Composer Profile: Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
A mesmerizing pianist and composer who nonetheless entrances us as we speak
Edited by Barry Lenson from Content material Generated by the Claude AI App
You would possibly say that the compositions of Franz Liszt take second place behind these of Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Wagner (who was Liszt’s son-in-law), and the opposite best composers of the nineteenth century. However if you begin to dismiss Liszt as a secondary composer, you encounter his enigmatic Faust Symphony or one among his huge works for organ and also you suppose that you’ve got underestimated him. The person and his music nonetheless exert a selected fascination for us as we speak.
Who Was Franz Liszt?
Franz Liszt (1811-1886) stands as one of the vital influential and charismatic figures within the historical past of classical music. Born in Raiding, Hungary (then a part of the Austrian Empire), to a German father and Austrian mom, Liszt would grow to be the archetypal Romantic composer-virtuoso, revolutionizing piano method, orchestral composition, and the complete strategy to musical efficiency.
Early Prodigy and Parisian Years
Liszt’s extraordinary musical items manifested early. His father, Adam Liszt, an novice musician employed by the Esterházy household, acknowledged his son’s expertise and organized for piano classes. By age 9, Franz was performing publicly, and his skills so impressed native Hungarian nobles that they funded his musical training in Vienna. There, he studied with Carl Czerny, Beethoven’s former pupil, and Antonio Salieri.
In 1823, the household moved to Paris, the place twelve-year-old Franz shortly turned a sensation within the metropolis’s salons. Nevertheless, the Paris Conservatory rejected him as a consequence of his overseas delivery, a slight that might affect his later advocacy for musical training reform. Regardless of this setback, Liszt thrived in Parisian musical society, performing for aristocrats and intellectuals alike.
The dying of his father in 1827 left sixteen-year-old Franz as his household’s sole supplier. He supported his mom by means of instructing and performing, but in addition skilled a interval of non secular disaster and contemplated getting into the priesthood. This spiritual inclination would resurface all through his life, finally shaping the compositions of his later years.
The Virtuoso Years
The 1830s marked Liszt’s transformation into the final word Romantic virtuoso. Impressed by violinist Niccolò Paganini’s transcendent performances, Liszt devoted himself to attaining comparable heights on the piano. He developed revolutionary methods that expanded the instrument’s expressive prospects, introducing improvements like using the complete keyboard vary, complicated hand crossings, and orchestral results achieved on the piano.
Throughout this era, Liszt turned concerned with Countess Marie d’Agoult, a married French aristocrat and author. Their scandalous relationship produced three kids, together with Wagner’s future spouse Cosima, and impressed a few of Liszt’s most passionate compositions. The couple lived collectively overtly, defying social conventions and embodying the Romantic excellent of the artist as insurgent.
Liszt’s live performance excursions throughout Europe in the course of the 1840s established the template for the fashionable piano recital. He was among the many first to carry out solo packages solely from reminiscence, usually enjoying on phases lit dramatically with candles. His performances had been theatrical occasions that drew hysterical responses from audiences, significantly ladies, in what Heinrich Heine dubbed “Lisztomania.”
Weimar and Inventive Maturity
In 1848, Liszt accepted the place of Kapellmeister in Weimar, marking a shift from performer to composer and conductor. This era, lasting till 1861, proved terribly productive. He composed most of his main orchestral works, together with his two piano concertos, symphonic poems, and the Faust Symphony. His conducting championed up to date composers, notably Richard Wagner.
At Weimar, Liszt lived with Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, a rich Polish-Russian aristocrat who inspired his compositional ambitions. Their relationship lasted over a decade, although they by no means married as a consequence of problems together with her divorce proceedings.
The Princess’s mental affect pushed Liszt towards extra critical creative pursuits and helped him develop his theories about program music, music that conveys a narrative, scene, or thought. Following his programmatic muse, Liszt basically invented the symphonic poem, a single-movement orchestral kind that tells a narrative or evokes photographs by means of music. Works like Les Préludes, Mazeppa, and Hamlet demonstrated how music may paint vivid photos and specific complicated narratives with out phrases, influencing each his up to date Berlioz and later composers, together with Richard Strauss.
Later Years and Legacy
After leaving Weimar, Liszt divided his time between Rome, Weimar, and Budapest, a interval referred to as his “vie trifurquée” (threefold life). In Rome, he took minor holy orders in 1865, turning into Abbé Liszt, although he by no means turned a priest. His late compositions, together with the stark By way of Crucis and experimental items like Nuages gris, pointed towards musical modernism with their harmonic improvements and non secular introspection.
As a trainer, Liszt influenced numerous pianists by means of his masterclasses, establishing pedagogical traditions nonetheless adopted as we speak. Not like many lecturers of his period, Liszt by no means charged charges, believing music training needs to be accessible to all proficient college students.
Liszt died in Bayreuth in 1886, having attended the Wagner Competition one ultimate time. His dying adopted a quick sickness, and he was mourned all through Europe as each a musical big and a beneficiant mentor who had formed the course of Romantic music.
My Private Liszt Favorites
I first got here underneath Liszt’s spell years in the past once I was a conservatory scholar. I started singing his songs and listening to as many recordings of his works as I may discover. So if you’ll indulge me, I wish to share this checklist of lots of my prime Liszt choices, all accessible for listening on Classical Archives.*
Piano Works
Liszt left behind quite a few outstanding works for keyboard. Listed here are just a few suggestions for listening.
Transcendenal Etudes (“études d’exécution transcendante”) – These are actual finger-benders. They’re referred to as “transcendental” as a result of Liszt meant them to showcase a approach of enjoying the piano that transcended all earlier types of piano method. They usually do. However if you dwell with them for some time, you sense that they’ve deeper meanings than you at first realized. We’ve got a terrific Naxos efficiency for you on Classical Archives, performed by Jenö Jandó.
Piano Sonata in B-minor – Okay, you simply can’t make an inventory of Liszt piano works with out together with this immense, rambling, and confounding one-movement sonata. It’s a favourite amongst younger pianists making their debut recitals, who simply wish to show they’ll play it. Once I was in music college, I as soon as spent a couple of hours analyzing it and – would you imagine? – it truly is in-built a traditional sonata construction. We’ve got one other terrific Naxos efficiency for you on Classical Archives, once more performed by Jenö Jandó.
Années de pèlerinage (“Years of Pilgrimage”) – Liszt wrote three volumes of those distinctive piano items, that are a type of musical travelogue of locations he visited throughout his outstanding life. A few of these items appear to presage the impressionist works of Debussy. Right here is a good Chandos recording on Classical Archives, that includes pianist Louis Lortie.
Songs
I’ve a selected affection for Liszt’s songs. Some are distinctive, actually fairly implausible, and effectively value exploring.
“Oh! Quand je dors” (“Oh, as I sleep”) – This outstanding setting of a textual content by Victor Hugo is lyrical, romantic, atmospheric, and lovely. The primary stanza is:
Oh once I sleep, come close to to my mattress,
As Laura appeared to Petrarch,
And as you cross, your breath will contact me
And abruptly my lips will half!
Classical Archives invitations you to listen to this tune in a efficiency by Konstantin Wolff (baritone) and Trung Sam (pianist) on the Harmonia Mundi label.
Tre Sonetti di Petrarca (“three sonnets by Petrarch”) – Liszt’s settings of three sonnets by Francesco Petrarca are as nice as any songs written within the nineteenth century. We’re happy to give you a outstanding recording that includes the good tenor Alfredo Kraus and pianist Edelmiro Arnaltes.
“Die drei Zigeuner” (“The three gypsies“) – This extremely uncommon tune depicts an opportunity assembly between its narrator and three gypsies, who educate him life classes . . .
In 3 ways they confirmed me that,
When life turns darkish,
To sleep it, smoke it, and fiddle it away,
. . . are 3 ways of disdaining it.
Be aware that the opening theme of this tune was additionally utilized by Liszt in his Piano Concerto No. 1 (see under). We’re happy to share with you a historic recording on the Bluebell label, that includes tenor Nicolai Gedda and pianist Lars Roos.
Symphonic Poems
Liszt wrote quite a few what he referred to as “poems” for orchestra – all of them outstanding tone poems. It would be best to discover all of them in recordings on Classical Archives, however listed here are two of my favorites.
Les Préludes – This perennial viewers favourite is predicated on the poem of the identical identify by Alphonse de Lamartine. This Naxos recording options the Polish Nationwide Radio Orchestra carried out by Michael Halász.
Mazeppa – My favourite amongst all of Liszt’s symphonic poems, this dramatic piece depicts Ivan Mazeppa, a Ukrainian nobleman, as he takes a wild trip on horseback. Our recording on the Archiphon label options the Vienna Opera Orchestra carried out by Hermann Scherchen.
Piano Concertos
Piano Concerto No. 1 – Liszt composed many works for piano and orchestra. But his first piano concerto represents every little thing that makes Liszt’s music so uncommon – its virtuosic calls for on the soloist, deeply romantic temper, and brooding ambiance. This Russian Compact Disc recording options the good Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter with the London Symphony carried out by Kyrill Kondrashin.
* Please observe that to take heed to the recordings cited on this publication, you have to be a member of Classical Archives. In case you are not but a member, we invite you to hitch now. Free 14-day trial memberships at the moment are accessible.
