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Franz Liszt (1811—1886)

1. Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt and Adam Liszt on October 22, 1811 in the village of Doborján in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire. Liszt’s father played the piano, violin, cello, and guitar. He had been in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy and personally knew Haydn, Hummel, and Beethoven.

2. Liszt’s early progress was astounding. By the age of nine, he had already mastered Ferdinand Ries’s excruciatingly difficult E flat major Piano Concerto.

3. Through Chopin’s friend, George Sand, Liszt met the Comtesse d’Agoult, who in 1835 left her husband and family to live with him. Three children were born of this liaison – Blandine, Cosima, and Daniel.

4. Between 1835 and 1843, Liszt concertized extensively in Vienna, Leipzig, Prague, and Dresden while continuing to compose. Apart from several fine pieces, most of these works were transcriptions and arrangements of compositions by others. In 1843, already separated from the countess, Liszt accepted an appointment at Weimar as Grand Ducal Director of Music Extraordinary.

5. In 1846 Liszt returned to Hungary, where he became interested in gypsy music and eventually incorporated some of their melodies in his Hungarian Rhapsodies. On a concert tour in Russia, he met the Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein, who eventually left her husband to marry him. Unable to obtain a divorce in Russia, the princess moved with Liszt to Villa Altenberg, a home they bought in Weimar in 1848.

6. Here Liszt settled down to compose, teach, and conduct. He wrote two piano concertos, the Todtentanz for piano and orchestra, and the symphonic poems Tasso, Les Préludes, Mazeppa, and Hunnenschlacht in addition to conducting the first performances of numerous works, including Wagner’s Lohengrin in 1850 at the Staatskappelle Weimar. Liszt’s daughter Cosima married the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow in 1857. She later left him for Wagner, with whom she had three children before marrying him.

7. In 1871, Liszt was appointed Royal Hungarian Counselor and began the three-cornered journey to Rome, Weimar, and Budapest which became the pattern for the rest of his life. In 1873, the fiftieth anniversary of his career was celebrated at Budapest as a national occasion. In 1877, he participated in a concert in Vienna for the fiftieth anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s death, just as he had contributed to the activities celebrating the centennials of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1856 and of Beethoven in 1870.

8. Liszt moved to Rome in 1861. Such was his devotion to the church, Pope Pius IX conferred on him the title of “Abbé” four years later. 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.

9. In 1881, Liszt’s seventieth birthday was celebrated in Rome with a concert of his own music. On May 22, 1883, Liszt gave a memorial concert for Wagner, who had died in February. Liszt gave his last concert on July 19, 1886. The extent of his tours and the number of his concerts defy the imagination.

10. Liszt died in Bayreuth on July 31, 1886 from dropsy complicated by pneumonia.