ON October 22nd 1811, a group of gypsies camped outside the small Hungarian village of Raiding near the Esterhazy estate, heard that the prince’s land steward’s wife had given birth to a son. It was the year of the Great Comet, and the child, claimed the gypsies, was destined for greatness.
Franz Liszt fulfilled the prophecy. His father, Adam, was an able musician and enjoyed the musical atmosphere of the estate, the court in which Haydn had served for 30 years. Adam Liszt bought his son a piano as soon as he was big enough to sit at one. The story of Liszt is dominated by the images of the crazed, but undoubtedly handsome virtuoso, long, straight hair, at first dark, then white, his face strong, his expression intimidating He is portrayed as a lover and as a demon, the piano’s equivalent of Paganini, another artist who it was said had traded his soul with the devil in order to be able to play like one. But Liszt’s story begins conventionally enough with a dedicated parent, though not as obsessive as Mozart’s father.
By the age of nine, young Franz was so outstanding that his first public appearance upstaged that of the blind pianist who had been the main attraction. This was quickly followed by a solo recital at the Esterhazy court. So moved was the princess that she gave the child a Haydn memento – which the boy lost. Some local dignitaries discussed the playing which was reviewed as “beyond admiration” and they agreed to fund his studies for six years.
The family set off for Vienna, the music capital of Europe. Adam Liszt was fully committed to his son’s future and had resigned his post. He attempted to engage the services of Hummel who had also once worked at the Esterhazy court. But he was too expensive. Instead, with some irony, Adam Liszt secured a less costly teacher, none other than the then quite elderly Salieri whose story had been so dramatically linked with that of Mozart. Another tutor for the boy was the composer Czerny, who had been Beethoven’s most successful pupil. Czerny was generous and encouraging of the boy’s gifts, if also aware of his lack of discipline and technical control. Liszt’s fingers ran wild across the keyboard. This would not change and his followers would copy his extravagance.
By the time Liszt was 12 Czerny felt he had nothing further to teach him. It was the moment for him to move on again, this time to Paris. Before he did, he gave a concert in Budapest and repaid the money that had funded him in Vienna.
Liszt was a colourful character and difficult, but he was also generous, particularly to other musicians and he also gave to charities. Although a prolific composer, he celebrated the works of Beethoven (in whose memory he paid for a monument), Hummel and Schumann. He was a musician’s musician and there is a story about how he encouraged the nervous young Brahms who had come to Liszt’s home. Brahms had brought a copy of a new work, the Scherzo in E flat minor. He was too nervous to play it. So Liszt did. Then he played his own B minor sonata, now one of the war horses of the repertoire. Legend maintains that Brahms fell asleep while Liszt was playing. He noticed the affront, completed the piece and left the room. Fact or fiction, who knows? But Brahms the classicist never liked Liszt’s music. They were two very different romantics and it could be argued that Brahms was the last great romantic and the first great modern.
But as a romantic Liszt was the Delacroix of the keyboard. In common with Chopin who loved Poland, Liszt, fluent in several languages, no matter how complicated his life became, never forgot his native country. His piano concerto No 1 in E flat, the first performance of which in 1855 was conducted by Berlioz with Liszt playing, may well be his most famous work, but music lovers invariably include the Hungarian Rhapsodies as among their favourite works. Lively, even clichéd with their quasi-gypsy intonation, they are irresistible and showcase solo violin as well as the rhythms of folk music. The first 15 pieces were written during a seven-year period beginning in 1840, while the final three were completed during the 1870s. It is still true that Liszt the composer remains secondary to Liszt the performer, although his virtuoso career only lasted about 12 years because he attempted to settle down with Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein. They lived together in Weimar for 10 years while she awaited an annulment – which she never secured. Liszt was writing music, but he was also conducting and arranging concerts.
It was Liszt who first introduced the sound of water into music, an effect he achieved in By a Streamwhich he composed in Switzerland in 1836, thus predating both Debussy and Ravel. In common with Schumann, Liszt was interested in all aspects of the arts. From about 1860 he took to the road again, and the rumours about his sexual antics began to circulate. But there is yet another side to Liszt, that of the choral composer of works such as The Legend of St Christopher, which was not performed until 1967. Perhaps Liszt's spirituality is as complex as that of Tolstoy? Two of Liszt's three children died young and this must have impacted on the faith he had been born into. He did become a priest in 1865 at the age of 54, albeit an abbé one who was still able to marry. From that time he also lived simply in a monastery near Rome.
His influence runs through the story of 19th-century European music, as diverse and as confusing as mercury on a spoon. He once said he wanted to throw a spear “into the limitless realm of the future.” His surviving child was to leave her husband and marry
Wagner.
In 1886 Liszt was on a train heading for Bayreuth. A honeymoon couple in the carriage with him, opened the window to admire the moon. He caught a chill, which developed into pneumonia, and in Wagner’s home on July 31st, Liszt’s dazzling life of contradictions, diversions and achievements ended quietly.