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Hungarian Composer Franz Liszt

Early Life of the Hungarian Piano Virtuoso and Composer

Jun 4, 2008

A look at the early life and career of the great Hungarian musician Franz Liszt and his contributions to the world of music.

Franz Liszt came in on the trail of a comet on October 22,1811, in the town of Raiding, Hungary. The comet was an omen...Liszt's career would indeed take off into the musical stratosphere from the time he was a young boy. At the age of 9 he performed a Piano Concerto by Ferdinand Ries and one of his own compositions to a great ovation and a fund was begun to help him in his studies. Raiding was a small place and he needed the best teaching so he was sent to Vienna, where Carl Czerny accepted him as his pupil.

Liszt's Studies in Vienna

Franz, who had been in Czerny's estimation "quite irregular, confused and threw his fingers quite arbitrarily all over the keyboard," soon made great progress under Czerny's strict regimen of scales, arpeggios and etudes. After a year's study he was being compared to the youthful Mozart and he played for Beethoven a movement of that master's C Major Piano Concerto, which prompted Beethoven to kiss Liszt on the forehead. His future as a piano virtuoso was assured.

Liszt's First Romance

The death of Liszt's father in 1828 left the 16-year old Franz in a state of deep grief and led to an obituary in the Paris papers stating "Franz Liszt, October 22,1811, died Paris 1828." However, he needed to make money to support himself and his widowed mother so he began to teach. His fame brought to his door the wealthiest students including Caroline de Saint Crique, with whom he fell in love. This youthful affection was crushed by her father who dismissed Liszt as a 'peasant 'and sent Caroline to a convent.

Liszt's Interest in Religion

From the time he was very young Franz was fascinated by religion and he had learned much from the teachings of the Abbe Felicite de Lamannais and the aim of Saint-Simon to "unite the flesh and the spirit and sanctify the one by the other."

Saint-Simon's 6 tenets were as follows:

To improve the quality of human life through the dissemination of scientific knowledge
To reorganize society in order that one's work, not one's birth would determine one's place in the social hierarchy
To work for the emancipation of women
To prohibit idleness
To distribute wealth equitably
To humanize religion

Liszt would follow the road of religion for the rest of his life, culminating in his taking minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church.

Source

Liszt, by Brice Morrison, Omnibus Press, New York 1986

The copyright of the article Hungarian Composer Franz Liszt in Classical Composers is owned by Anya Laurence. Permission to republish Hungarian Composer Franz Liszt in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.