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 Biographical Information

    Liszt's biography appropriately begins on October 22, 1811, the date of his birth in Hungary.  Well...it was Hungary at the time.  The city of Liszt's birth, Doborján, Hungary, is now Raiding, Austria.  This occurred after World War I when a portion of Hungary became Austrian territory.  In Hungarian, Liszt is not known as Franz, but Ferenc (Reference the Hungarian postage stamp to the right), and his name is not pronounced like the English word "list" but as "leest."  Despite the many things his mother (Maria Anna Liszt - née Lager) or his father (Adam)  might have called him, the name on his Catholic baptismal certificate is the Latin, Franciscus. 

    During 1817, Franz's father was practicing a concerto by Ferdinand Ries and overheard his son later singing one of the themes from memory.  This hint of musical ability influenced Adam to begin giving his son lessons.   

    By 1819, Liszt had learned a large body of repertoire.  It was during this year that Franz Liszt met Carl Czerny and began studies with this pianist.  I'm confident that not many notes were missed by student or teacher in these lessons.  He first consulted Johann Nepomuk Hummel for lessons but couldn't afford the price.  I wonder if Hummel let the young Liszt play for him...  November 1820 marked his public debut.  At the age of nine, Franz Liszt played the Eb concerto by Ries and improvised on some popular melodies.  Instruction in composition came from Antonio Salieri.  Liszt had some friends of historical importance too.  He formed a friendship with Chopin that was a little bit of a rivalry, and then another does of friendship, and a healthier dose of rivalry, etc.  On April 13, 1823 Liszt supposedly gave a concert that Beethoven really liked.  Beethoven congratulated him, kissing him on the forehead.  Nice story or truth?  Does it really matter?  This same year, Liszt left Vienna to begin extensive traveling.  This begins his years of pilgrimage, the inspiration for the compositions of the same name.  On September 20, the Liszt family settles in Paris where Liszt meets Sébastien Érard, the piano manufacturer who invented the double-escapement system.  He becomes an "Erard Artist" playing exclusively on these instruments.  When Liszt turned sixteen, he went to Boulogne-Sur-Mer, a spa town, with his father who died of typhus a few days later.  The young Liszt escaped back to Paris alone.  April 20, 1832 Liszt hears the violin virtuoso Paganini perform and develops the unwavering determination to achieve the same ability on the piano.  Differing sources yield differing stories about his level of obsession in this endeavor.  Beginning in 1835 Liszt leaves Paris with Marie d'Agoult.  They are together (unmarried) for about four years and have three children.  Blandine is born during this year but dies at the young age of twenty-eight.  In 1837 and 1838 Liszt continues his quest to be the ultimate piano virtuoso by composing the Douze Grandes Etudes and the Paganini Etudes.  These compositions clearly show the level of virtuosity Liszt was achieving.  In 1837, Liszt's daughter Cosima, who later marries Richard Wagner, is born.  1839 marks the birth of Liszt's son Daniel.  He dies early of tuberculosis at the age of twenty, yet during his short lifespan, he already showed great intellectual and pianistic abilities.   

    Liszt was the first person to use the term "piano recital."  This occurred on June 9, 1840 in London and was suggested by his publisher Frederick Beale.  For the first time in history, the piano was an instrument capable of giving a full solo recital.  Furthermore, Liszt is widely considered to be the first to consistently perform recitals from memory and the first to turn the piano so that the open lid faced the audience.  These things combined to truly make him a celebrity and sometimes he would play for as many as 3000 people.  Just like celebrities today, Liszt occasionally used his fame to promote personal beliefs.  During the 1840's, he was known to sometimes appear in recital in Hungarian traditional dress to protest Austrian influence in his country.  1842 is about the time that Liszt's popularity explodes and his recitals are in high demand across Europe.  Liszt was a true celebrity of his time and ladies fought over items he threw off stage during recitals.  This, naturally, made some people despise him.  It is this year that he is appointed Kapellmeister extraordinaire in Weimar.  He leaves Marie d'Agoult in 1844 to take up this post.  In 1847, while touring in Russia, Liszt meets Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein.  She was an author, and not an easy read at that!  Her writing style is excessively verbose; the writings themselves encompassing 16 volumes of over 1600 pages.  Some of his later writings were probably the result of a collaboration with her (Marie d'Agoult probably aided his writings in earlier years) and it is known that the Princess was critical as an editor for Liszt late in his life.   Liszt obviously liked words too, and her writing style can be seen to influence his own.  For evidence of this, look at Liszt's biography of Chopin, and his chronology/analysis of gypsy music.  1847 also the year that Liszt finally decides to give up public performance.  One year later, in 1848 he takes up the Grand Duchess of Russia Maria Pavlovna's offer to settle in Weimar.  He was the court conductor and occasionally gave piano lessons at the theater.  He remains here until 1861.  During his time in Weimar, his dedication to conducting and teaching played an integral role in the New German School's goals for musical progress.  He was quite productive during this time writing the chorus to Herder's dramatic scenes Prometheus, some etudes, the Graner Fest Messe, fifteen Hungarian Rhapsodies, some organ music (including the Prelude and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H later arranged for solo piano), twelve symphonic poems, the Faust and Dante symphonies, the Thirteenth Psalm (tenor, chorus and orchestra), his two piano concertos, the two-piano concerto Concerto Pathetique, the B minor piano sonata, and Totentanz. 

    In 1858 and 1859 Liszt's children Blandine and Daniel die.  Misfortune continues in 1860 when, as Liszt was about to marry Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, Catholic officials interrupted right before the couple was going to take their vows and halted the ceremony because the Princess had been married before and her husband was still alive.  Naturally, this would not make for the happiest of ceremonies.  Not to be deterred, Liszt moved to Rome in 1861 in anticipation of trying the marriage again there.  1863 marks Liszt's move to the Madonna del Rosario, a Dominican monastery outside Rome, where he lived for the next five years.  After two years of life here, he took holy orders and, in 1866 was conferred an abbé of the Franciscan order by Pope Pius IX.  Liszt kept busy during his later years.  In 1869 he begins returning at regular intervals to Weimar to teach.  Sometime in the 1870's, there is a story concerning Liszt's uncanny sight reading ability.  Edvard Grieg was stunned when Liszt played his violin sonata and piano concerto perfectly at sight from a handwritten manuscript.  True or not?  I don't know.  Starting in 1876, for the rest of his life, Liszt taught for several months every year at the Hungarian Conservatory in Budapest.  By this time, he was already considered a national hero here.  In the 1880's, Liszt became depressed.  He said to Lina Ramaan, "I carry with me a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound."  This depression was embodied in his later exploratory compositional style.  During this time Liszt wrote a treatise titled Sketches for a Harmony of the Future, that his secretary, the pianist Arthur Friedheim saw in Weimar.  Unfortunately, this treatise is lost.  Supposedly, Liszt's playing in his later years became much more subtle and poetic to match his more introspective character and manner of composition.  Liszt's health took a negative turn when he fell down the stairs of the Hofgärtnerei in Weimar on July 2, 1881.  Prior to this event, there was swelling in Liszt's legs and feet, but after the fall he was immobilized for eight weeks and developed dropsy, asthma, insomnia, a cataract on his left eye, and chronic heart disease.  On July 31, 1886, pneumonia was the cause of his death in Bayreuth, Germany at the age of seventy-four.  As exposed in the diary of Lina Schmalhaussen, Liszt was given injections of camphor near his heart at 11:30 on the day of his death to warm his body for a light massage.  If camphor was accidentally injected into his heart directly, this could be the immediate cause of his death.

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