His efforts did pay off, and it was eventually difficult to find a match for his skills among the greatest of his contemporaries. In a later part of the letter, he remarked he practiced four to five hours a day and expressed his hope that should he not go mad, he would return to his friend a true artist. I study them, meditate on them, devour them with fury.” – Franz Liszt to Pierre Wolff, May 2, 1832, Paris, in Franz Liszt: Selected Letters, translated and edited by Adrian Williams (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 7. Homer, the Bible, Plato, Locke, Byron, Hugo, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Beethoven, Bach, Hummel, Mozart, and Weber are all around me. In a letter written in May of 1832 to his friend, he said: „For the past fortnight, my mind and fingers have been working away like two lost spirits. Whenever proven his genius had boundaries, he worked twice as hard to overcome them. Regardless, Liszt learned from the best (Carl Czerny, Antonio Salieri) and made friends with the best ( Beethoven, Schubert, Debussy, Feliks Mendelssohn, Fryderyk Chopin). Interestingly, Liszt’s later skills, which he eagerly showed off, such as his ability to perfectly keep tempo, might not have been, were it not for this private tuition as opposed to traditional schooling methods. When rejected at the Paris Conservatory (due to his nationality), his father doubled down on his efforts to train his prodigy son. Although the Prince’s name did not go down very well in history, fortunately for Liszt, his performance was noticed by the critics, which set him on the path to a great career. There are many accounts of the successful performance Liszt gave at the age of nine at the court of Nicholas II, the Hungarian Prince Esterházy. Like many awe-inspiring pianists, Liszt showed talent from an early age, reportedly able to read and write notes at seven. Photo: Henri Lehmann, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons Photo: Franz Hanfstaengl, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons (Right) Portrait of Franz Liszt, 1839, oil on canvas. (Left) Composer and pianist Franz Liszt, 1858. Not to mention that his later compositions reflect Hungarian folk music, with the cultural heritage of his father’s homeland ever-present in his works. Despite some sources claiming Liszt did not speak Hungarian, he was a Hungarian citizen. From genius child to young virtuosoįranz Liszt was born in the Austro-Hungarian city of Raiding in 1811 (today’s Austria). But it’s high time that we look at a figure less known nowadays but one that deserves unfading recognition – a Hungarian addition to the iconic and expressive composers. Some of the first that come to mind are probably Mozart and Strauss. As a memento I bought a CD of his oratorio "The legend of St Elisabeth" which I don't know, but which tied up nicely with our next port of call: the Wartburg in neighbouring Eisenach.Austria undoubtedly possesses a showcase of amazing classical composers who were anything but boring. There were opportunities on the ground floor to listen to excerpts from his works. The English headphones were very informative. I particularly liked the practice piano which he took with him when he travelled (shades of composer Lord Berners who had a clavichord in his Rolls Royce). This museum is on the first floor of the building where he lived during the second of his two Weimar periods. He composed oratorios and symphonic works, and he was extremely generous, both in time and money, in helping other musicians (including Wagner) and young students to develop their musical skills and get their works performed. It is important to remember that Liszt was not just a virtuoso pianist and piano composer. The worst thing about the museum is the little sign on his piano saying: "Don't touch!". I have struggled with several piano works of Liszt so it was of particular interest to me to visit this place. Goethe's house comes close to this, and the Liszt house was certainly immediately frozen in time which makes it really fascinating for us. Occasionally you get someone so famous in his (it's usually male) life time that, upon his death, his house is turned into a museum straight away. Most museums dedicated to celebrities consist of rooms with objects in glass cases.
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