Liszt, Franz

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LISZT, FRANZ

LISZT, FRANZ (1811–1886), virtuoso pianist, composer, conductor, and musical producer.

Franz Liszt created an image that still endures in musical performance in Western culture. He was the first to place a grand piano lengthwise, alone, on the stage for a piano concert, and invented the form of the piano recital, which young musicians still contend with today. Liszt emulated Niccoló Paganini (1782–1840), the Italian violinist whose virtuosity was so prodigious that he was reputed to be possessed by the devil. But what, in Paganini's case, was a deviation—the solo performer defying the laws of nature in his ability to perform—became a hallmark of modernity, a perfected business, in the case of Liszt. He was one of the first musicians to tour internationally on a regular basis, and was received with an excessive enthusiasm that foreshadowed the orgiastic reactions to 1960s rock bands. What Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) called "Lisztomania" was a new and distinctly Romantic phenomenon, and Liszt was felt to be a true representative of his time. He lived a flamboyant life and had many liaisons, but never married. Opinion was split about Liszt: Was he truly a brilliant performer, or a mere showman with astonishing but empty technical abilities? Was he inspired, or did he know how to manipulate his audience through advertising, charisma, and vain effects?

Liszt was born in 1811 in Raiding, Hungary, to bourgeois parents. His life spanned the nineteenth century; he died in Bayreuth in 1886. At eight, he went to Vienna and studied with Carl Czerny. Liszt's life is enveloped in fictions. Some accounts claim, for example, that at his farewell concert in Vienna at the age of eleven, Liszt received a "kiss of benediction" from Ludwig van Beethoven himself, though evidence shows that Beethoven was not even present. In 1823 Liszt moved to Paris, where he was refused entry to the Conservatory, since foreigners were not allowed to study there. This contributed to Liszt's status as an outsider, a cause of resentment throughout his career. Determined to gain fame and glory to make up for his marginal social status—both foreigner and bourgeois—he devoted himself to performances of the musical canon and of his own compositions and adaptations of others' compositions, Paganini's, for example. Despite his prodigious popularity, many criticized Liszt's performances as mere display of technical ability. He was ridiculed, too, for his social climbing. He was awarded, for example, a bejeweled "Sword of Honor" by a group of Hungarian noblemen when he performed there in 1840. Satirists often pictured Liszt with this saber riding on his piano to the strains of his own "Grand Galop Chromatique." Liszt was a constant defender of Romantic music and moved in circles with artists and writers including Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849), Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), George Sand (Aman-dine Dudevant; 1804–1876), Alphonse-Marie-Louis Lamartine (1790–1869), and Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863).

Liszt retired from performance at the age of thirty-five in 1847, thus ending the period of his life most vivid in cultural memory. Taking a position as Kapellmeister at Weimar, Liszt devoted his efforts to composition. During this time, Liszt composed new versions of his famous piano composition: the six Etudes d'Après Paganini, and the twelve Grands Ètudes d'Execution Transcendantes, which Charles Rosen considers a masterpiece of keyboard composition. Liszt's originality as a piano composer lies in his interest in color and the musical importance of performance techniques. The technique of thematic transformation offered variations of style rather than thematic development. This technique is highlighted in the Sonata in B Minor (1852), often thought to be Liszt's greatest work. Even in composition, Liszt never lost sight of the constitutive role of musical realization. Liszt also invented the symphonic poem, of which he composed twelve during his years at Weimar, as well as the Faust and Dante symphonies. The symphonic poem is a one-movement composition that draws its inspiration from a source in literature or painting. Liszt based his symphonic poems on readings of Victor Hugo (1802–1885) and Lamartine, for example.

As Kappellmeister in Weimar, Liszt strongly promoted the "new music" of others, in particular of Richard Wagner (who married Liszt's daughter Cosima). Liszt produced The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser with great success. He wrote important introductory texts to Wagner's operas, which served as program notes in Germany and France. Liszt continued his role as musical disseminator that had begun so spectacularly on the virtuoso stage.

Liszt had a long career as a writer, which is also shrouded in controversy, especially since there are no remaining manuscripts in his own hand. As an adult, Liszt no longer spoke Hungarian and had no real first language, though he did speak French and German. Perhaps because of his problematic relationship to language, his writing is usually read through his two major relationships: Countess Marie d'Agoult (Cosima Wagner's mother) and Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein. Both women are believed to have been ghost writers of Liszt texts. Among Liszt's writings are a biography of Chopin, the program notes for Wagner's operas, and a strange book. In this book, Liszt tries to find the origin of virtuosity in Magyar folk culture, as well as justify his own "Hungarian Rhapsodies," first conceived during a trip to Hungary. Although his methodology would not satisfy any scientific standards today, Liszt deserves credit for his pioneering efforts to connect popular ethnic music and high art music. The book is also the context for Liszt's late identification with Hungary. Though he had virtually no relationship to Hungary and was most strongly influenced by the French and German musical traditions, he always claimed to be Hungarian. This confusion about origin and identity is typical of the growing problems surrounding nationality in the nineteenth century.

In 1861 Liszt moved to Rome, where he took lay orders and stayed until 1868. He then traveled between Rome, Weimar, and Hungary, continuing to teach and compose until his death. At home everywhere and nowhere, a speaker of many tongues but no mother tongue, Liszt—brilliant virtuoso and manipulative showman, composer, and author—was truly a virtuoso of the nineteenth century.

See alsoChopin, Frédéric; Music; Paganini, Niccoló; Wagner, Richard.