Franz Liszt

"Liszt" redirects here. For other uses, see Liszt (disambiguation).

The native form of this personal name is Liszt Ferenc. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Detail of a photo by Franz Hanfstaengl, 1858

Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc; IPA: [ˈlɪst ˈfɛrɛnts]) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher.

Liszt became renowned throughout Europe for his great skill as a performer during the 19th century. He is said to have been the most technically advanced and perhaps greatest pianist of all time. He was also an important and influential composer, a notable piano teacher, a conductor who contributed significantly to the modern development of the art, and a benefactor to other composers and performers, notably Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin.

As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the "Neudeutsche Schule" ("New German School"). He left behind a huge and diverse body of work, in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony.

Liszt as pianist

Performing style

There are few, if any, good sources that give an impression of how Liszt really sounded from the 1820s. Czerny claimed Liszt was a natural who played according to feeling, and reviews of his concerts especially praise the brilliance, strength and precision in his playing. At least one also mentions his ability to absolutely never change tempo, which may be due to his father's insistence that he practise with a metronome. His repertoire at this time consisted primarily of pieces in the style of the brilliant Viennese school, such as concertos by Hummel and works by his former teacher Czerny, and his concerts often included a chance for the boy to display his prowess in improvisation.

Liszt, around 1840, playing piano for Beethoven and surrounded by Hugo, Paganini, Rossini, Lamartine, Sand and Marie d'Agoult (seated on the floor). Painting by Josef Danhauser.

Following the death of Liszt's father in 1827 and his hiatus from the life as a touring virtuoso, it is likely Liszt's playing gradually developed a more personal style. One of the most detailed descriptions of his playing from this time comes from the winter of 1831/1832, during which he was earning a living primarily as a teacher in Paris. Among his pupils were Valerie Boissier, whose mother Auguste kept a careful diary of the lessons. From her we learn that:

M. Liszt's playing contains abandonment, a liberated feeling, but even when it becomes impetuous and energetic in his fortissimo, it is still without harshness and dryness. [...] [He] draws from the piano tones that are purer, mellower and stronger than anyone has been able to do; his touch has an indescribable charm. [...] He is the enemy of affected, stilted, contorted expressions. Most of all, he wants truth in musical sentiment, and so he makes a psychological study of his emotions in order to convey them as they are. Thus, a strong expression is often followed by a sense of fatigue and dejection, a kind of coldness, because this is the way nature works.

Possibly influenced by Paganini's showmanship, once Liszt began focusing on his career as a pianist again his emotionally vivid presentations of the music were rarely limited to mere sound. His facial expression and gestures at the piano would reflect what he played, for which he was sometimes mocked in the press. Also noted was the extravagant liberties he could take with the text of a score at this time. Berlioz tells us how Liszt would add cadenzas, tremolos and trills when playing the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and created a dramatic scene by changing the tempo between Largo and Presto. In his Baccalaureus letter to George Sand from the beginning of 1837, Liszt admitted that he had done so for the purpose of gaining applause, and promised to follow both the letter and the spirit of a score from now on. It has been debated to what extent he realized his promise, however. By July 1840 the British newspaper The Times could still report

His performance commenced with Händel's Fugue in E minor, which was played by Liszt with an avoidance of everything approaching to meretricious ornament, and indeed scarcely any additions, except a multitude of ingeniously contrived and appropriate harmonies, casting a glow of colour over the beauties of the composition, and infusing into it a spirit which from no other hand it ever received.

Repertoire

During his years as a travelling virtuoso Liszt performed an enormous amount of music throughout Europe, but his core repertoire always centered around his own compositions, paraphrases and transcriptions. Studying Liszt's German concerts between 1840 and 1845, the five most frequently-played pieces were the Grand Galop chromatique, Schubert's Erlkönig (in Liszt's transcription), Réminiscences de Don Juan, Réminiscences de Robert le Diable, and Réminiscences de Lucia de Lammermoor. Among the works by other composers we find compositions like Weber's Aufforderung zum Tanz, Chopin Mazurkas, Etudes by composers like Moscheles, Chopin and Hiller, but also major works by Beethoven, Weber and Hummel, and from time to time even selections of Bach, Händel and Scarlatti.

Most of the concerts at this time were shared with other artists, and as a result Liszt also often accompanied singers, participated in chamber music, or performed works with an orchestra in addition to his own solo part. Frequently played works include Weber's Konzertstück, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto and Choral Fantasy, and Liszt's reworking of the Hexameron for piano and orchestra. His chamber music repertoire included Hummel's Septet, Beethoven's Archduke Trio and Kreutzer Sonata, and a large selection of songs by composers like Rossini, Donizetti, Beethoven and especially Schubert. At some concerts Liszt could not find musicians to share the program with, and consequently was among the first to give solo piano recitals in the modern sense of the word. The term was coined by the publisher Frederick Beale, who suggested it for Liszt's concert at the Hanover Square Rooms in London on June 9 1840, even though Liszt had given concerts all by himself already by March 1839.

Musical works

Main article: Musical works of Franz Liszt

See also: List of compositions by Franz Liszt (S.1 - S.350) and List of compositions by Franz Liszt (S.351 - S.999)

The sound of the fountains of the famous garden of Villa d'Este inspired Liszt to write a piano piece called "Jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este". The villa and the portrait of the composer can be seen in the same image made by István Orosz

Liszt was a prolific composer. Most of his music is for the piano and much of it requires formidable technique. His thoroughly revised masterwork, Années de Pèlerinage ("Years of Pilgrimage") includes arguably his most provocative and stirring pieces. This set of three suites ranges from the virtuosity of the Suisse Orage (Storm) to the subtle and imaginative visualisations of artworks by Michelangelo and Raphael in the second set. Années contains some pieces which are loose transcriptions of Liszt's own earlier compositions; the first "year" recreates his early pieces of Album d'un voyageur, while the second book includes a resetting of his own song transcriptions once separately published as Tre sonetti di Petrarca ("Three sonnets of Petrarch"). The relative obscurity of the vast majority of his works may be explained by the immense number of pieces he composed.

In his most famous and virtuosic works, he is the archetypal Romantic composer. Liszt pioneered the technique of thematic transformation, a method of development which was related to both the existing variation technique and to the new use of the Leitmotif by Richard Wagner.

Liszt's piano works are usually divided into two classes. On the one hand, there are "original works", and on the other hand "transcriptions", "paraphrases" or "fantasies" on works by other composers. Examples for the first class are works such as the piece Harmonies poétiques et religieuses of May 1833 and the Piano Sonata in B minor. Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert songs, his fantasies on operatic melodies, and his piano arrangements of symphonies by Berlioz and Beethoven are examples for the second class. As special case, Liszt also made piano arrangements of own instrumental and vocal works. Examples of this kind are the arrangement of the second movement "Gretchen" of his Faust Symphony and the first "Mephisto Waltz" as well as the "Liebesträume" and the two volumes of his "Buch der Lieder".

Transcriptions

Liszt's composing music on music, being taken as such, was nothing new. Nevertheless, Liszt invested a particular kind of creativity. Instead of just overtaking original melodies and harmonies, he ameliorated them. In case of his fantasies and transcriptions in Italian style, there was a problem which was by Wagner addressed as "Klappern im Geschirr der Perioden". Composers such as Bellini and Donizetti knew that certain forms, usually periods of eight measures, were to be filled with music. Occasionally, while the first half of a period was composed with inspiration, the second half was added with mechanical routine. Liszt corrected this by modifying the melody, the bass and - in cases - the harmonies.

Many of Liszt's results were remarkable. The Sonnambula-fantasy for example, a concert piece full of charming melodies, could certainly not have been composed either by Bellini or by Liszt alone. Outstanding examples are also the Rigoletto-Paraphrase and the Faust-Walzer. The most delicate harmonies in parts of those pieces were not invented by Verdi and Gounod, but by Liszt. Hans von Bülow admitted, that Liszt's transcription of his Dante Sonett "Tanto gentile" was much more refined than the original he himself had composed.

Original songs

Franz Liszt composed about six dozen original songs with piano accompaniment. In most cases the lyrics were in German or French, but there are also some songs in Italian and Hungarian and one song in English. Liszt began with the song "Angiolin dal biondo crin" in 1839, and by 1844 had composed about two dozen songs. Some of them had been published as single pieces. In addition, there was an 1843-1844 series "Buch der Lieder". The series had been projected for three volumes, consisting of six songs each, but only two volumes appeared.

Although Liszt's early songs are seldom sung, they show him in much better light than works such as the paraphrase "Gaudeamus igitur" and the Galop after Bulhakow, both composed in 1843. The transcriptions of the two volumes of the "Buch der Lieder" can be counted among Liszt's finest piano works. However, the contemporaries had much to criticise with regard to the style of the songs. Further critical remarks can be found in Peter Raabe's Liszts Schaffen.

Today, Liszt's songs are nearly entirely forgotten. As an exception, most frequently the song "Ich möchte hingehen" is cited. It is because of a single bar, most resembling the opening motif of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde". While it is commonly claimed that Liszt wrote that motif ten years before Wagner started work on his masterpiece, it has turned out that this is not true: the original version of "Ich möchte hingehn" was composed in 1844 or 1845. There are four manuscripts, and only a single one, a copy by August Conradi, contains the said bar with the Tristan motif. It is on a paste-over in Liszt's hand. Since in the second half of 1858 Liszt was preparing his songs for publication, and he just at that time received the first act of Wagner's Tristan, it is most likely that the version on the paste-over was a quotation from Wagner.. This is not to say, the motif was originally invented by Wagner. An earlier example can be found in bar 100 of Liszt's Ballade No.2 in B Minor for piano, composed in 1853.

Programme music

Liszt, in some of his works, supported the idea of programme music - that is, music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas. By contrast, absolute music (a radical new idea in the 19th century world of music) stands for itself and is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world.

Liszt's own point of view regarding programme music can for the time of his youth been taken from the preface of the Album d'un voyageur (1837). According to this, a landscape could evoke a certain kind of mood. Since a piece of music could also evoke a mood, a mysterious resemblance with the landscape could be imagined. In this sense the music would not paint the landscape, but it would match the landscape in a third category, the mood.

In July 1854 Liszt wrote his essay about Berlioz and the Harold-Symphony that stated that not all music was programme music. If, in the heat of a debate, a person would go so far as to claim the contrary, it would be better to put all ideas of programme music aside. But it would be possible to take means like harmony, modulation, rhythm, instrumentation and others in order to let a musical motif endure a fate. In any case, a program should only be added to a piece of music if it was necessarily needed for an adequate understanding of that piece.

Still later, in a letter to Marie d'Agoult of November 15, 1864, Liszt wrote:

Without any reserve I completely subscribe the rule of which you so kindly want to remind me, that those musical works which are in a general sense following a programme must take effect on imagination and emotion, independent of any programme. In other words: All beautiful music must be first rate and always satisfy the absolute rules of music which are not to be violated or prescribed.

Late works

See also: Late works (Liszt)

Liszt as caricatured in 1886 by Vanity Fair's 'Spy'

With some works from the end of the Weimar years Liszt drifted more and more away from the musical taste of his time. An early example is the melodrama "Der traurige Mönch" ("The sad monk") after a poem by Nikolaus Lenau, composed in the beginning of October 1860. While in the 19th century harmonies were usually considered as major or minor triads to which dissonances could be added, Liszt took the augmented triad as central chord.

More examples can be found in the third volume of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage. "Les Jeux d'Eaux à la Villa d'Este" ("The Fountains of the Villa d'Este"), composed in September 1877, foreshadows the impressionism of pieces on similar subjects by Debussy and Ravel. However, other pieces such as the "Marche funèbre, En mémoire de Maximilian I, Empereur du Mexique" ("Funeral march, In memory of Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico") composed in 1867 are without stylistic parallel in the 19th and 20th centuries.

At a later stage Liszt experimented with "forbidden" things such as parallel 5ths in the "Csárdás macabre" and atonality in the Bagatelle sans tonalité ("Bagatelle without Tonality"). In the last part of his "2de Valse oubliée" ("2nd Forgotten waltz") Liszt composed that he could not find a lyrical melody. Pieces like the "2nd Mephisto-Waltz" are shocking with nearly endless repetitions of short motives. Also characteristic are the "Via crucis" of 1878, as well as Unstern!, Nuages Gris, and the two works entitled La lugubre gondola of the 1880s.

Literary works

Besides his musical works, Liszt wrote essays about many subjects. Most important for an understanding of his development is the article series "De la situation des artistes" ("On the situation of the artists") which 1835 was published in the Parisian Gazette musicale. In winter 1835-36, during Liszt's stay in Geneva, about half a dozen further essays followed. One of them which should have been published under the name "Emm Prym" was about Liszt's own works. It was sent to Maurice Schlesinger, editor of the Gazette musicale. Schlesinger, however, following an advice of Berlioz, did not publish it. In the beginning of 1837, Liszt published a review of some piano works of Sigismond Thalberg. The review evoked a huge scandal. Liszt also published a series of writings titled "Baccalaureus letters", ending in 1841.

During the Weimar years, Liszt wrote a series of essays about operas, leading from Gluck to Wagner. Besides, Liszt wrote essays about Berlioz and the symphony "Harold in Italy", Robert and Clara Schumann, John Field's nocturnes, songs of Robert Franz, a planned Goethe foundation at Weimar, and other subjects. In addition to these essays, Liszt wrote a book about Chopin as well as a book about the Gypsies and their music in Hungary.

While all of those literary works were published under Liszt's name, it is not quite clear which parts of them he had written himself. It is known from his letters that during the time of his youth there had been collaboration with Marie d'Agoult. During the Weimar years it was the Princess Wittgenstein who helped him. In most cases the manuscripts have disappeared so that it is difficult to decide which of Liszt's literary works actually were works of his own. However, until the end of his life it was Liszt's point of view that it was he who was responsible for the contents of those literary works.

Liszt also worked until at least 1885 on a treatise for modern harmony. Pianist Arthur Friedheim, who also served as Liszt's personal secretary, remembered seeing it among Liszt's papers at Weimar. Liszt told Friedheim that the time was not yet ripe to publish the manuscript, titled Sketches for a Harmony of the Future. Unfortunately, this treatise has been lost.

Legacy

Liszt's students

Early students

Liszt was one of the most noted teachers of the 19th century. This part of his career commenced after his father's death in August 1827. For the purpose of earning his own and his mother's living, Liszt gave lessons in composition and piano playing. According to a letter to Monsieur de Mancy on December 23, 1829, he was so full of lessons that each day, from half-past eight in the morning till 10 at night, he had scarcely breathing time. Most of Liszt's students of this period were amateurs, but there were also some who made a professional career. An example of the first kind is Valerie Boissier, the later Comtesse de Gasparin. Examples of the second kind are Pierre Wolff and Hermann Cohen. During winter 1835-36 they were Liszt's colleagues at the Conservatoire at Geneva. Wolff then went to St. Petersburg.

Cohen, who from George Sand received the nickname "Puzzi", developed into a very successful pianist. Of Jewish origin, he was baptized on August 28, 1847. On this day he experienced what he called an "apparition" of Christ, Mary and the saints in an "ecstasy of love". A year later he became novice of a Carmelite convent. When on October 7, 1850, he was professed, he took the name Père Augstin-Marie du Très Saint Sacrament ("Pater Augustin-Mary of the Holiest Sacrament"). On April 19, 1851, he was ordained as priest. In spring 1862 he met Liszt in Rome. After colloquies with Pater Augustin, Liszt decided that he would himself become ecclesiastic.

During the years of his tours Liszt gave only few lessons. Examples of students from this period are Johann Nepumuk Dunkl and Wilhelm von Lenz. Dunkl received lessons from Liszt during winter 1839-40. He had introduced himself by playing Thalberg's Fantasy op.6 on melodies from Meyerbeer's opera "Robert le diable". Liszt later called him a "Halbschüler" ("half-student"). Lenz, from St. Petersburg, had met Liszt already at the end of 1828. In summer 1842 he was in Paris again where he received further lessons from Liszt. He was merely an amateur with a repertoire of pieces such as Chopin's Nocturne op.9/2. In spring 1844, in Dresden, Liszt met the young Hans von Bülow, his later son in law. Bülow's repertoire included Thalberg's Fantasy "La Donna del Lago" op.40 and Liszt's Sonnambula-Fantasy.

Later students

Since Liszt had settled in Weimar, the number of those who received lessons from him was steadily increasing. Until his death in 1886 there would have been several hundred people who in some sense may have been regarded as his students. August Göllerich published a voluminous catalogue of them. In a note he added the remark that he had taken the connotation "student" in its widest sense. As consequence, his catalogue includes names of pianists, violinists, cellists, harpists, organists, composers, conductors, singers and even writers. Another catalogue was prepared by Carl Lachmund. In Lachmund's catalogue his own wife's name, missing in Göllerich's catalogue, is included. She had successfully persuaded Liszt to listen to her playing the harp. After she had played a single piece, without Liszt saying a word about it, she was nominated as Liszt's student by her husband.

The following catalogue by Ludwig Nohl, headed with "Die Hauptschüler Liszts" ("Liszt's main students"), was approved in September 1881 and, with regard to the order of the names, corrected, by Liszt.

Hans von Bülow	Carl Tausig	Franz Bendel
Hans von Bronsart	Karl Klindworth	Alexander Winterberger
Julius Reubke	Theodor Ratzenberger	Robert Pflughaupt
Friedrich Altschul	Nicolaus Neilissoff	Carl Bärmann
Dionys Pruckner	Ferdinand Schreiber	Louis Rothfeld
Antal Siposs	George Leitert	Julius Richter
Louis Jungmann	William Mason	Max Pinner
Juliusz Zarębski	Giovanni Sgambati	Carlo Lippi
Siegfried Langaard	Karl Pohlig	Arthur Friedheim
Louis Marek	Eduard Reuss	Bertrand Roth
Berthold Kellermann	Carl Stasny	Josef Wieniawsky
Ingeborg Starck-Bronsart	Sophie Menter-Popper	Sophie Pflughaupt
Aline Hundt	Pauline Fichtner-Erdmannsdörfer	Ahrenda Blume
Anna Mehlig	Vera Timanova	Martha Remmert
Sara Magnus-Heinze	Dora Petersen	Ilonka Ravacz
Cäcilia Gaul	Marie Breidenstein	Amy Fay

In 1886 a similar catalogue would have been much longer, including names such as Eugen d'Albert, Walter Bache, Carl Lachmund, Moriz Rosenthal, Emil Sauer, Alexander Siloti, Conrad Ansorge, William Dayas, August Göllerich, Bernhard Stavenhagen, August Stradal, István Thomán and others.

Nohl's catalogue was by far not complete, and this even when the restriction to the period since the Weimar years is neglected. Of Liszt's Hungarian students, for example, only Antal Siposs and Ilonka Ravasz were mentioned. Siposs had become Liszt's student in 1858 in Weimar, after Liszt had heard him playing at a concert and invited him. In 1861 Siposs returned to Budapest, where in 1875 he founded a music school. Ilonka Ravasz was since winter 1875-76 one of Liszt's most gifted students at the newly founded Royal Academy for Music at Budapest. Astonishingly, the names of Aladár Juhász and Károly Aggházy are missing in Nohl's catalogue, although both had been among Liszt's favourite students at the Hungarian Academy.

Also missing are the names of Agnes Street-Klindworth and Olga Janina. Agnes Street-Klindworth had in 1853 arrived in Weimar, where she received lessons in piano playing from Liszt and lessons in composition from Peter Cornelius. Until 1861 she was Liszt's secret mistress. Olga Janina had joined the circle around Liszt in 1869 in Rome. According to Liszt's impression, she had rare and admirable musical talents. In his presence, she performed his piano concertos in E-flat and A Major as well as further examples of his works.

Unfortunately, Olga Janina fell in love with Liszt. They had a short affair, until in spring 1871 - on Liszt's initiative - they separated. Olga went to America, but in spring 1873 returned to Budapest. In a telegram to Liszt she had announced that she would kill him. After three adventurous days together with Liszt in an apartment in Budapest she left. Together with Liszt's student Franz Servais she first went to Belgium where she gave concerts which were brilliant successes. She then, together with Servais, went to Italy.

During the 1870s Olga Janina wrote several scandalous books about Liszt, among them the novel Souvenirs d'une Cosaque, published under the pseudonym "Robert Franz". In Göllerich's catalogue of Liszt's students she is registered as "Janina, Olga, Gräfin (Marquise Cezano) (Genf)". Thus she may have changed her name and moved to Geneva. Taking the preface of her Souvenirs d'üne Cosaque literally, she had first moved from Italy to Paris where she had lived in poverty. The last paragraph of the preface can be read as a dedication to Liszt.

Besides Liszt's master students there was a crowd of those who could at best reach only moderate abilities. In such cases, Liszt's lessons changed nothing. However, also several of Liszt's master students were disappointed about him. An example is Eugen d'Albert, who in the end was on nearly hostile terms with Liszt. The same must be said of Felix Draeseke who had joined the circle around Liszt at Weimar in 1857, and who during the first half of the 1860s had been one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School. In Nohl's catalogue he is not even mentioned. Also Hans von Bülow, since the 1860s, had more and more drifted towards a direction which was not only different from Liszt's, but opposite to it

According to August Stradal, some of Liszt's master students had claimed that Anton Rubinstein was a better teacher than Liszt. It might have been meant as allusion to Emil Sauer, who had in Moscow studied with Nikolai Rubinstein. During a couple of months in summers 1884 and 1885 he studied with Liszt at Weimar. When he arrived for the first time, he already was a virtuoso of strongest calibre who shortly before had made a concert tour through Spain. The question of whether there was any change in his playing after he had studied with Liszt remains open. According to his autobiography Meine Welt, he had found it imposing when Arthur Friedheim was thundering Liszt's Lucrezia-Fantasy. Regarding Liszt's playing a Beethoven Sonata, however, he wrote, Liszt had at least given a good performance as actor. As his opinion, Sauer had told his fellow students that Anton Rubinstein was a greater composer than Liszt. In Sauer's own compositions, a piano concerto, two sonatas, about two and a half dozen Etudes and several concert pieces, no influence of Liszt as composer of the 1880s can be recognized.

Liszt's teaching approach

Liszt offered his students little technical advice, expecting them to "wash their dirty linen at home," as he phrased it. Instead, he focused on musical interpretation with a combination of anecdote, metaphor and wit. He advised one student tapping out the opening chords of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, "Do not chop beefsteak for us." To another who blurred the rhythm in Liszt's Gnomenreigen (usually done by playing the piece too fast in the composer's presence): "There you go, mixing salad again." Liszt also wanted to avoid creating carbon copies of himself; rather, he believed in preserving artistic individuality.

There were some pieces which Liszt famously refused to hear at his masterclasses. Among them were Carl Tausig's transcription of J. S. Bach's organ Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, and Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor. Liszt also did not like to hear his own Polonaise No. 2 in E Major, as it was overplayed and frequently badly played.

Liszt did not charge for lessons. He was troubled when German newspapers published details of pedagogue Theodor Kullak's will, revealing that Kullak had generated more than one million marks from teaching. "As an artist, you do not rake in a million marks without performing some sacrifice on the altar of Art," Liszt told his biographer Lina Ramann. He also wrote the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, urging Kullak's sons to create an endowment for needy musicians, as Liszt himself frequently did.

Royal Academy of Music at Budapest

Since the early 1860s there were attempts of some of Liszt's Hungarian contemporaries to have him settled with a position in Hungary. In January 1862, in Rome, Liszt received a letter by Baron Gábor Prónay, since 1850 President of a Conservatory in Pest. Baron Prónay offered Liszt the position as President. When in 1867 the Conservatory became "Ungarisches National Konservatorium" ("Hungarian National Conservatory"), Baron Prónay still tried to persuade Liszt to take the leadership. Liszt, however, in letters to Baron Prónay and further ones of his Hungarian contemporaries explained that his career as virtuoso and as conductor had finally ended. If he took a position in Hungary, it would be solely for the purpose of spreading his own compositions, his Oratorios and his symphonic works. Besides, as soon as he left Rome, it was his duty to spend some months of the year in Weimar. The Grand Duc had for several times asked for it.

In 1871 the Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy made a new attempt. In a writing of June 4, 1871, to the Hungarian King he demanded an annual rent of 4,000 Gulden and the rank of a "Königlicher Rat" ("Councellor of the King") for Liszt, who in return would permanently settle in Budapest, directing the orchestra of the National Theatre as well as music schools and further musical institutions. With decision of June 13, 1871, the King agreed. By that time there were also plans of the foundation of a Royal Academy for Music at Budapest, of which the Hungarian state should be in charge. The Royal Academy is not to be confused with the National Conservatory which still existed. The National Conservatory, of which the city Budapest was in charge, was until his death in 1875 directed by Baron Prónay. His successor was Count Géza Zichy.

The plan of the foundation of the Royal Academy was in 1871 refused by the Hungarian Parliament, but a year later the Parliament agreed. Liszt was ordered to take part in the foundation. In March 1875 he was nominated as President. According to his wishes, the Academy should have been opened not earlier than in late autumn 1876. However, the Academy was officially opened already on November 14, 1875. Since it was Liszt's opinion that his colleagues Franz Erkel, the director, Kornél Ábrányi and Robert Volkmann could quite well do this job without him, he was absent. He arrived on February 15, 1876, in Budapest. On March 2 he started giving lessons, and on March 30 he left. The main purpose of his coming to Budapest had been a charity concert on March 20 in favour of the victims of a flood.

In November 1875, 38 students had passed the entrance examinations. 21 of them wanted to study piano playing, the others composition. Details of the entrance exainations are known from an account by Károly Swoboda (Szabados), one of Liszt's first students at the Royal Academy. According to this, candidates for a piano class had to play a single piano piece of their own choice. It could be a sonata movement by Mozart, Clementi or Beethoven. The candidates then had to sight read an easy further piece. Candidates for a composition class had to reproduce and continue a given melody of 4, 5 or 8 bars, after Volkmann had played it for about half a dozen times to them. Besides, they had to put harmonies to a given bass which was written on a table.

After Liszt had arrived, he selected 8 students for his class for advanced piano playing. To these came Áladár Juhász as the most outstanding one. As exception, he was to study piano playing only with Liszt. The others were matriculated as students of Erkel, since it was him from whom they would receive their lessons during Liszt's absence. Erkel also gave lessons in specific matters of Hungarian music. Volkmann gave lessons in composition and instrumentation. Ábrányi gave lessons in music aesthetics and harmony theory. Liszt had wished that there should have been a class for sacral music, leaded by Franz Xaver Witt. He had also wished that Hans von Bülow should take a position as piano professor. However, neither Witt nor Bülow agreed.

In spite of the conditions under which Liszt had in June 1871 been appointed as "Königlicher Rat", he neither directed the orchestra of the National Theatre, nor did he permanently settle in Hungary. As usual case, he arrived in mid-winter in Budapest. After one or two concerts of his students by the beginning of spring he left. He never took part in the final examinations, which were in summer of every year. Most of his students were still matriculated as students of either Erkel or later Henrik Gobbi. Some of them joined the lessons which he gave in summer in Weimar. In winter, when he was in Budapest, some students of his Weimar circle joined him there.

Judging from the concert programs of Liszt's students at Budapest, the standard resembled that of an advanced masterclass of our days. There was a difference, however, with regard to the repertoire. Most works as played at the concerts were works of composers of the 19th century, and many of the composers are now forgotten. As rare exceptions, occasionally a piece of J. S. Bach or Händel was played. Mozart and Haydn, but also Schubert and Weber, were missing. Of Beethoven only a comparatively small selection of his works was played. In typical cases Liszt himself was merely represented with his transcriptions.

The actual abilities Liszt's students at Budapest and the standard of their playing can only be guessed. Liszt's lessons of winter 1877-78 were in letters to Lina Ramann described by Auguste Rennebaum, herself Liszt's student at the Royal Academy. According to this, there had been some great talents in Liszt's class. However, the abilities of the majority had been very poor. August Stradal, who visited Budapest in 1885 and 1886, took the same point of view. In contrast to this, Deszö Legány claimed, much in Stradal's book was nonsense, taken from Stradal's own fantasy. Legány's own reliability, however, is not beyond doubt since many of his attempts of whitewashing Liszt and - even more - the Hungarian contemporaries are too obvious. Margit Prahács shared and supported Stradal's view. Her quotations from the contemporary Hungarian press show that much of Stradal's critique had been true. Concerning Liszt's relation with his Hungarian contemporaries at the end of his life, for example, in spring 1886 the journal Zenelap wrote:

It is solely in Budapest, where musicians are wandering on such high clouds that they hardly take notice when Liszt is among them.

In 1873, at the occasion of Liszt's 50th anniversary as performing artist, the city Budapest had installed a "Franz Liszt Stiftung" ("Franz Liszt Foundation"). The foundation was destined to provide stipends of 200 Gulden for three students of the Academy who had shown excellent abilities and especially had achieved progress with regard to Hungarian music. Every year it was Liszt alone who could decide which one of the students should receive the money. He gave the total sum of 600 Gulden either to a single student or to a group of three or more of them, not asking whether they were actually matriculated at the Academy.

It was also Liszt's habit to declare all students who took part in his lessons as his private students. As consequence, nearly none of them paid any charge at the Academy. Since the Academy needed the money, there was a ministerial order of February 13, 1884, according to which all those who took part in Liszt's lessons had to pay an annual charge of 30 Gulden. However, Liszt did not respect this, and in the end the Minister resigned. In fact, the Academy was still the winner, since Liszt gave much money from his taking part in charity concerts.

The lessons in specific matters of Hungarian music turned out as problematic enterprise, since there were different opinions, exactly what Hungarian music actually was. In 1881 a new edition of Liszt's book about the Gypsies and their music in Hungary appeared. According to this, Hungarian music was identical with the music as played by the Hungarian Gypsies. Liszt had also claimed, Semitic people, among them the Gypsies, had no genuine creativity. For this reason, according to Liszt's book, they only adopted melodies from the country where they lived. After the book had appeared, Liszt was in Budapest accused for a presumed spreading of anti-Semitic ideas. In the following year no students at all wanted to be matriculated for lessons in Hungarian music. According to the issue of July 1, 1886, of the journal Zenelap, this subject at the Hungarian Academy had already a long time ago been dropped.

In 1886 there was still no class for sacral music, but there were classes for solo and chorus singing, piano, violin, cello, organ and composition. The number of students had grown to 91 and the number of professors to 14. Since winter 1879-80 the Academy had an own building. In the first floor there was an apartment where since winter 1880-81 Liszt lived during his stays in Budapest. His last stay was from January 30 to March 12, 1886. After Liszt's death Janós Végh, since 1881 vice-president, became president. Not earlier than 40 years later the Academy was renamed as "Franz Liszt Akademie". Until then, due to world war I, Liszt's Europe and also his Hungary had died. As main part, the only connection between Franz Liszt and the "Franz Liszt Akademie" thus was the name.

Liszt School of Music Weimar

On June 24, 1872, the composer and conductor Karl Müller-Hartung founded an "Orchesterschule" ("Orchestra School") at Weimar. Although Liszt and Müller-Hartung were on friendly terms, Liszt took no active part in that foundation. The "Orchesterschule" later developed to a conservatory which still exists and is now called "Franz Liszt Hochschule".

Media

See also

• List of compositions by Franz Liszt (S.1 - S.350)
• List of compositions by Franz Liszt (S.351 - S.999)
• Category:Compositions by Franz Liszt
• Symphonic Poems (Liszt)
• War of the Romantics
• Hungarian wikipedia

References

Bibliography

• Bory, Robert: Une retraite romantique en Suisse, Liszt et la Comtesse d'Agoult, Lausanne 1930.
• Burger, Ernst: Franz Liszt, Eine Lebenschronik in Bildern und Dokumenten, München 1986.
• Ehrhardt, Damien (éd.): Franz Liszt - Musique, médiation, interculturalité (Etudes germaniques 63/3, 2008).
• Franz, Robert (i. e. Janina, Olga): Souvenirs d'une Cosaque, Deuxième édition, Paris 1874.
• Göllerich, August: Musikerbiographien, Achter Band, Liszt, Zweiter Theil, Reclam, Leipzig, without date (1887-88).
• Hamburger, Klara (ed.): Franz Liszt, Beiträge von ungarischen Autoren, Budapest 1978.
• Hamilton, Kenneth (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Liszt, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
• Jerger, Wilhelm (ed.): The Piano Master Classes of Franz Liszt 1884-1886, Diary Notes of August Göllerich, translated by Richard Louis Zimdars, Indiana University Press 1996.
• Legány, Deszö: Franz Liszt, Unbekannte Presse und Briefe aus Wien 1822-1886, Wien 1984.
• Legány, Dezsö: Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1869-1873, Occidental Press, Budapest 1983.
• Legány, Dezsö: Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1874-1886, Occidental Press, Budapest 1992.
• Liszt, Franz: Briefwechsel mit seiner Mutter, edited and annotated by Klara Hamburger, Eisenstadt 2000.
• Liszt, Franz and d'Agoult, Marie: Correspondence, ed. Daniel Ollivier, Tome I: 1833-1840, Paris 1933, Tome II: 1840-1864, Paris 1934.
• Nohl, Ludwig: Musikerbiographien, Vierter Band, Liszt, Erster Theil, Reclam, Leipzig, without date (1881-82).
• Ollivier, Daniel: Autour de Mme d’Agoult et de Liszt, Paris 1941.
• Prahács, Margit (ed.): Franz Liszt, Briefe aus ungarischen Sammlungen, 1835-1886, Budapest 1966.
• Prahács, Margit: Franz Liszt und die Budapester Musikakademie, in: Hamburger (ed.): Franz Liszt, Beiträge von ungarischen Autoren, p.49ff.
• Raabe, Peter: Liszts Schaffen, Cotta, Stuttgart und Berlin 1931.
• Ramann, Lina: Lisztiana, Erinnerungen an Franz Liszt in Tagebuch­blättern, Briefen und Doku­men­ten aus den Jah­ren 1873-1886/87, ed. Arthur Seidl, text revision by Friedrich Schnapp, Mainz 1983.
• Rellstab, Ludwig: Franz Liszt, Berlin 1842.
• Saffle, Michael: Liszt in Germany, 1840-1845, Franz Liszt Studies Series No.2, Pendragon Press, Stuyvesant, NY, 1994.
• Sauer, Emil: Meine Welt, Stuttgart 1901.
• Searle, Humphrey: Article Liszt, Franz, in: Sadie, Stanley (ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, First Edition, London 1980.
• Steinbeck, Arne: Franz Liszt's approach to piano playing, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland 1971.
• Stradal, August: Erinnerungen an Franz Liszt, Bern, Leipzig 1929.
• Walker, Alan: Franz Liszt, The Virtuoso Years (1811-1847), revised edition, Cornell University Press 1987.
• Walker, Alan: Franz Liszt, The Final Years (1861-1886), Cornell University Press 1997.
• Walker, Alan: Article Liszt, Franz, in: Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition, London 2001).

External links

• Franz Liszt at Curlie
• Free scores by Franz Liszt at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Template:WIMA
• Works by Franz Liszt at Project Gutenberg
• Lina Ramann's classical Liszt biography at Zeno.org
• The Students of Liszt on Record and Reproducing Piano Roll by Mark Arnest

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