117 Facts About Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period.

Franz Liszt gained further renown for his performances during tours of Europe in the 1830s and 1840s, developing a reputation for technical brilliance as well as physical attractiveness.

Franz Liszt coined the terms "transcription" and "paraphrase", and would perform arrangements of his contemporaries' music to popularise it.

Alongside Wagner, Franz Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School, a progressive group of composers involved in the "War of the Romantics" who developed ideas of programmatic music and harmonic experimentation.

Franz Liszt taught piano performance to hundreds of students throughout his life, many of whom went on to become notable performers.

Franz Liszt left behind an extensive and diverse body of work that influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated 20th-century ideas and trends.

Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt and Adam Liszt on 22 October 1811, in the village of Doborjan in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire.

Franz Liszt's father was a land steward in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterhazy; a keen amateur musician, he played the piano, cello, guitar and flute, and knew Haydn and Hummel personally.

Franz Liszt found exposure to music through attending Mass, as well as travelling Romani bands that toured the Hungarian countryside.

Franz Liszt remained grateful to his former teacher, later dedicating to him the Transcendental Etudes on their 1830 republication.

Franz Liszt received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, the accomplished music director of the Viennese court who had previously taught Beethoven and Schubert.

Franz Liszt's public debut in Vienna on 1 December 1822 was a great success.

Franz Liszt was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and met Beethoven and Schubert.

The family briefly returned to Hungary, and Franz Liszt played a concert in traditional Hungarian dress, in order to emphasise his roots, in May 1823.

Franz Liszt was the youngest contributor to the project, described in it as "a boy of eleven years old"; Czerny was a participant.

Nevertheless, Franz Liszt studied under Anton Reicha and Ferdinando Paer, and gave a series of highly successful concerts debuting on 8 March 1824.

Paer was involved in the Parisian theatrical and operatic scene, and through his connections Franz Liszt staged his only opera, Don Sanche, which premiered shortly before his fourteenth birthday.

Adam Franz Liszt died suddenly of typhoid fever in the summer of 1827, and for the next eight years Franz Liszt continued to live in Paris with his mother.

Franz Liszt gave up touring, and in order to earn money, he gave lessons on piano and composition, often from early morning until late at night.

Franz Liszt's students were scattered across the city and he had to cover long distances.

Franz Liszt's father insisted that the affair be broken off.

Franz Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and introspection.

Franz Liszt stopped playing the piano and giving lessons, and developed an intense interest in religion, having many conversations with Abbe de Lamennais and Chretien Urhan, a German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists.

Franz Liszt composed practically nothing in the years between his father's death and the July Revolution of 1830, which inspired him to sketch a symphony based on the events of the "three glorious days".

Franz Liszt met Hector Berlioz on 4 December 1830, the day before the premiere of the Symphonie fantastique.

Franz Liszt dramatically increased his practice, sometimes practising for up to fourteen hours a day, and in 1838 published the six Etudes d'execution transcendante d'apres Paganini, aiming to represent Paganini's virtuosity on the keyboard.

In 1833, Franz Liszt began a relationship with the Countess Marie d'Agoult, who was married to a French cavalry officer but living independently.

Franz Liszt taught at the newly founded Geneva Conservatoire and contributed essays for L'Artiste and the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris.

Franz Liszt heard that plans for a Beethoven Monument in Bonn were in danger of collapse for lack of funds and pledged his support, raising funds through concerts.

The countess returned to Paris with the children, while Franz Liszt gave six concerts in Vienna, then toured Hungary.

Franz Liszt heard Thalberg perform for the first time at the Paris Conservatoire in February 1837, and to settle the disagreement the two pianists each arranged a performance for the public to compare them the following month.

Franz Liszt performed his own Grande fantaisie sur des motifs de Niobe and Weber's Konzertstuck in F minor.

Thalberg opened with his Fantasia on Rossini's "Moses", then Franz Liszt performed his Niobe fantasy.

Franz Liszt virtually disappeared from the concert platform after this date.

Franz Liszt donated large sums to the building fund of Cologne Cathedral and St Stephen's Basilica in Pest, and made private donations to public services such as hospitals and schools, as well as charitable organizations such as the Leipzig Musicians Pension Fund.

In July 1848 Franz Liszt settled in Weimar, where he had been appointed the honorary title of "Kapellmeister Extraordinaire" six years previously.

Franz Liszt acted as the official court kapellmeister at the expense of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia until 1859, jointly with Hippolyte Andre Jean Baptiste Chelard until his retirement in 1852.

Franz Liszt gave lessons to a number of pianists, including the great virtuoso Hans von Bulow, who married Liszt's daughter Cosima in 1857.

Franz Liszt wished eventually to marry Liszt, but since her husband, Russian military officer Prince Nicholas von Sayn-Wittgenstein, was still alive, she had to convince the Roman Catholic authorities that her marriage to him had been invalid.

In 1859 Franz Brendel coined the name "New German School" in his publication, to refer to the musicians associated with Liszt while he was in Weimar.

The most prominent members other than Franz Liszt were Wagner and Berlioz, and the group included Peter Cornelius, Hans von Bulow and Joachim Raff.

The Allgemeine Deutsche Musikverein, intrinsically linked to the School, was founded at this time, with Franz Liszt becoming its honorary president in 1873.

In letters to friends, Franz Liszt announced that he would retreat to a solitary living.

Franz Liszt moved to the monastery, just outside Rome, where on 20 June 1863 he took up quarters in a small, spartan apartment.

Franz Liszt had a piano in his cell, and he continued to compose.

Franz Liszt had already joined the Third Order of Saint Francis previously, on 23 June 1857.

On 31 July 1865 Franz Liszt received the four minor orders of porter, lector, exorcist and acolyte.

Franz Liszt was based in the Hofgartnerei, where he taught for the next seventeen years.

From 1872 until the end of his life, Franz Liszt made regular journeys between Rome, Weimar and Budapest, continuing what he called his.

The plan of the foundation of the Royal Academy of Music was agreed upon by the Hungarian Parliament in 1873, and in March 1875 Franz Liszt was nominated its president.

Franz Liszt fell down a flight of stairs at the Hofgartnerei in July 1881, and remained bedridden for several weeks after this accident.

Franz Liszt had been in good health up to that point, but a number of ailments subsequently manifested, such as a cataract in the left eye, dental issues and fatigue.

On 13 January 1886, while Claude Debussy was staying at the Villa Medici in Rome, Franz Liszt met him there with Paul Vidal and Ernest Hebert, director of the French Academy.

Franz Liszt played "Au bord d'une source" from Annees de pelerinage, as well as his arrangement of Schubert's Ave Maria for the musicians.

Already frail, in his final week of life Franz Liszt's health deteriorated further, as he experienced a fever, cough and delirium.

Franz Liszt was buried on 3 August 1886, in the municipal cemetery of Bayreuth, according to Cosima's wishes; despite controversy over this as his final resting place, Liszt's body was never moved.

Berlioz and Franz Liszt first met on 4 December 1830, the day before the premiere of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.

Franz Liszt acted as a witness at Berlioz's wedding to Harriet Smithson in 1833, despite cautioning Berlioz against it, and they worked together at several concerts over the following three years, and again in 1841 and 1844.

Chopin and Franz Liszt first met in the early 1830s, both moving in the same circles of artists residing in Paris.

Franz Liszt attended Chopin's first Paris performance at the Salle Pleyel on 26 February 1832, which he admired greatly, and by mid-1833 the two had become close friends.

Scholars disagree on the extent to which Chopin and Franz Liszt influenced each others' compositions.

In 1848 Franz Liszt attended a performance of the Piano Trio No 1 being held in his honour in the Schumanns' home.

Franz Liszt arrived two hours late with Wagner, derided the piece, and spoke ill of the recently deceased Mendelssohn.

Franz Liszt dedicated his 1854 piano sonata to Robert, who had by that point been committed to a mental institution in Endenich.

Clara asked for Franz Liszt's help that year in finding a performance venue in order to earn an income.

Franz Liszt arranged an all-Schumann concert with Clara as the star performer and published an extremely positive review, but Clara did not express any gratitude.

Franz Liszt was at this point a famous pianist, whereas Wagner was unknown; unlike Wagner, Franz Liszt did not remember the meeting.

In 1844 Franz Liszt attended a performance of Wagner's first major success, the opera Rienzi, in Dresden.

Franz Liszt settled in Weimar in 1848, and the two grew close, Wagner still being located in Dresden.

In 1849 Franz Liszt sheltered Wagner after the latter's involvement in the failed May Uprising in Dresden.

Franz Liszt arranged a false passport and lent Wagner money to allow him to escape Germany for Switzerland, and for the next ten years continued to send money and visit, as well as petition officials for a pardon which eventually came in 1860.

Franz Liszt had intended to dedicate the 1857 Dante Symphony to Wagner, but upon being told this Wagner replied that, while a fine piece, he would prefer to receive money.

Franz Liszt was offended by this comment, and did not publish the dedication.

Franz Liszt disapproved of the relationship and broke off contact with the couple for a number of years, only learning of their 1870 marriage from the newspapers.

Nevertheless the relationship recovered: Franz Liszt contributed financially to the building of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1871, and he began to correspond with Wagner and Cosima again, frequently visiting their home Wahnfried.

Franz Liszt died in 1886 while at the latest incarnation of the Bayreuth Festival, dedicated to Wagner's work, Wagner having died three years previously.

At his performing peak Franz Liszt was considered the greatest pianist of his time, and was perhaps one of the greatest who ever lived.

From a young age Franz Liszt had displayed an aptitude for improvisation and sight reading.

Crucially, Franz Liszt emphasised the role of the wrist, not the arm, in producing a full tone for individual notes, and did so not just in relation to octaves or chords.

Franz Liszt would be more open to pupils revising his own compositions, and he himself often produced different versions of his works over the course of his lifetime.

Musicologist Kenneth Hamilton identifies several themes which occurred through Franz Liszt's teachings, including avoiding excessive sentimentality, imagining the orchestration of the piece, flexibility of tempo, and the importance of a sense of music.

The increasing prominence of the solo piano virtuoso in the 1830s led to other acts on the bill being described as "assistant artists", with Franz Liszt declaring his pre-eminence in a letter to a friend dated June 1839: "Le concert, c'est moi".

Franz Liszt is credited as the first pianist to give solo recitals in the modern sense of the word; the term was first applied to Franz Liszt's concert at the Hanover Square Rooms in London on 9 June 1840.

Franz Liszt's concerts included original compositions such as Grand galop chromatique, Fantaisie romantique sur deux melodies suisses and Grande Valse di Bravura; and his transcriptions of Schubert's Schwanengesang, Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz and Beethoven's sixth symphony.

Franz Liszt kept the piano at his Villa Altenburg residence in Weimar.

The earliest records of Franz Liszt playing the organ date from 1836.

Later, Franz Liszt commissioned a "piano-organ" from the Paris company Alexandre Pere et Fils.

Franz Liszt called it a "Liszt piano-harmonium" and installed it in Villa Altenburg in July 1854; the instrument is exhibited in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde collection in Vienna.

Franz Liszt owned two other organs which were installed later in his Budapest residence.

Franz Liszt is best known for his piano music, which forms the majority of his oeuvre, but he wrote for orchestra and for other ensembles.

Franz Liszt is credited with the creation of the symphonic poem.

The best-known portion of Franz Liszt's music is his original piano work.

Franz Liszt wrote the monumental set of variations on the first section of the second movement chorus from Bach's cantata Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12, which he composed after the death of his daughter in 1862.

Franz Liszt wrote a Requiem for organ solo, intended to be performed liturgically during the service of the spoken Requiem Mass.

Franz Liszt coined the terms "transcription" and "paraphrase", the former being a faithful reproduction of the source material and the latter a more free reinterpretation.

Franz Liszt transcribed his own orchestral and choral music for piano in an attempt to make it better known.

Franz Liszt coined the term "program music" in an 1855 essay on Berlioz's Harold in Italy, referring to pieces which are "driven by an overarching poetic image or narrative".

Franz Liszt argued that its purpose was less to do with depicting a specific scene or experience, and more about allowing the listener to reach a higher state of existence.

Franz Liszt published a number of prose works and letters over the course of his life, including his 1863 Life of Chopin.

Many scholars have doubted that he was their sole author, suggesting that the writings ascribed to Franz Liszt were written partly or solely by Countess Marie d'Agoult or Princess Carolyne, but there is no consensus on this matter.

One of Franz Liszt's notable written works was his biography of Chopin, started less than a month after Chopin's funeral.

Franz Liszt had approached Chopin's sister Ludwika and pupil Jane Stirling for information, but they had been uncooperative, finding the timing of his enquiries so soon after Chopin's death to be insensitive.

Once again Franz Liszt asked Carolyne to help, but her contribution was so extensive that Franz Liszt considered it over-involvement, going so far as to describe the book as having been "written by Carolyne".

One significant essay by Franz Liszt is, which was serialised in the Parisian Gazette musicale in 1835.

Franz Liszt argues that they would book the cheapest variety of acts without concern for artistic merit, leading to subpar concert experiences.

Franz Liszt was concerned about the lack of professionalism of educational institutions, which were run by unqualified teachers and charged high tuition.

Franz Liszt worked until at least 1885 on a treatise on modern harmony entitled Sketches for a Harmony of the Future.

Franz Liszt told Friedheim that the time was not yet ripe to publish the manuscript.

Franz Liszt's music seemed "flamboyant and excessive" in contrast with their leaner styles, and his work had neither become part of the established canon nor received credit for being avant-garde.

Franz Liszt competitions occur across the world, and Franz Liszt societies promote his work.

Franz Liszt had a marked influence on early 20th-century Hungarian composers, especially Kodaly with his Psalmus Hungaricus, Dohnanyi in his second string quartet, and Bartok, who admired Franz Liszt's works greatly.

Franz Liszt pioneered a tonal language of building chords in fourths, which was a technique later used by Schoenberg.

From 1827 until the last month of his life, Franz Liszt gave lessons in composition and piano playing.

Franz Liszt wrote in 1829 that his schedule was "so full of lessons that each day, from half-past eight in the morning till 10 at night, I have scarcely breathing time".

Franz Liszt offered his students little technical advice, expecting them to "wash their dirty linen at home", as he phrased it.

Franz Liszt was troubled when German newspapers revealed that pedagogue Theodor Kullak had earned more than one million marks from teaching: "As an artist, you do not rake in a million marks without performing some sacrifice on the altar of Art".

Franz Liszt wrote an open letter to Kullak's sons, published in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, urging them to create an endowment for needy musicians, as Liszt himself frequently did.