Artist database

22 October 1811, Doborján [Raiding - Austria] – 31 July 1886, Bayreuth

He was born in Doborján, West-Hungary (now Raiding, Austria) in 1811. His father, farm officer of the Esterházy Lordship, recognized the outstanding music talent of the child very early and took every chance to support him. Liszt played the piano for audience already at the age of nine in Sopron and Pozsony, and soon the costs of his foreign studies have been covered by art supporters. In 1822 he introduced himself in Vienna, where even Beethoven noticed his talent. In Vienna his masters were Czerny and Salieri.

His first piece, the variations on the same Diabelli-theme that Beethoven composed his famous piano work on, was also printed here. Next year he asked for acceptance to the Conservatoire in Paris, but since he was a foreigner, the illustrious institution (ran by Cherubini at that time) refused this. He studied music theory and counterpoint privately with Paer and Reicha, meanwhile, he went on a concert tour.

After his introduction in London he received a number of invitations to France, Switzerland and back to England again. His repertoire consisted mainly of dreams and bright paraphrases on popular operas. In the meantime his father passed away and the sixteen-year-old Liszt had to look after himself and his mother on his own.

In 1827 he settled down in Paris for a while, where as celebrated hero of the social life he became acquainted with pre-eminent intellectuals and with the principles of the revolution as well. He acquired the nuances of piano performance from Chopin, while the orchestral language and the new achievements of the program music from Berlioz. He also utilized the brilliant means of Paganini’s violin technique in his own way of playing the piano.

From 1835 to 1839 he traveled in Italy and Switzerland with his romantic love, Countess D’Agoult. The memory of these pictorial impressions is kept by his piano cycle titled Years of Pilgrimage. At the end of the 1830’s he went on a new concert tour all over Europe, from Portugal to Italy. He supported the people damaged by the flood of 1838 with the income of his concerts in Vienna. Few years later he helped just as generously at the making of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn. During the concert tours in Russia he got familiar with the art of the renewed Russian music and also with his new love, Princess Carolyne Wittgenstein.
In the early 1840’s he became conductor of the court theater of Weimar. As active musician who is enthusiastic about new things and also possesses a leading position, he often had the opportunity to inspire and support promising talents. Among others he presented Wagner’s three early operas (Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and The Flying Dutchman) and Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. Meanwhile, pianist came to him from all over Europe to be taught by the master.

Liszt spent the last decades of his life in Weimar, Rome and Budapest. In the first years of the Music Academy of Budapest he whole-heartedly supported the newly developing center of the Hungarian music culture and he was also willing to teach there every year for some month.

Since he’s settled down in Weimar, he actually withdrew himself from giving concerts, but occasionally he still played on stage. Nevertheless, he considered composing as the main purpose of his life. The artistic world of the Weimar period significantly differs from the style of the works of the former piano virtuoso who’s been all over the world. The pleasing glamour and the clever technique have disappeared from these compositions to give space to works that are seeking the new to became braver (from the aspect of harmony), simpler (from the aspect of the form) and deeper (from the aspect of substance). The piano concertos built on one theme, the monumental block of the Sonata in H-minor, the bitter sound of the Dance macabre variations and the dramatic vision of the Faust symphony – each are stations on this way of development. The late piano works: the last Forgotten waltzes and the wild, raw Csárdások that were inspired by the endless loneliness are pointing towards Bartók, the late heritor and representative of this kind of music.

His operas are: Don Sanche ou le Château d’Amour (comic opera in one act, premiere: 17 October 1825, Paris) and Sardanapal (manuscript, fragment, it is assumed to be written between 1846 and 1851).