Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) - an outstanding Hungarian pianist and composer
Franz Liszt was born on October 22, 1811 in the village of Doboryan(Hungary).As a child, he was fascinated by gypsy music and the cheerful dances of the Hungarian peasants. The father was the manager of the estate of Count Esterhazy. He was an amateur musician and encouraged his son's interest in music; He taught Ferens the basics of the pianogames. At the age of 9, Ferenc gave his first concert in the nearby town of Sopron. Soon he was invited to the magnificent Esterhazy Palace. Ferenc's game impressed the count's guests, and several Hungarian nobles decided to pay for Ferenc's further education. He was sent to Vienna, where he studied composition with Salieri and piano with Czerny. Liszt's Vienna debut took place on December 1, 1822. Critics were delighted, and since then Liszt has been provided with fame and full houses.
From the famous publisher A. Diabelli, he received an invitation to compose variations on a waltz theme invented by Diabelli himself; thus the young musician found himself in the company of the great Beethoven and Schubert, to whom the publisher turned with the same request. Despite this, Liszt (as a foreigner) was not admitted to the Paris Conservatory, he had to continue his education privately. After the death of his father (1827), Liszt began to give lessons. Then he met the young Berlioz and Chopin, whose art had a strong influence on him:
Liszt was able to "translate into the language of the piano" the richness of Berlioz's scores and combine Chopin's soft lyricism with his own stormy temperament.
In the early 1830s, the Italian virtuoso violinist Paganini became Liszt's idol; Liszt set out to create an equally brilliant piano style, and even adopted from Paganini some of his behavior on the concert stage. Liszt had practically no rivals as a virtuoso pianist.FerencSheetwas good-looking, his concert trips of those years were invariably accompanied by loud and publicly discussed affaires de coeur, "romances". In 1834, Liszt began a life together with Countess Marie d "Agout (later she acted as a writer under the pseudonym Daniel Stern). Three children were born from their union - a son and two daughters, the youngest of whom, Cosima, married the great pianist and conductor G von Bülow, and then became the wife of Richard Wagner.
(At the piano, F. Liszt. At his feet, Marie d'Agout. In the center sits J. Sand, with his hand on Dumas. Behind are Hugo and Rossini, hugging Paganini by the shoulders.)
Liszt performed in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Hungary, Scotland, Russia, and in 1849 gave a series of concerts, the funds from which went to the construction of a monument to Beethoven in Bonn. In 1844, Liszt became bandmaster at the ducal court in Weimar. This small German city was once a thriving cultural center, and Liszt dreamed of restoring Weimar to the glory of the capital of the arts. In 1847, having decided to devote himself to Weimar, Liszt undertook a farewell concert tour. During his stay in Russia, he met Princess Caroline Sein-Wittgenstein, and returned with her to Weimar. In the role of Kapellmeister, Liszt supported everything new, radical, sometimes rejected by others. With the same zeal, he performed the works of old masters and the experiments of novice composers. He organized a week of Berlioz music at a time when the romantic style of this composer did not meet with understanding in France. Liszt even managed to organize the premiere of Wagner's opera Tannhäuser in Weimar during the years when its author was a political exile and threatened with arrest.
Richard Wagner in the center, Franz Liszt, his daughter Cosima
Liszt is considered a paramount figure in the history of music. As a composer and transcriber, he created over 1,300 works. Like Chopin and Schumann, Liszt in his composing activity gave the palm to the solo piano. Probably Liszt's most popular work is Dreams of Love (Liebestraum).
Among other works by Francis Liszt for piano, one can single out 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies (based on gypsy rather than Magyar melodies). Some of themwere later orchestrated.Liszt also wrote more than 60 songs and romances for voice and piano and several organ works, including a fantasy and a fugue on the BACH theme. Among Liszt's transcriptions are piano transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies and fragments from works by Bach, Bellini, Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Glinka, Gounod, Meyerbeer, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Paganini, Rossini, Saint-Saens, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann and others.
Liszt became the creator of the genre of one-movement semi-program symphonic form, which he called the symphonic poem. This genre was intended to express non-musical ideas or to retell works of literature and visual arts by musical means. The unity of the composition was achieved by the introduction of leitmotifs or leitmotifs, passing through the entire poem. Among Liszt's orchestral works (or pieces with an orchestra), the most interesting are the symphonic poems, especially the Preludes, Orpheus and Ideals. For different compositions with the participation of soloists, choir and orchestra, Liszt composed several masses, psalms, an oratorio, the legend of St. Elizabeth.
Estimates of the creative heritage of Liszt - a composer and pianist in the period after his death were ambiguous. Perhaps the immortality of his compositions was provided by a bold innovation in the field of harmony, which in many respects anticipated the development of the modern musical language. The chromatisms used by Liszt not only enriched the romantic style of the last century, but, more importantly, anticipated the crisis of traditional tonality in the 20th century. Sheet andWagnerwere adherents of the idea of synthesis of all arts as the highest form of artistic expression.
Like a pianistSheetperformed in concerts literally until the last days of his life. Some believe that he is the inventor of the genre of recitals of pianists and a special pathetic concert style that made virtuosity a self-sufficient and exciting form. Breaking with the old tradition, Liszt turned the piano so that concert goers could better see the impressive profile of the musician and his hands. Sometimes Liszt would put several instruments on stage and travel between them, playing each with equal brilliance. The emotional pressure and force of hitting the keys were such that during the tour he left behind him torn strings and broken hammers all over Europe. All this was an integral part of the performance. Liszt skillfully reproduced the sonority of a full orchestra on the piano, he had no equal in reading sheet music, he was also famous for his brilliant improvisations. But Liszt's authorship in the field of musical form and harmony, the new sound of the piano and instruments of the symphony orchestra was supported by the leading composers of his time. Having absorbed the culture of Germany and France, the classic of Hungarian musicSheet, made a great contribution to the development of the musical culture of Europe.
The life of Franz Liszt endedat the age of 75. He died while attending the Bayreuth festivals and was buried on July 31, 1886. at the Bayreuth City Cemetery.
