Franz list never heard of him11/3/2023 He was the first composer who turned a musical performance into something like an athletic feat. At first, these programs were very flashy, often dominated by transcriptions of popular airs from contemporary operas. No one before Liszt played an entire public concert on the piano. Nevertheless, these spectacular passages were one of the reasons that his invention of the piano recital became such a success. In writing about Liszt as a composer, the constant invasion of his piano scores by long passages of challenging and conspicuous technical difficulty is rarely treated seriously. As a result, even today most performances of Liszt are generally intended not as a specifically musical experience, but chiefly to display the pianist’s technique, just as productions of Lucia di Lammermoor are much concerned to showcase the soprano’s highest notes and coloratura ability to warble with a flute (or glass harmonica, in the original version). The major part of his work was for piano, much of it tailored for himself to perform, many of the pieces presenting a difficulty of execution almost never before seen. Nevertheless, his career as a composer was always cursed by the fact that he was also, it is generally agreed, the greatest pianist who ever lived. The bicentenary of Franz Liszt (1811–1886) follows hard upon those of Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann, and he has conserved his place as one of the supreme Romantic composers. ![]() On the piano is a bust of Beethoven by Anton Dietrich,and on the wall is a portrait of Byron. ![]() Seated are Alexandre Dumas Sr., George Sand, and Marie d’Agoult standing are Hector Berlioz, Nicolò Paganini, and Gioachino Rossini. Josef Danhauser: Franz Liszt at the Piano, 1840. Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin/Juergen Liepe/Art Resource
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