Franz Liszt
Date/Place of Birth: 22 October, 1811 in Raiding (Doborján), Hungary.
Personality: A handsome, charismatic child prodigy. He was multi-talented – piano virtuoso, composer, conductor, teacher and critic. The young Liszt was well-known for his dalliances with several aristocratic ladies – his love affairs were popular gossips during his time.
Liszt enjoyed a luxurious life since he pursued lavish salary from royalty supports, performing, conducting and piano lessons. Besides that, he was a generous and kind man, who never ceased to encourage many young composers like Grieg, Smetana, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov etc. and even Brahms who hated Liszt’s music.
Moreover, Liszt was a great piano teacher – among his students were Hans von Bulöw, Karl Tausig, Alexander Siloti, Emil von Sauer etc. Lastly, he had such a deep passion in presenting the music of other composers like Wagner, Berlioz, Schumann, Verdi, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Schubert etc. by frequently conducting their works and performing several transcriptions in public.
Piano-Playing Style: Liszt’s virtuosity was unparalleled. With hands high and flexible arm movement, he played the piano in a flamboyant style – that never failed to amaze and frighten the audience. His stupendous, demonic techniques enabled him to play any piece flawlessly at sight. His extraordinary sight-reading skill simply dumbfounded several contemporary pianists like Clara Wieck, Edvard Grieg (he was totally shocked when the old master played his famous Piano Concerto in A minor perfectly at sight) etc.
Generally, there were three musicians who influenced Liszt’s playing style as well as his compositions. They were:-
* Berlioz
Liszt reproduced the powerful sonority of the orchestral colour on the piano; with extremely wide dynamic expressions – this was in debt to Berlioz brilliant idea of orchestration
* Paganini
Liszt was influenced by Paganini’s virtuosity and showmanship. He composed numerous difficult pieces transferring Paganini’s effects on the violin. Therefore, it was not surprising that like Paganini, Liszt’s bravura, demonic technical display drove the audience to a wild excitement.
* Chopin
Liszt learned learned lyricism from Chopin. He realized that expressions and sensitive touch were equally important to bravura on piano playing.
Music: Liszt’s early music was mostly virtuosic and brilliant – therefore, they were not much interesting and rarely performed today. However, Liszt’s middle music was revolutionary and programmatic. It often illustrated a poem, a legend, a painting, his own travelling experiences, and any other external sources. For example, ‘A Faust Symphony’ was composed based on Goethe’s drama Faust; and ‘Années de Pèlerinages’ (Years of Pilgrimage) illustrating his experiences in Switzerland and Italy.
In addition, Liszt’s music was also nationalistic – he expressed his patriotic feeling of his homeland, Hungary in his spirited, colourful ‘Hungarian Rhapsodies’.
Liszt’s music was, however, difficult to understand as the harmony was simply too daring, especially in his late works. In conclusion, his music was something about triumph, drama, fascination, diabolism, extroversion, legend and soulful emotion.
Composing Habit: Liszt was unquestionably a creative genius in composition. He never obeyed the traditional forms but invented a new form called symphonic poem or tone poem. It is a program music, in one movement, inspired by external sources like paintings, poems, legends, literature etc.
Besides that, Liszt was inventive in thematic development throughout his compositions. It is known as metamorphosis where the tempo, rhythm or notes of a main theme/motif is altered as long as its essential, recognizable characteristics are preserved. In other words, the motif is often transformed throughout a piece. Hence, it gives his music its own kind of unity, without sticking closely with the old sonata form. A typical example is his Piano Sonata in B minor.
As usual, Liszt threw original, daring harmony; extreme chromaticism and abundance of dissonance in his compositions. In his old age, Liszt’s works were mostly experimental – the harmonies were considered as impressionistic; and they are almost incomprehensible and rarely performed in public today.
Liszt’s Quote: “If you are going to spend any considerable time in my company, you’ll have to learn to smoke.”
Liszt, a heavy smoker, to Weimar Court organist, Alexander Gottschalg, 1853
“Courage is the mainspring of our best qualities; where it is lacking they wither”
Liszt, writing to a friend, towards the end of his life
Liszt’s Death: Liszt caught a chill and passed away in Bayreuth, Bavaria (where Wagner made his home), on 31 July, 1886, at the age of 75.