![]() ![]() ![]() She and Liszt travelled to Switzerland for a few years and they had three children, including Cosima who ultimately married Wagner. But he did have several “relationships” with different women, one of whom was the novelist Countess Marie d’Agoult who wrote under the pen name of Daniel Stern. During his career of music stardom, Liszt never married and was considered one of the most eligible bachelors of the time. Liszt possessed great charisma and performance appeal indeed, he had a following of young ladies that idolized his performances. Liszt changed the entire presentation by turning the piano sideways so the audience could view his facial expressions and the manner in which his fingers interacted with the keys, from playing loud and thunderously to gracefully light and legato. This limited-and actually blocked-the audience from viewing the artist’s hands, facial expression, and musical nuance. Up until Liszt, the standard practice of performing piano solos was with the solo artist’s back to the audience. Liszt, one of the best pianists of his time, became a great showman who knew how to energize an audience. The ever growing mass public audience desired gifted virtuoso soloists performers at the time. Paganini’s style and success helped make Liszt aware of the demand for a solo artist who performed with showmanship. There, he became the friend of Mendelssohn, Hugo, Chopin, Delacroix, George Sand, and Berlioz these friends influenced him to become part of the French Romanticism movement.Īlso in Paris in 1831, Liszt attended a performance of virtuoso violinist Paganini, who was touring. A group of Hungarian noblemen sponsored him with a stipend that enabled Franz to pursue his musical interest in Paris. His father, employed as a steward for a wealthy family, was an amateur musician who recognized his son’s talent. 1811-1886) was born in Doborján, Hungary (now Raiding, Austria). Legend has it that Beethoven kissed Liszt on the brow after the young boy played him his Archduke Piano Trio from memory with the missing violin and cello parts incorporated as he went along.\)įranz Liszt (b. July 1886 he died from dropsy complicated by pneumonia. The rest of his life was dominated by a series of inspired sacred compositions, while his piano music became more calmly reflective and meditative in tone.Īctive to the end, even in 1886 (the year of his death) Liszt was on a tour which embraced his first visit to London in more than 40 years. Such was his devotion to the church that Pope Pius IX conferred on him the title of ‘Abbé’ four years later. In 1848, Liszt accepted a full-time professional post in Weimar where he increasingly turned his attention towards composing. He started every performance by ceremoniously removing a pair of white gloves and he invariably employed a second piano on stage so that onlookers could admire his prowess from every conceivable angle. Some particularly horrific scenes during the Paris cholera epidemic of 1832 so moved him that he once spent all night thrashing out the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) chant on the piano.īetween 18 Liszt gave well over a thousand concerts throughout most of western Europe, Turkey, Poland and Russia, stunning audiences wherever he went with his blend of pianistic devilry and showbiz razzmatazz. Liszt developed a morbid obsession with death in the 1830s. Liszt’s early progress was so astounding that by the age of nine he had already mastered Ferdinand Ries’s excruciatingly difficult E flat major Piano Concerto. Liszt’s output for solo piano was prodigious, centered on a core of more than 100 original titles, many of which subdivide into sets of half-a-dozen pieces or more. His compositions inspired a whole generation of keyboard virtuosi. Franz Liszt (1811–1886) was one of the most important composers of the Romantic period. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |