intellectual growth that came through literature and his associations with prominent artists and writers, the opera, and especially Niccolo Paganini, had spectacular effects on him which he transferred to the piano in original works and operatic fantasias.
It's always interesting to note his famous public piano contest with rival piano virtuoso Sigismund Thalberg. They were both declared winners!
Two women figured prominently in the life of Liszt although he didn’t marry either of them: Countess Marie d’Agoult (between 1833-44) where they lived in Geneva, and Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein (from 1848 until his death), a gifted writer. His daughter Cosima (by d'Agoult) married Wagner.
His expressive and frequently chromatic works include piano music Transcendental Studies), masses and oratorios, an opera, a symphony, piano concertos and pieces, organ music and songs. Much of his music was programmatic having originated the symphonic poem.
Retiring to Rome, he turned again to his early love of religion, and became a secular priest (adopting the title Abbé) in 1865 while continuing to teach and give concert tours for which he also made virtuoso piano arrangements of orchestral works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Wagner.
After Liszt, two Hungarian composers became famous for their collection of folk music: Bartok and Kodaly.
From the passion of Liebestraume No.3 in A-flat (as a song, known as 'Dream of Love') to his Hungarian Rhapsodies, ever popular to this day, his music from the Romantic Era has never been surpassed for its virtuosity.
Liszt's Major Works
- 24 Grand Studies for piano
- Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano
- Symphonic poem, including Les Preludes
- Trois études de concert including Un Sospiro
- Piano Concerto No.1
- Piano Concerto No.2
- Années de Pèlerinage, Book I, II, III
- Three Liebestraume (Dreams of Love) for piano including Liebestráum No.3 in A-flat)
- Transcendental Studies for piano
- Piano Sonata in B minor
- Symphonic Poem, Orpheus
- Dante Symphony
- Faust Symphony
- Mephisto Waltz No.1 for piano
- Oratorio, Christus
Sources:
The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie (2000)
The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham (2002)
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