Franz Liszt

Liszt is a redirect to this article. Further meanings are listed under Liszt (disambiguation) .

Franz Liszt at the age of 46,
photography by Franz Hanfstaengl

Franz Liszt [ list ], Hungarian Liszt Ferenc (z) (born October 22, 1811 in Raiding / Doborján , Kingdom of Hungary , Austrian Empire ; † July 31, 1886 in Bayreuth ), was a Hungarian-Austrian composer , pianist , conductor , theater director , Music teacher and writer with German mother tongue.

Liszt was one of the most prominent and influential piano virtuosos and, with an oeuvre of over 1,300 works and arrangements, one of the most productive composers of the 19th century. A large part of his oeuvre can be assigned to piano literature, but with the development of symphonic poetry , Liszt also gave clear impetus to orchestral music. His concept of program music and the use of new harmonic and formal means made him - next to Richard Wagner - the most famous protagonist of the New German School .

He was a co-founder of the General German Music Association . In 1859 he was raised as a knight by Liszt to the Austrian hereditary knighthood . At the age of 54 he received minor orders and the title of Abbé in Rome .

Franz Liszt in old age (1884), photograph by Louis Held

Life

Origin and parental home

Franz Liszt's birthplace in Raiding

Liszt's mother was born in Krems

Franz Liszt was the only son from the second marriage of Adam List (1776-1827) , who was also born in western Hungary - in what is now Burgenland - (whose name was recorded both as List and Liszt ), an administrative officer and music teacher in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy , and his wife Maria Anna, née Lager (1788–1866), a baker's daughter from Krems an der Donau who worked as a housemaid for Katharina von Kurzbeck in Vienna . Adam List played the cello in Prince Esterházy's summer orchestra when he was a teenager and joined the Prince’s administrative service after having broken off his studies in theology and philosophy. In addition, he continued to play as a cellist in the orchestra in Eisenstadt / Kismarton , which was directed by Joseph Haydn until 1804 and then by Johann Nepomuk Hummel until 1811 .

In 1808 Adam List was transferred to Raiding, which at that time belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary and only came to Austria as part of Burgenland in 1921 . A little later he met Anna Lager, who became his second wife in January 1811. Their son Franz was born on October 22, 1811. Due to the domestic situation, his mother tongue was German, at that time nothing unusual in the western outskirts of Hungary (German-West Hungary). Publications of Hungarian and German "convictions" found a way to claim their successes for their own nation, for example on the German side: "The world-famous piano virtuoso who came from German parents by chance saw the light of day in Hungary". At the beginning of the 1820s, Liszt and his parents began to learn French, which soon became Liszt's preferred language and in which he mostly corresponded. He later saw France as his " fatherland ". Franz Liszt only learned Hungarian in the 1870s. Although Franz Liszt, who grew up with German and then French, had difficulties with the Hungarian language, he did not shake his Hungarian citizenship and publicly referred to himself as a Magyar .

Development into a child prodigy

According to his own statements from a later time, Liszt had “learned to write music on his own” at the age of seven and, according to his father, had “scribbled quite a lot of sheets with notes” before he was nine years old. In October 1820, at the age of nine, Liszt appeared in public for the first time in a concert with Baron von Braun in Ödenburg / Sopron , performing a piano concerto in E flat major by Ferdinand Ries and his own improvisation. On November 26, 1820, he gave his first concert in Pressburg . The following report appeared in the Städtische Preßburger Zeitung of November 28, 1820:

“Last Sunday, on the 26th of this month, this at noon, the nine-year-old virtuoso Franz Liszt had the honor of meeting in front of a large gathering of the local high nobility and several art lovers in the apartment of the high-born Count Michael Eszterházy To produce clavier. The extraordinary skill of this artist, as well as his quick overview in solving the most difficult pieces by playing off everything that was presented to him, aroused general admiration and justified the most wonderful expectations. "

Adam List, who recognized his son's extraordinary talent more and more, did everything he could to “shape” his son and, like Leopold Mozart , became a strict music educator. Liszt's early fixation on a career as a pianist led to considerable deficiencies in his general education, which he was only able to compensate later through intensive self-study. In order to finance his son a qualified artistic education in Vienna, Adam List sold assets. He also took unpaid leave. After the prince approved a sum of 200 florins for Franz's education, Adam List traveled to Vienna on May 8, 1822 with his wife and son. There Franz was instructed in piano by Carl Czerny and from August 1822 in composition by Antonio Salieri .

Soon after his arrival in Vienna, Liszt appeared in private circles. On December 1, 1822, he played Hummel's piano concerto in A minor in the country hall, as well as an improvisation on an aria from Rossini's opera Zelmira and the Allegretto from Beethoven's 7th Symphony. On April 13, 1823, he gave the concert in the small Redoutensaal, at the end of which, according to legend , he was supposed to have received a consecration kiss from Beethoven . But today it can be taken for granted that Beethoven was not present at the concert. In a review of the Wiener Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung , he was praised for considering his age, although a lack of physical strength was also noticed.

After trying in vain to extend his vacation by two more years, Adam List quit his job with Prince Esterházy. The family traveled to Hungary, where Franz Liszt gave his first concerts in Pest in May 1823. They then traveled back to Vienna, where Liszt received lessons from Czerny and Salieri for a few months.

Franz Liszt 1824, lithograph after
a drawing by AX Leprince

"Petit Litz" and "Master Liszt"

On September 20, 1823, the Liszt family left Vienna to travel to Paris , where Franz (with a letter of recommendation from Prince Metternich ) was to study at the Conservatory . After stopping at concerts in Munich, Augsburg, Stuttgart and Strasbourg, the family arrived in Paris on December 11, 1823. However, the director of the conservatory, Luigi Cherubini , refused to accept Liszt because the conservatory was reserved for French only. So his father took over the further piano training and was a strict teacher. He also received composition lessons from Ferdinando Paër and Antonín Reicha . After private appearances in the highest social circles and concerts in the Italian theater in Paris, Liszt quickly rose to fame as "petit Litz". He has been named the Born Again Mozart in reviews .

Between 1824 and 1827 the “boy wonder” traveled with his father several times to England, gave concerts at Windsor Castle and was hailed there as “Master Liszt”. Together with his father, he also toured the French provinces and Switzerland.

From Adam Liszt's letters it is clear that his son composed piano works, including sonatas and concerts, as well as works in chamber music genres and works for singing in his early youth. Almost all of these compositions are lost, so that no judgment is possible. The child prodigy's first published piano works are études , variations of his own themes and themes by Diabelli , Rossini and Gaspare Spontini , as well as his first opera Don Sanche ou Le château d'amour , which Liszt composed with the help of his teacher Paër and which was published on October 17th It premiered in Paris in 1825 under the direction of Rodolphe Kreutzer . The opera was soon removed from the program. Even with his first piano works, the young Liszt was unsuccessful and soon got into a first life crisis, as his diary entries in the summer of 1827 show. When his father fell ill on a concert tour in England, they both sought rest in Boulogne-sur-Mer . Adam Liszt died there on August 28, 1827 at the age of 50. For his fifteen-year-old son, this marked a turning point in his life, which until now has been characterized by the ambition, constant presence and dominance of his strict father.

On my own two feet in Paris (1827–1834)

Life crisis

Abbé Félicité de Lamennais inspired Liszt. Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin

Franz Liszt returned mentally disturbed to Paris, where he and his mother moved into a small apartment, first in the rue Montholon and later in the rue de Provence. He now only occasionally took part in concerts by other artists and was no longer active as a pianist for two years. In order to earn a living for himself and his mother, Liszt now gave lessons in piano and composition. He got to know Caroline de Saint-Criq. She was the daughter of the French interior minister, who is said to have forbidden a continuation of the relationship because of the great difference in class. The seventeen year old became more and more depressed, withdrew completely and immersed himself in the reading of religious writings, contemporary fiction ( Chateaubriand and Byron ) and philosophical writings in order to improve his education, because he had only had a short elementary education. He was enthusiastic about different intellectual and political currents of the time and made contact with intellectuals and writers in Paris, u. a. Victor Hugo , Honoré de Balzac , Heinrich Heine , Alexandre Dumas , George Sand and Théophile Gautier . In line with many other artists, Liszt was also committed to the teaching of the Saint-Simonists , who wanted to reform society in the manner of early socialism. The Abbé Félicité de Lamennais , whose book Paroles d'un croyant Liszt read with enthusiasm , also had a great influence on Liszt . He visited him in his colony La Chênaie ("The Oak Forest") in Brittany , and a few months later in England. Liszt held intensive discussions there on religious and social issues. He considered becoming a priest and wrote his essay "On Future Church Music". On the other hand, the young Liszt developed an eccentric relationship with women, much to the chagrin of his mother.

Musical influences

By the end of 1831 Liszt became acquainted with Frédéric Chopin , Niccolò Paganini , Gioachino Rossini , Vincenzo Bellini , Giacomo Meyerbeer , Hector Berlioz and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy . When making a comparison with these artists, he must have realized that he had lagged far behind in his own development. From Mendelssohn's point of view, he was the most amateurish of all amateurs. Chopin mentioned Liszt in a letter to his childhood friend Tytus Woyciechowski in 1831 :

"You won't believe how much I was interested in Herz , Liszt, Hiller , etc., they are all a zero against Kalkbrenner ."

- Frédéric Chopin

Franz Liszt 1832, lithograph by Devéria

After attending a few lectures by François-Joseph Fétis on the philosophy of music (Liszt was very impressed and corresponded with Fétis) and a call from the Saint-Simonists that all artists should use their art to promote ideals of social reform and make better music than Beethoven and Rossini, Liszt turned back to music in the spring of 1832. After attending a charity concert by Paganini for the benefit of the victims of a cholera epidemic raging in Paris, he revealed his new enthusiasm for music in a letter dated May 2, 1832 to Pierre Wolff in Geneva:

“For 14 days my mind and my fingers have been working like two damned ones - Homer, the Bible, Plato, Locke, Byron, Hugo, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Beethoven, Bach, Hummel, Mozart, Weber are all around me. I study them, look at them, devour them with ardor; I also practice for 4 to 5 hours (thirds, sixths, octaves, tremolos, repetitions, cadences etc. etc.) Oh! If I don't go crazy, you will find an artist in me! "

Liszt took part in public concert life again. In the summer of 1832 he stayed as a guest of a family in Ecoutebœuf near Rouen. There a still incomplete first version of his clochette fantasy was created. op. 2, a fantasy on the theme of the rondo finale of Paganini's second violin concerto. The completion of the fantasy took some time. When Liszt played the Fantasy in a Berlioz concert on November 5, 1834 , it was a catastrophic failure. The fiasco was seen as new evidence that Liszt was completely incapable of composing.

Up to the spring of 1835, Liszt composed other works, which, however, were described by contemporaries as "incomprehensible spawns of a fantastic eccentricity" and were later mostly not included in Liszt's catalog of works. This also includes a piano reduction of the Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz, the successful first performance of which Liszt was present on December 5, 1830. A close friendship developed with Berlioz; Liszt became the best man in October 1833 when Berlioz married the English actress Harriet Smithson.

Marie d'Agoult

Marie d'Agoult 1843, oil painting by
Henri Lehmann

One of the most important aspects of Liszt's biography is his relationship with Countess Marie d'Agoult (1805–1876), who is six years his senior . Born Flavigny, she came from the French nobility and had been married to Charles d'Agoult since 1827, with whom she had two daughters. The marriage was in crisis, Marie thought of suicide and in the winter of 1831 retired to a sanatorium in Geneva for months. After she returned to Paris at the end of 1832, she tried to find her way back into the usual social intercourse, and at the end of December visited the family of Count Apponyi and the Duchess von Rauzan, among others. Liszt, who was inflamed with a passionate crush on the Duchess von Rauzan, also frequented these circles. Although the date remains uncertain, Marie d'Agoult may also have paid a visit to the Marquise le Vayer and met the young pianist there. Liszt's latest work was his adaptation of Franz Schubert's song Die Rose, based on a poem by Friedrich Schlegel . It is known that Liszt identified with the fate of this "rose". In easily understandable metaphors it is described how a lyrical self, the "rose" mentioned in the title, meets a lady with naive friendliness. The lyrical self is then seduced by the lady, whereupon it perishes.

Since the beginning of 1833, Marie d'Agoult invited Liszt more and more often to visit. A strong affinity developed between two people who had previously been unhappy. Two problem areas emerged that led to strong conflicts in the relationship.

1. On the one hand, it was about contradicting elements of Liszt's artistic personality. He raved about a life in solitude, where he wanted to compose immortal masterpieces only for a small circle of like-minded people. However, by the standard of his practical activity, he was drawn to circles of society with irresistible force. In his appearances as a pianist he tried, sometimes with eccentric demeanor, to receive applause at all costs from an audience that he - as he said - despised. Marie d'Agoult placed no value on this aspect of his artistry; rather, he should prove himself as a composer.

2. A second problem area was Liszt's many relationships with other women, which often oppressed him. The first escalation came in the summer of 1834 when Marie d'Agoult found some of his old letters in Liszt's absence. After a complicated development with stoppages and crises, it became clear in the spring of 1835 that Marie d'Agoult was pregnant. She decided to leave her husband and live with Liszt. Together with the Abbé de Lamennais, Liszt made a fruitless attempt to dissuade her from her decision. She left Paris on May 28 and traveled to Basel, a few days later Liszt followed her. After various stops in Switzerland, the lovers settled in Geneva in the spring of 1835, where they moved into an apartment on Rue Tabazan. On August 19, Marie's marriage to Charles was divorced and her daughter Blandine was born on December 18 (she later became the wife of Émile Ollivier , who was briefly Prime Minister of France). According to contemporary legal understanding, Blandine would have been the daughter of Charles d'Agoults. To prevent this, Marie d'Agoult chose the name "Catherine-Adelaide Méran" for herself when Blandines registered with the Geneva authorities.

Traveling years (1835–1843)

Liszt in Switzerland

Soon after his arrival in Geneva, Liszt began to face social responsibilities and, as an honorary piano professor, took part in meetings of the board of directors and in teaching at the Geneva Conservatory , which was founded at this time . After his student Hermann Cohen arrived from Paris on August 14th, the originally planned cohabitation with Marie d'Agoult turned into a kind of family coexistence with three people. Liszt gave several concerts in Geneva, found time to compose (first Schubert transcription) and also wrote six programmatic articles on the position of artists , in which he first formulated the educational policy claims of art for society.

Financial problems soon arose in Geneva, because out of consideration for his relationship with Marie d'Agoult he could not go on concert tours; and a monetary gain was hardly to be expected from his ambitious works. To solve his problem, he composed arrangements of popular melodies - e. For example, the Waltz Op. 6, a Fantasy Op. 7 on melodies from Bellini's opera I Puritani and two Fantasies Op. 8 on melodies from Rossini's Soirées musicales - although he had previously strongly criticized this working method in a series of articles in the Gazette musicale . A letter to Ferdinand Hiller dated November 1835 shows that Liszt himself recognized the contradiction between the ideals formulated in his series of articles and his current works and announced with apologetic words that he wanted to compose works of "permanent validity" by the spring of 1837.

In September 1836, Liszt and Marie d'Agoult received a visit from George Sand with their children. After a joint stay in Chamonix , they left Geneva on October 13 and returned to Paris via Dijon . Liszt lived there alone for the time being, Marie lived with George Sand and began her first literary work there.

Confrontation with Thalberg

Sigismund Thalberg 1836

In the winter of 1835/36, Sigismund Thalberg made his debut in a performance on November 16 in a private concert given by the Austrian secretary, Rudolph Apponyi, in Paris. He was greeted with enthusiasm by the artists present, including Rossini and Giacomo Meyerbeer, and praised as the inventor of a novel piano style. After further appearances, rumors spread that Thalberg was a pianistic non plus ultra . His first public debut on January 24, 1836 in a conservatory concert, where he played his Grande Fantaisie op. 22, was enthusiastically reviewed by Hector Berlioz in the Revue et Gazette musicale . While Liszt achieved a return of around 500–600 francs with his concerts in Lyon, Thalberg earned 10,000 francs from a single concert in the Italian theater. Thalberg had already acquired an enormous artistic reputation. In a report in Le Ménestrel of March 13, 1836, it said:

“Moscheles, Kalkbrenner, Chopin, Liszt and Herz are great artists for me and will always be; but Thalberg is the inventor of a new kind of art that I cannot compare with anything that existed before him. Thalberg is not only the leading pianist in the world, he is also an extremely outstanding composer. "

When Liszt arrived in Paris on May 13th to compete with Thalberg, Thalberg had already left for London via Brussels. Before Thalberg appeared for his second stay in Paris at the beginning of February 1837, Liszt published a review in the Revue et Gazette musicale of January 8, 1837, riddled with lewdness and polemical outrages, in which he described Thalberg's Grande Fantaisie op.22 and the two Caprices op. 15 and op. 19 torn in the ground. According to Liszt's account, Thalberg's success came exclusively through propaganda. Liszt's behavior sparked a wave of general outrage.

Thalberg appeared again in Paris from February 1837 and was celebrated again. On March 31st, both artists could be heard at a charity event organized by Princess Belgiojoso. From the argument with Liszt, Thalberg emerged as the winner.

After Liszt's artistic confrontation with Thalberg had already been concluded in the spring of 1837 and Thalberg had traveled to London via Brussels, there was a debate between Liszt and François-Joseph Fétis , the director of the Brussels Conservatory, with contributions in the Revue et Gazette musicale . In an article by MM. Thalberg et Liszt in the number of April 23, 1837, Fétis came to the judgment:

“You are a great artist, your talent is immense, and your ability to overcome all kinds of difficulties is incomparable […] You are the descendant of a school that is closed and has nothing left to do, but not a representative of a new school. This man is Thalberg: you see, this is the whole difference between the two of you. "

In an answer in the Revue et Gazette musicale on May 14, 1837, Liszt reacted with new polemics and denied Fétis any competence in assessing piano music. In the overall result, Liszt had only made enemies with his attacks against Thalberg.

During his subsequent stays in Paris, however, Liszt's success as a pianist and composer increased. Until the middle of the 1840s he was then regarded throughout Europe as an exemplary virtuoso and one of the most successful piano composers of his time.

Liszt in Italy

Plaque commemorating the stay of Franz Liszt and Marie d'Agoult on Lake Como

Franz Liszt 1839, portrait by
Henri Lehmann

After the Paris concert season came to an end, he stayed again with George Sand in Nohant and Lyon, where Liszt gave a charity concert and composed the piano piece Lyon . Liszt then traveled with Marie via Geneva to Italy; her little daughter Blandine remained in the care of a Pastor Demelleyer in Geneva. They arrived at Lake Maggiore on August 14, 1837 . After staying in Como and Milan (where Liszt met Gioachino Rossini ), they settled in Bellagio on Lake Como on September 6th . At the beginning of November 1837 they returned to Como, where their second daughter Cosima (who later became Richard Wagner's wife ) was born on December 24th .

In total, Liszt and Marie d'Agoult stayed in Italy for about two years. They gained deep impressions of Italian culture, art and literature. Liszt began to compose again in Bellagio. It emerged u. a. the albums op.10 to op.12.

In March 1838 Liszt and Marie d'Agoult traveled to Venice. At the beginning of April 1838, Liszt made the spontaneous decision to give concerts in Vienna for the benefit of the victims of a flood disaster in Hungary. Although he had only planned two weeks for Vienna, he only returned to Marie d'Agoult after two months - after great successes. During this phase there was the first rupture in the relationship, because on the one hand Liszt had got involved with women in Vienna, on the other hand Marie began a love affair with Count Emilio Malazzoni.

After a reconciliation, they took up residence in Lugano. Liszt gave concerts in Milan , Florence , Bologna and Pisa . From January to June 1839 they lived in Rome. Liszt also gave numerous concerts in aristocratic circles here. On May 9, 1839, Marie gave birth to their third child, Daniel. This was followed by stays in Lucca and San Rossore and, in October 1839, shorter stays in Pisa and Florence. During Liszt's stay in Italy, his rival Thalberg had toured large parts of Europe and was widely praised in superlatives. Income of a sensational amount was added. Liszt, who found out about this, looked at Thalberg's career with respect in the summer of 1839. According to a note in Marie d'Agoult's diary, Liszt was content to be at least “the second” or “part of the first”.

For financial reasons in particular, Liszt and Marie agreed to part ways so that Liszt could give concerts as a traveling virtuoso. After a year and a half they wanted to return to Italy together and settle there. He would then compose operas and other works in representative genres. So they parted ways in October 1839, Marie returned to Paris, Franz went to concerts in Vienna, Pressburg and Pest . Since his childhood he was back in Hungary for the first time and was welcomed on January 4th in the theater of Pest like a homecoming national hero, where he was presented with a saber of honor by the Hungarian magnates. Liszt first appeared as a conductor in another concert in Pest.

Restless through Europe

The following years, in which Liszt wanted to earn money to support his “family”, were marked by successes and failures as an artist and by ups and downs as a person. It is hardly possible to list all of his stays, his successes and failures, and also his affairs. He had great successes as a virtuoso, for example, in Prague (March 1840), in Dresden and Leipzig (spring 1840, meeting Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy ), in Hamburg (October 1840), in Belgium (February / March 1841), in Weimar and Berlin (winter 1841/42), in Saint Petersburg (April 1842, including meeting Michail Glinka ), in East Prussia and in the Baltic States (spring 1842). In the spring of 1843 Liszt conducted an opera (Mozart's Magic Flute ) for the first time in Breslau , after which he traveled on to Russia. In autumn he was in Munich and at the Hohenzollernburg Hechingen , where he was appointed Hofrat. The writer Hans Christian Andersen also experienced the virtuoso in Hamburg and gave an impression in his book Eine Dichters Basar :

Franz Liszt in a caricature from 1842

"Like an electric shock, it went through the hall when Liszt came in, the majority of the ladies rose, and a gleam of sun spread over every face, as if all eyes greeted a dear, dear friend [...] Everything in his exterior and interior his agility describes him at once as one of those personalities who arouse attention by their peculiarity alone; the hand of the divine has put a special stamp on them that makes them recognizable among thousands. As Liszt sat there in front of the pianoforte, his personality, that expression of strong passions on the pale face, was first and foremost demonic to me. He seemed nailed to the instrument from which the tones poured; they came from his blood, from his thoughts; he was a demon who had to unlock his soul. "

Liszt became addicted to fame and bragged about his successes and his contacts with the aristocracy. In some cities - especially in Berlin - a real "Lisztomania" developed. In order to satisfy his admirers' need for a curl of his hair, Liszt bought a dog whose fur served as a source of curls without being noticed.

In Berlin he was made a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of the Arts and received the order Pour le Mérite . On March 14, 1842 in Königsberg he received an honorary doctorate from the philosophical faculty, in Weimar, after a concert tour with the Italian tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini through Thuringia, he was appointed "Grand Ducal Kapellmeister in extraordinary service".

His successes in Paris were less spectacular, because here Sigismund Thalberg remained “number one”. Liszt was also not very successful with concerts in England, Scotland and Ireland (two tours in 1840/41). The tours turned into a financial debacle for him. Basically, his income as a virtuoso was not low, but he spent an unusually large amount of money through a luxurious lifestyle and sometimes ran into high debts. There were arguments with Marie. In the summer of 1840 they toured the Rhineland together and vacationed in Fontainebleau , even marriage plans were forged, but the once great passion began to fade. During a rest (with Marie and the children) on the Rhine island of Nonnenwerth from the beginning of August to October 1841, he persuaded Marie d'Agoult to agree to an extension of his activity as a traveling virtuoso for two years.

Liszt could only compose little between his concert tours. However, the stays on the Rhine inspired him to write his first German song compositions: Im Rhein und Lorelei nach Heine , the Rhine romantic work for male choir Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland after Ernst Moritz Arndt and the Rheinweinlied after Georg Herwegh . Against the background of a current crisis in which the banks of the Rhine belonged to France or Germany, the performance of the Rhine wine song in Berlin with the refrain “The Rhine must remain German!” Was a great success. In Paris, on the other hand, at a concert that Liszt gave on June 30, 1842 for the benefit of a distressed opera company from Mainz , the performance of the Rheinweinlied with German lyrics turned into a scandal. This was followed by a heated debate with hostility towards Liszt in the French press. He was accused of having agitated against French interests with national German demonstrations in Berlin.

In September 1842 Liszt gave a concert in Cologne in connection with the laying of the foundation stone for the completion of Cologne Cathedral and was received by Prince Metternich on September 13 in Koblenz . The stay in Koblenz had consequences that led Liszt's private life to catastrophe.

The end of a relationship

Marie d'Agoult had heard of Liszt's amorous adventures during his stay in Berlin with the actress Charlotte von Hagn , with whom he also met again in Koblenz. Marie then wrote a letter from which Liszt, on the one hand, deduced the end of their relationship, on the other hand, was ready for reconciliation and ended the relationship with Charlotte von Hagn. In July 1843 Liszt and Marie met for a second and last time on the island of Nonnenwerth . He had previously composed the song Diezelle in Nonnenwerth with a dedication to Marie d'Agoult and in letters to Marie offered to end his career as a traveling virtuoso in the summer of 1843.

Franz Liszt in 1843,
daguerreotype by Hermann Biow

The last reconciliation did not last long. Marie d'Agoult returned to Paris on October 20, 1843. She began there with the writing of the quasi-autobiographical novel Nélida , in which Liszt is portrayed in the figure of the painter Guermann Regnier as an artist with an amoral outlook on life, who wants to produce sophisticated works of art, but fails in the practical execution. The novel was published on August 8, 1846, albeit anonymously.

In November 1843 Liszt also initiated a literary project, namely his biography, which was written in Stuttgart by Gustav Schilling, the author of a contemporary music encyclopedia, for which Liszt made the material available. The book with the title Franz Liszt: His life and work shown from closer inspection was published in early 1844 and portrays Liszt as an artist in exuberant superlatives. Liszt is not only the most benevolent, intelligent and ingenious person of all time, but also a composer of a rank with which at best Beethoven can be compared. Many of the legends that revolve around Liszt's personality in his childhood and youth and that are still widespread among his admirers today can be traced back to Schilling's book and thus to Liszt himself.

At the end of 1843, after five years of intense love and five years apart, Marie and Liszt separated for good. The argument began about the future of their children Blandine (1835–1862), Cosima (1837–1930) and Daniel (1839–1859). First, in a written declaration on May 7, 1844, Liszt renounced any interference in the upbringing of his children and undertook to pay 3,000 francs a year. A year later there was a new argument between Liszt and Marie d'Agoult because Liszt was now demanding full custody of all three children. To avoid further escalation, Marie d'Agoult renounced all rights to their children with Liszt at the beginning of June 1845. Since then, any contact between the children and their mother has been strictly forbidden. For the time being, the children remained in the care of their grandmother Anna Liszt. She ensured a good upbringing, the costs of which were covered by the concert income and the reserves of Franz Liszt.

Kapellmeister in Weimar (1843–1861)

The beginnings

During his first stay in Weimar as a virtuoso, Liszt was appointed Kapellmeister by decree of November 2, 1842 from Grand Duke Carl Alexander. After that, Liszt was obliged to spend three months a year in Weimar in the winter to lead the orchestra. At first Liszt only performed this duty irregularly. He made his debut as a conductor in Weimar in a concert on January 7, 1844, which he conducted together with the Weimar court conductor André Hippolyte Chélard. Following his stay in Weimar, he traveled to Dresden and heard the opera Rienzi by Richard Wagner , were coming about with from then on an intense friendship. In the winter of 1844/1845 he did not come to Weimar, but stayed in Spain and Portugal. He then took part in the first Beethoven Festival in Bonn in August 1845 as the main initiator . The Beethoven monument on Münsterplatz , which Liszt helped finance in 1839, was unveiled. In the winter of 1846/47 he traveled through Eastern Europe: Vienna, Pest, Bucharest, Kiev, Lemberg, Odessa, Constantinople and Elisabethgrad (today Kirovograd) were his stops. During this time he made himself hopeful that he would be appointed to the post of chamber music director at the Viennese court as the successor to the sick Donizetti . But then his life was to change in another way, because it was in Kiev that he met Princess Jeanne Elisabeth Carolyne Princess zu Sayn-Wittgenstein for the first time. They fell in love and decided to settle in Weimar together. At the beginning of February 1848, the "restless" traveled to Weimar and lived there first with a "Madame F ..." from Frankfurt am Main in a hotel until she left for Paris in March.

The Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein

Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein with her daughter Marie , around 1840

Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (1819–1887) came from a Polish aristocratic family and in 1836, at the request of her father Peter Iwanowski, married Prince Nikolaus zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg-Ludwigsburg (1812–1864). In 1837 she became the mother of her only daughter Marie and soon after separated from her husband. She moved to rural Voronince in southern Ukraine, where Carolyne owned goods from her dowry. Here she devoted herself almost exclusively to her intellectual interests, studying literature, philosophy and religion, but also took care of the management of her estates. At a concert on February 14th ( old Russian calendar : February 2nd) 1847 in Kiev she met Liszt and was spontaneously fascinated by him. In the spring they met for several weeks on their estate in Voronince. For the first time Liszt found in this strong-willed, spirited, dark-eyed and educated young woman (she was seven years younger than Liszt) a discussion partner for topics such as art, religion and philosophy. He longed for a new way of life, and she, in turn, felt called to lead and promote a brilliant artist. From autumn 1847 Liszt stayed in Voronince for several months, in a solemn ceremony on October 22nd, 1847 they made a kind of “marriage promise”, Liszt became “soul owner” of the princess. This may have seemed a bizarre idea at first, but since then Liszt has been tied to Carolyne with insoluble shackles.

In April 1848 the princess left her country estate with her daughter and took up quarters in the Altenburg , a villa on the outskirts of Weimar, into which Liszt also moved in autumn. For twelve years they lived relatively secluded there. These were Liszt's most productive years in terms of creativity, in which Carolyne played a large part, because she knew how to give the once restless "piano-playing bon vivant" a new, more serious direction and to inspire him to compose:

“That's how I looked after him for twelve years, always with my work in the same room, otherwise he would never have composed. He was not lacking genius - but “seat meat”. [...] Without a calm, but steady, gentle, mild, devoted female figure, he cannot do anything great, only polish. "

A planned marriage stood in the way of the princess's marriage. Liszt hoped to win the Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar, Maria Pavlovna , a sister of Tsar Nicholas I, to lobby for a divorce from Carolynes. It was not until 1855 that she was divorced under Russian law, but was not free as a Catholic. The financial situation also developed problematically. She was banned from Russia and her property was placed under state administration until her daughter came of age.

Another problem developed in connection with the upbringing of the three Liszt children, who had previously lived in Paris with their grandmother Anna Liszt, but had more and more contact with their mother Marie d'Agoult, much to Liszt and Carolyne's annoyance. In 1855 he brought his children to Weimar and a little later commissioned Baron Franziska von Bülow - the mother of Hans von Bülow , who married Cosima in 1857 - with the further upbringing of the children.

Activities as a composer

Franz Liszt 1856, after a painting by Wilhelm von Kaulbach

The Weimar years were the artistically most productive time of Franz Liszt. He wrote many of his piano works in Weimar, such as the piano sonata in B minor , the cycle Harmonies poétiques et religieuses , fifteen Hungarian rhapsodies , as well as numerous transcriptions , piano reductions and revisions of earlier piano works, such as the Paganini etudes . Two of his previously conceived piano concertos also received their final form here. In order to perfect his orchestrations, he hired Joachim Raff as secretary , to whom he commissioned the instrumentation of many of his orchestral works. One of the first of the orchestral works orchestrated by Raff in December 1849 was an overture Les quatre élémens to four choral pieces, which Liszt composed in 1844/45 based on poems by Joseph Autran . In a new version drawn up by Liszt with the help of Hans von Bronsart , this overture was performed on February 23, 1854 in a court concert in Weimar under the direction of Liszt as Les Préludes, Symphonic Poem .

According to Liszt's plan, a cycle of nine symphonic poems was to be published by the end of 1854 . For a better understanding of the pieces, forewords were provided, which Princess Wittgenstein had been writing since March 1854. Seven forewords were created, which were first printed as a brochure and then sent in this form to friends of Liszt. After a revision, the forewords were included in the published scores. In the case of Les Preludes , in the end there was hardly any connection to the Ode Lamartines mentioned in the title .

The publication of the nine symphonic poems was delayed and dragged on until 1856/1857. Liszt then composed the pieces Hamlet , Die Hunnenschlacht (after a famous painting by his friend Wilhelm von Kaulbach ), Mazeppa and Die Ideale . By 1861, twelve symphonic poems had been published in scores and arrangements for two pianos. Liszt had also composed symphonies based on Goethe's Faust and Dante's Divine Comedy .

In addition to other secular works, including marches, songs, melodramas and male choirs, sacred works had also been created or started (a Missa solemnis , a mass for male choir and organ, the oratorios Christ and The Legend of St. Elizabeth ). When Liszt left Weimar in 1860, he had presented a huge oeuvre. However, his public reputation as a composer was low.

Liszt as a conductor, patron and teacher

Franz Liszt as a conductor, around 1853

Franz Liszt 1858,
photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl

In Weimar, Liszt conducted many works by contemporary - at the time also controversial - composers and also performed their operas. He conducted works by Richard Wagner , who was particularly close to him and whom he helped to flee to Zurich in the spring of 1849 after the Dresden uprising, 36 times alone . In the following years he supported Wagner financially and also ideally and was in lively correspondence with him. On August 28, 1850, he premiered Wagner's opera Lohengrin in Weimar and later planned to perform Wagner's Ring in a specially built festival hall in Weimar. Liszt and Wagner later appeared together more often as conductors. From 1865, after Wagner was in a relationship with Liszt's daughter Cosima , the relationship cooled down for a long time.

Liszt also campaigned for the works of Berlioz , Mendelssohn and Schumann . He conducted in many musical capitals in Europe and met with some approval and some vehement rejection, mainly with regard to his conducting style. From 1861 he almost exclusively conducted his own works. In addition to Wagner, he was particularly close to Hector Berlioz. In November 1852 and February 1855 Liszt organized Berlioz weeks in Weimar, during which Berlioz also conducted, e.g. B. his opera Benvenuto Cellini . At Carolyne's suggestion, Berlioz composed his great opera Les Troyens a little later , which he dedicated to the princess.

In September 1857, on the occasion of the unveiling of the Goethe-Schiller monument in Weimar, Liszt conducted the world premiere of his Faust symphony and the symphonic poem Die Ideale . The last opera performance he directed, the world premiere of the opera The Barber of Bagdad by Peter Cornelius on December 15, 1858, was hissed out by a Weimar opposition, whereupon Liszt stopped working as a conductor at the Weimar court theater. He was succeeded in 1859 by Eduard Lassen.

Liszt also had a great influence as a teacher in Weimar. His students included Hans von Bülow , Emil von Sauer , Wendelin Weißheimer , Carl Tausig , Franz Bendel , Peter Cornelius , Hans von Bronsart , August Stradal and his later wife Ingeborg Stark, Karl Klindworth , Conrad Ansorge , Julius Reubke , Adele from the Ohe , Rudolph Viole, Josef Weiß , Laura Rappoldi , Antal Siposs, Joseph Joachim , Lina Scheuer and many others. With the support of Princess Wittgenstein's capital, Liszt could afford to forego a fee and even include some of his most talented students in the Altenburg household. The students felt they were members of a sworn community. The “Neu-Weimar-Verein” with the club's newspaper Die Laterne , which was established on November 20, 1854 on the initiative of Liszt and August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben , provided a sociable setting. Quite a few of his pupils advocated the art movement represented by Liszt with a pointed pen in debates that were carried out in newspapers and magazines.

General German Music Association

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, a meeting (Leipziger Tonkünstlerversammlung) took place in Leipzig from June 1 to 4, 1859 , to which the editor-in-chief Franz Brendel invited musicians from various European countries. On this occasion, mainly works by Liszt were performed in the Gewandhaus . The term “ music of the future ” was discussed , which Richard Wagner had coined in his work The Artwork of the Future . At Brendel's suggestion, it was decided to introduce the term “ New German School ” and, at the suggestion of Liszt and Louis Köhler , to found a German music association. On August 7, 1861, the Allgemeine Deutsche Musikverein was constituted in Weimar at the Tonkünstlerfest held there, to which the amnestied Wagner also attended to great jubilation. Franz Brendel was elected President at Liszt's suggestion.

Old Age (1861–1886)

Inscription on the house in Weimar where Franz Liszt lived from 1869 to 1886

Liszt left Weimar in August 1861 to marry Carolyne in Rome. After a monstrous trial in many instances, the conference of cardinals and the Pope in Rome had finally approved the divorce and remarriage of the princess. The wedding was planned for October 22, 1861, Liszt's 50th birthday, in the church of San Carlo al Corso in Rome. Members of the Sayn-Wittgenstein family, who happened to be in Rome during these days, found out about the planned wedding and intervened at the Holy See. The latter then demanded that the princess hand over her files again before the marriage. Now she gave up and refused to do so. Their real motives are in the dark.

The grave complex in the Bayreuth city cemetery

After the failed marriage with Carolyne, who stayed in Rome, studied theology and wrote books, he devoted himself increasingly to compositions with religious themes and church music. In Rome, where he mostly stayed until 1870, he led a partly sophisticated, partly monastic life and in the summer of 1863 retired to the Madonna del Rosario monastery on Monte Mario , where Pope Pius IX also took him . visited. Sometimes he also lived in the Vatican , sometimes in the Santa Francesca Romana monastery in the Roman Forum . From 1864 he again attended concerts and conducted orchestras in various European cities. In 1865 Liszt underwent tonsure and received the four minor orders from Bishop Gustav Adolf Hohenlohe . As a cleric, he wore the Roman collar from then on and was addressed as the Abbé , but never received further orders (subdeacon, deacon, priest, bishop). He wrote about this in a letter:

"My penchant for Catholicism comes from my childhood and has become a lasting feeling that dominates me."

Grave of Franz Liszt in the
Bayreuth city cemetery

From 1865 he spent several months alternately in Rome and Budapest and from 1867 again in Weimar, where he moved to a floor in the court gardening shop (now a museum ) from 1869 . He traveled extensively from these three locations, mostly to perform his own works - or to be present at performances or to teach (free of charge). Since 1867 he has been visiting Gustav Adolf Cardinal Hohenlohe in the Villa d'Este in Tivoli , where he also gave one of his last concerts in 1879. Here he composed three piano pieces that found their way into the album Années de pèlerinage : Troisième année : Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este and two pieces called Threnodes entitled Aux Cyprès de la Villa d'Este . His fame as a composer and teacher has now matched his earlier as a pianist. His orchestral and sacred works were particularly well received, for example in Budapest in 1867, when Franz Joseph I was crowned King of Hungary and a mass was played by Liszt. In the summer he traveled to Munich and Tribschen , where Wagner now lived, to mediate between Cosima, Hans von Bülow (married to Cosima since 1857) and Wagner (had a relationship with Cosima since 1864). Cosima divorced against her father's wishes and married Wagner in 1870. Only in 1872 did relations slowly improve again.

On January 19, 1873, Liszt gave a concert evening in Frankfurt (Oder) (Land Brandenburg ). In the sold-out city theater he played a. a the overture to Wilhelm Tell , the andante to Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor , the Ave Maria , the Erlkönig . The Frankfurt teacher Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav Gloatz also noted in his diary how enthusiastically the audience received the invitation to dance by Carl Maria von Weber at the end: "When he (Liszt) went from F minor to his own imagination, there was stormy, never-ending applause. ”The concert was a great success for Liszt and also for the city theater. According to the theater director's accounts, the total income was 944 thalers , of which Liszt received 500 thalers as a fee.

In May 1873 Liszt conducted a complete performance of his now completed oratorio Christ in the city ​​church in Weimar, a little later he was at the topping-out ceremony of the Festspielhaus with Cosima and Richard Wagner in Bayreuth. He also stayed in Bayreuth at the first festival in summer 1876 ( Der Ring des Nibelungen ) and at the second festival in summer 1882 ( Parsifal ). Liszt met the Richard Wagner family for the last time in December 1882 in Venice ( Palazzo Vendramin-Calergi ). They gave a concert together at the Teatro la Fenice . A few weeks later, Liszt had meanwhile left, Wagner died of a heart attack. In 1882 Martin Krause became a student of Liszt. In 1886 Liszt returned to Bayreuth to attend the Bayreuth Festival under the direction of his daughter . At the time of the trip, Liszt was already seriously ill and died a few days after his arrival on July 31, 1886 of complications from pneumonia. He was buried on August 3rd in the Bayreuth city cemetery. At the funeral mass in the castle church , Anton Bruckner played motifs from Parsifal on the organ .

Works (selection)

→ Main article : List of the musical works of Franz Liszt

Overview

Franz Liszt's oeuvre as a whole is immense and incomparable in its scope and diversity. To date, no complete edition has been published. The so-called "Carl Alexander Edition" (it was initiated in 1888 by the Franz Liszt Foundation in Weimar by the Grand Duke Carl Alexander of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach) comprises 34 volumes, but is incomplete. The English musicologist Humphrey Searle compiled a systematic catalog raisonné and came up with 703 titles (not including the literary works):

123 piano works 77 songs 65 sacred choral works 28 secular choral works

11 organ works 1 opera 25 orchestral works 7 works for piano and orchestra

9 chamber concerts 5 melodramas 335 arrangements and transcriptions 17 unfinished works

Piano works

Franz Liszt gives a concert for Emperor Franz Joseph I on a Bösendorfer grand piano

Franz Liszt re-shaped the form of piano playing, which was common up to his time, and accordingly also the piano composition. What was decisive for this: Although the fortepiano mechanism has existed since 1709 (it was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori ), it nevertheless experienced its most important further development in the 19th century. In addition, from the beginning Liszt broke with all the rules of piano playing technique, which at the time was practiced strictly according to textbooks. Among his inventions are the concert paraphrases , in which Liszt took up one or more themes from well-known operas and, embellished with his own compositional ideas, reworked them into brilliant piano pieces.

After Liszt's piano works were largely ignored in the first half of the 20th century, the legendary recordings by the Russian pianist Lazar Berman ( Deutsche Grammophon , 1977) paved the way for their extensive rediscovery and re-evaluation. In the meantime, the number of recordings of Liszt's piano compositions by important pianists on the music market can hardly be overlooked. His best-known performers include Daniel Barenboim , Boris Beresowsky , Jorge Bolet , Alfred Brendel , György Cziffra , Emil Gilels , Zoltan Kocsis , Michail Pletnjow , Svjatoslav Richter and Daniil Trifonow . The complete recording of the piano work ( Hyperion 2011, 99 CDs) by the Australian pianist Leslie Howard made Liszt's compositional legacy for piano accessible to the audience. The foundations for a musical re-encounter with Liszt are in place today.

As an example of the long-standing misunderstanding of the meaning and character of Liszt's piano music, the following quote from Bela Bartók from his essay The Music of Liszt and the Audience of Today may be:

“In his youth he imitated the bad morals of the art dudes of the time - he 'rewrote and improved', made brilliant compositions from masterpieces that even Franz Liszt should not have tampered with. He allowed himself to be influenced by Berlioz's usual melodies, Chopin's sentimentalism and even more so by the Italian templates. Their traces emerge everywhere in his works, and it is they that give them a touch of the trivial. "

Organ works

In addition to the extensive piano works, Liszt also composed for the organ. The Searle directory (directory according to Humphrey Searle , 1966) contains a total of 11 works. In a report by Franz Brendel on the inauguration concert of the Merseburg cathedral organ, the perceived modern character of the organ and its importance as an outpost of a new organ style created by Liszt was accentuated:

“Liszt now takes a similar position to the organ as he did to the pianoforte. Just as he used to be able to handle the pianoforte, unique of its kind, so now he knows how to present all the splendor and splendor of the instrument on the organ. I must confess that I was surprised by Liszt's composition, in that progress was revealed to me on a side that had not yet been discussed and glimpses of a future development of organ music were offered. "

Songs and melodramas

Liszt composed over 70 songs with piano accompaniment. The majority of his songs are based on French or German poems. Liszt had the plan to publish three volumes with six songs each, which should be given the title Book of Songs , taken over from Heinrich Heine . The first two volumes appeared in 1843 and 1844. The first volume contains the pieces "The Loreley", "Am Rhein im Schöne Strome", "Mignons Lied", "Der König von Thule", "Der du von dem Himmel" and " Angiolin dal biondo crin “. You are dealing with a musically designed family album. Marie d'Agoult is characterized by the first three pieces and Liszt by the two following pieces. The last piece is dedicated to their daughter Blandine. The second volume with the songs “Oh! quand je dors ”,“ Comment, disaient-ils ”,“ Enfant, si j'etais roi ”,“ S'il est un charming gazon ”,“ La tombe et la rose ”and“ Gastibelza ”, a bolero based on poems Victor Hugos continues the songs of the first volume in chronological order. In the third volume problematic aspects of the development of the relationship between Liszt and Marie d'Agoult are reflected: “You are like a flower”, “Poet, what love is”, “My songs are poisoned”, “In the morning I get up and ask "," The dead nightingale ", and" Mild as a breath of air in May ".

Liszt later distanced himself from his first songs, saying that they were far too bloated, sentimental and overloaded with accompaniment. He later rewrote some of his songs. In the years 1879 and 1880 Liszt continued the series of his “Gesammelte Lieder” with further booklets. These include songs such as: "J'ai perdu ma force et ma vie", "Ihr Glocken von Marling ", "Be quiet", "Mild as a breath of air in May" (2nd version), "Isten veled (Farewell) "And" The world is so empty for me ". A last issue of the "Gesammelte Lieder" appeared in 1883.

The melodramas Liszt have remained largely unknown. A piece worth mentioning is the melodrama The Sad Monk, based on a poem by Nikolaus Lenaus , which was written in September 1860. The melodrama The Blind Singer , which Liszt composed in October 1875 based on a ballad by Alexei Konstantinowitsch Tolstoy , is remarkable as an autobiographical composition. The singer thinks he is standing in front of an audience. However, being blind, he does not notice that not a single listener is present, so he sings in vain. Nobody listens to him.

Orchestral works

Liszt's main works for orchestra are the Dante symphony , the Faust symphony and a cycle of 12 symphonic poems as well as a few marches. In the years 1881/82 he wrote one last symphonic poem, From the Cradle to the Grave , which Liszt first composed as a piano version. There are also piano arrangements of many of his other symphonic works. Among the symphonic poems, Les Preludes is the most famous piece, which achieved dubious fame in World War II because a fanfare motif from the finale was used to announce victory reports from the National Socialists on the radio.

In his orchestral works, Liszt developed the genre symphonic poetry ( program music ), which had previously been further developed by Hector Berlioz, particularly with regard to the scope of the instrumentation and the use of leitmotifs (similar to Richard Wagner). In addition to the sounding music, there is an extra-musical object indicated in the title, the so-called program. The program can be a narrative process, a painting, the idea of ​​a person, or some other object. An aesthetic effect should result from the interaction of the sounding music with the program in the mind of a listener or player. Music of this kind already existed in earlier times, for example Vivaldi's Four Seasons , Beethoven's Symphony Wellington's Victory or the Battle of Vittoria, as well as the Pastoral Symphony , works by Berlioz and overtures by Mendelssohn . In contrast to Liszt's predecessors, however, his symphonic poems sparked debates about the fundamental justification of program music, e.g. B. Eduard Hanslick in his book Vom Musikalisch-Schönen , published in 1854, or in contributions by Wagner and Brendel. Some of Liszt's compositions were described by contemporaries as "unmusik"; Johannes Brahms used the term for the Dante symphony , Eduard Hanslick, however, for the symphonic poem Prometheus . Liszt said, among other things, on the subject of program music in a letter to Marie d'Agoult dated November 15, 1864:

"Until then, I will fully and without reservation sign the principle that you would like to remind me that musical works" that follow a program in a generally understood sense have an effect on the imagination and the feeling independently of any program have to". In other words: every beautiful piece of music must first and foremost comply with the absolute and inviolable laws of music, which no one can prescribe. "

Spiritual and late works

Liszt shortly before his death,
photograph by Nadar

Liszt's death mask

Liszt composed religiously inspired music on a large scale. In addition to masses, oratorios and psalms, this also includes piano works, for example Harmonies poétiques et religieuses or the psaume instrumental for piano and orchestra on the Gregorian melody De profundis . His sacred works are evidence of Liszt's attempts to realize a musique humanitaire he dreamed up in 1834 under the influence of the Abbé de Lamennais . According to Lamennais, the people should in future be the pillar of the Church. Accordingly, in an essay on future church music , Liszt had stated that at a time when the altar shook and shook, the pulpit and religious ceremonies served as material for scoffers and doubters, art had to leave the interior of the temple in order to find its way into to seek the scene of their rallies for the outside world. Richard Wagner took a similar view in his old publication Religion und Kunst .

Liszt's sacred works include the Missa solemnis ( Gran Mass ), which he composed in 1856 for the consecration of the basilica in Gran in Hungary, the Hungarian Coronation Mass composed in 1866/67 , various psalms, the legend of St. Elisabeth completed in 1862 and the 1866 completed and in 1867 the oratorio Christ and a Requiem completed in 1869 were expanded by two movements . The legend of St. Elizabeth and the oratorio Christ were frequently performed well into the 20th century; The Gran Mass is counted alongside the masses of Anton Bruckner to the outstanding highlights of the church music of the 19th century. In Hungary in particular, the Hungarian Coronation Mass , in which Liszt used melodies in the style of the Hungarian rhapsodies , was very popular. In contrast, the Requiem has remained largely unknown.

With the sacred works composed since 1870, including other legends and many smaller pieces, Liszt cultivated a predominantly ascetic style. With regard to the sacred works he had composed earlier, contemporaries accused him of sounding far too secular and that he had carried Wagner's operatic style into church. For this reason, Liszt may have avoided any echoes of Wagner's style in the sacred works he composed later. In his late works - almost all “intellectual works” - he repeatedly deals with dying and the question of how to live after death and finds an idiosyncratic musical language for this.

Literary works

The literary works of Franz Liszt are summarized in his Gesammelte Schriften , which were first published in Leipzig in 1883 by Lina Ramann in six volumes. In addition to essays and travel letters, the biography of Frédéric Chopin , which he wrote together with Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein, is of particular interest. Of his many letters, over 6,000 have been published in various volumes, e. B. the correspondence with Richard Wagner, Hans von Bülow, his mother Anna or the Grand Duke Carl Alexander.

See also: List of Franz Liszt's literary works

Honor and appreciation

Honors during your lifetime

• January 1840: Liszt is made an honorary citizen of Pest and awarded the honorary saber of the Hungarian nobility.
• March 1841: Award of an honorary doctorate from the philosophical faculty of the Albertus University in Königsberg i. Pr. ( Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi and Karl Rosenkranz presented the certificate. Wilhelm Jordan put a cap with a gold Albertus pin on him for the student body ).
• On September 18, 1841, Liszt was accepted into the local Masonic lodge Zur Einigkeit in Frankfurt am Main "as a sign of his long-standing cultivation of humanity and assistance" . February 1842: Liszt received II. And III. In the Berlin Lodge Zur Eintracht . Degree . In 1845 he became an honorary member of the Modestia cum Libertate Lodge in Zurich and in Pest in 1870.
• In 1842 Liszt was appointed a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin .
• In the same year he received the order Pour le Mérite .
• October 1859: after receiving the Order of the Iron Crown III. After receiving the class , Liszt was raised to the hereditary Austrian knighthood at his own request in accordance with the statutes of the order and was henceforth allowed to use the name Franz Ritter von Liszt . The coat of arms of the knighthood awarded on the occasion of his ennoblement was "Geviert; 1 and 4 in red a jumping silver unicorn; 2 and 3 in blue three silver stakes, on top of a red bar, this centered with a gold star. Two crowned helmets: I the unicorn inward growing; II an open flight, tinged like field 2 and 3. " In May 1867 Liszt asked the Austrian Emperor to transfer the knighthood to his cousin Eduard Liszt.
• On May 29, 1861 he was by Napoleon III. appointed Commander of the Legion of Honor .
• In 1871 he received the title of Royal Hungarian Council .
• In 1881 he became a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris .
• 1884: Awarded the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art .
• Honorary member of the Leopoldina singers in Breslau (today Cologne)
• Honorary member of the St. Pauli Jena singers

Judgments from contemporaries

Robert Schumann

“This power to subjugate an audience, to lift it up, to carry it and to let it fall, can hardly be found in such a high degree in any artist, with the exception of Paganini. But the most difficult thing is to talk about this art itself. It is no longer piano playing of this or that kind, but rather the pronunciation of a bold character in general, to rule, to conquer, the fate of art instead of dangerous tools. "

Richard Wagner

“You came into my life as the greatest person I have ever had the privilege of addressing as a friend. You separated yourself slowly from me, maybe because you didn't know me as well as you did me. […] So you live in full beauty in front of me and in me, and we are married as if over graves. You were the first to ennoble me through his love. I am now married to her for a second, higher life and I can do what I would never have been able to do alone. So you could become everything to me, while I could only stay with you: how tremendously I have an advantage over you! "

Maurice Ravel

“What defects in all of Liszt's work are so important to us? Are there not enough strengths in the tumultuous, simmering, immense and magnificent chaos of musical matter from which several generations of famous composers drew? "

Post mortem appreciations

Liszt monument in Weimar

GDR stamp issue in 1961
for Liszt's 150th birthday

• In 1913, Lisztgasse in Vienna- Landstrasse (3rd district) was named after him.
• In 1925 in Budapest, in honor of Franz Liszt, the music academy that he had created fifty years earlier and of which he was the first president was named after him, see Franz Liszt Music Academy .
• In recognition of his work, the University of Music Weimar, named after Liszt in 1956, organized two international piano competitions, the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition and the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists.
• Mount Liszt on Alexander I Island in Antarctica has been named after him since 1961 .
• In Raiding , Weimar , Budapest and Bayreuth museums have been set up, providing information on the life and work of Franz Liszt. There are also monuments in these and other places.
• The Altenburg in Weimar, where Liszt lives, houses a Liszt Salon, which is open on request, and a Liszt exhibition.
• In the Liszt Year 2011, the Franz Liszt Memorial Organ was inaugurated in the Catholic Church Weimar , where Liszt could be found regularly during his time in Weimar and accompanied the services. There is another Liszt organ in Denstedt near Weimar.
• In March 2011 the Budapest International Airport was renamed Budapest Liszt Ferenc Airport .
• In 2011, a German silver commemorative coin worth 10 euros was issued for Franz Liszt's 200th birthday.
• The Lisztäffchen were named after Franz Liszt because of their hair on their heads, which is similar to his hairstyle .
• In addition, the asteroid 3910 was named Liszt.

See also: Franz Liszt Memorials

Exhibitions

• 2011: Franz Liszt. A European in Weimar. Schillerhaus Weimar and Weimar City Palace
• 2017: Génie oblige. Liszt autographs from the estate. Goethe and Schiller Archive in Weimar

Movies

• 1954: Hungarian Rhapsody . (Alternative title: Franz Liszt's great love ) by André Haguet , Peter Berneis
• 1955: Women around Richard Wagner . by William Dieterle
• 1960: Only a few are chosen . by Charles Vidor , George Cukor
• 1975: Lisztomania . by Ken Russell

literature

• Detlef Altenburg (Ed.): Franz Liszt, Diary 1827. Vienna 1986.
• Detlef Altenburg: Liszt, Franz. In: Music in the past and present, personal part. Volume 11, Kassel a. a. 2004.
• Detlef Altenburg (Ed.): Liszt and the New German School. Weimar Liszt Studies. on behalf of the Franz Liszt Society V. Weimar edited by Detlef Altenburg. Volume 3, Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2006, ISBN 3-89007-656-4 .
• Detlef Altenburg: The New German School - a fiction of the history of music? In: D. Altenburg (Ed.): Neudeutsche Schule. P. 9 ff.
• Detlef Altenburg (Ed.): Franz Liszt. A European in Weimar. Cologne 2011.
• Jan Jiracek von Arnim: Franz Liszt: visionary and virtuoso. A biography. Residenz-Verlag, St. Pölten / Salzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7017-3234-0 .
• Philippe Autexier : Mozart & Liszt sub Rosa. Poitiers 1984.
• Béla Bartók: Liszt's music and today's audience. In: D. Hamburger: Contributions by Hungarian authors. P. 118 ff.
• Ernö Békefi: Franz Liszt, his origins - his family. In: D. Hamburger (Ed.): Contributions by Hungarian authors. P. 7 ff.
• Robert Bory: Une retraite romantique. deuxième édition considérablement augmentée, Lausanne 1930.
• Ernst Burger: Franz Liszt. A life history in pictures and documents. List Verlag, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-417-77160-3 . With a foreword by Alfred Brendel.
• Marie d'Agoult (Daniel Stern): Mémoires, Souvenirs et Journaux I / II. Présentation et Notes de Charles F. Dupêchez, Mercure de France 1990.
• James Deaville: A “Daily Diary of the Weimar Dream”, Joachim Raff's Unpublished Letters to Doris Genast 1852-1856. In: Michael Saffle (Ed.): Analecta Lisztiana I. Proceedings of the International “Liszt and His World” Conference held at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 20–23 May 1993, Franz Liszt Studies Series No. 5, Pendragon Press, Stuyvesant NY 1995, pp. 181 ff.
• James Deaville: The New German Music Criticism . In: Altenburg (Hrsg.): New German School. P. 55 ff.
• Miroslav Demko: Franz Liszt compositeur Slovaque. L'Age d'Homme, Suisse 2003.
• Charles F. Dupêchez: Marie d'Agoult 1805–1876. 2nd edition corrigée. Paris 1994.
• Maria Eckhardt, Cornelia Knotik (Ed.): Franz Liszt and his circle in letters and documents from the holdings of the Burgenland State Museum. Eisenstadt 1983.
• Damien Ehrhardt (Ed.): Franz Liszt - Musique, médiation, interculturalité ( Etudes germaniques 63/3, July – September 2008)
• Dana Gooley: The virtuoso Liszt. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Nina Noeske: Liszt's “Faust”. Aesthetics - Politics - Discourse. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-412-50620-9 (also habilitation thesis, Hanover University of Music, Theater and Media, 2013).
• Serge Gut : Franz Liszt. Paris 1989. (French; revised and expanded German version published in September 2009, ISBN 978-3-89564-115-2 )
• Klára Hamburger (Ed.): Franz Liszt, contributions by Hungarian authors. Budapest 1984.
• Klára Hamburger: Franz Liszt. Life and work. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-412-20581-2 .
• Hansen, Bernhard:  Liszt, Franz Ritter von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , pp. 701-703 ( digitized version ).
• Eduard Hanslick: From the musically beautiful. A contribution to the revision of the aesthetics in the art of music. Edited by Dietmar Strauss, Part 1: Historical-critical edition. Part 2: Eduard Hanslick's writing from a text-critical perspective. B. Schott's Sons, Mainz 1990.
• Zsolt von Harsanyi : Hungarian Rhapsody. Esche Verlag Leipzig 1936 ("Magyar Rapszódia", translated from the Hungarian and edited by JP Toth and A. Luther: Paul Neff Verlag, JP Toth Verlag, Hamburg 1952 etc.)
• Reinhard Haschen: Franz Liszt or The Overcoming of Romanticism through Experiment. Berlin / Frankfurt 1989, ISBN 3-610-08540-1 .
• Oliver Hilmes : Liszt. Biography of a superstar. Siedler, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-88680-947-9 .
• Benedikt Jäker: The Hungarian Rhapsodies of Franz Liszt. studiopunkt-verlag, Sinzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-89564-029-2 .
• Solange Joubert: Une correspondance romantique: Madame d'Agoult, Liszt, Henri Lehmann. Paris 1947.
• Hans Rudolf Jung (Ed.): Franz Liszt in his letters. Frankfurt am Main 1988.
• Irina Kaminiarz: Richard Strauss, letters from the archive of the General German Music Association 1888–1909. Weimar 1995.
• Geraldine Keeling: Liszt's Appearances in Parisian Concerts. Part 1: 1824-1833. In: Liszt Society Journal. 11, 1986, p. 22 ff. Part 2: 1834-1844. In: Liszt Society Journal. 12, 1987, p. 8 ff.
• Dezső Legány: Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1869–1873. Occidental Press, Budapest 1983.
• Dezső Legány: Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1874–1886. Occidental Press, Budapest 1992.
• Dezső Legány: Franz Liszt, Unknown Press and Letters from Vienna 1822–1886. Vienna 1984.
• Franz Liszt: Correspondence with his mother. edited by Klara Hamburger, Eisenstadt 2000.
• Irina Lucke-Kaminiarz: The General German Music Association and its Tonkünstlerfeste 1859–1886. In: D. Altenburg (Ed.): Neudeutsche Schule. P. 221 ff.
• Thérése Marix-Spire: Les romantiques et la musique. Le cas George Sand. Paris 1954.
• Guy May: Franz Liszt, Luxemburg and the Munkácsys. Editions Saint-Paul, Luxembourg 2011.
• Wolfgang W. Müller : Franz Liszt. A theological rhapsody. Theology and Music in Romanticism . Schwabe, Basel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7965-3866-7 .
• Jósef Óváry: Ferenc Liszt. Budapest 2003.
• Pauline Pocknell: Franz Liszt and Joseph Maria Lefebvre: A Correspondence 1841–1848. Part I in: Liszt Saeculum. 54, 1995, p. 39 ff. Part II in: Liszt Saeculum. 55, 1995, p. 3 ff.
• Günther Protzies: Studies on the biography of Franz Liszt and on selected piano works from the years 1828–1846 (PDF; 3.1 MB), Phil. Diss., Bochum 2004.
• Peter Raabe: Liszt's life. 2nd Edition. Tutzing 1968.
• Peter Raabe: Liszt's work. 2nd Edition. Tutzing 1968.
• Lina Ramann: Lisztiana, memories of Franz Liszt in diary sheets, letters and documents from the years 1873–1886 / 87. Edited by Arthur Seidl, text revision by Friedrich Schnapp, Mainz 1983.
• Thomas Schipperges: Liszt students. To regenerate a memory figure . In: Music in the field of tension between national thinking and cosmopolitanism. Franz Liszt on his 200th birthday. International conference at the Heidelberg Science Forum, June 3 to 5, 2011, ed. by Dorothea Redepenning, Heidelberg 2015, pp. 259–288.
• Herbert Schneider: Wagner, Berlioz and the music of the future. In: D. Altenburg (Ed.): Neudeutsche Schule. P. 77 ff.
• Gottfried Scholz (Ed.): Liszt Studies 4: The Young Liszt. Lectures at the 4th European Liszt Symposium Vienna 1991, organized by the Institute for Music Analysis at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and the European Liszt Center Eisenstadt, Munich / Salzburg 1993.
• Axel Schröter: “The name Beethoven is sacred in art.” Studies on Liszt's Beethoven reception. studiopunkt-verlag, Sinzig 1999, ISBN 3-89564-031-X .
• Michael Stegemann: Franz Liszt. Genius on the sidelines. Piper, Munich / Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-492-05429-4 .
• Christoph Stölzl and Wolfram Huschke (eds.): Réminiscences à Liszt. Weimar 2011 . Without ISBN. Liszt School of Music Weimar, Weimar 2011, p. total: 256 pages .
• Erich Tremmel, Gert-Dieter Ulferts (Hrsg.): Kosmos piano. Augsburg 2011.
• Jacques Vier (Ed.): L'artiste - le clerc. Documents inédits. Paris 1950.
• Jacques Vier: La Comtesse d'Agoult et son temps. Tome 1, Paris 1958.
• Cosima Wagner: Franz Liszt. A memorial sheet from his daughter. 2nd Edition. F. Bruckmann, Munich 1911, Textarchiv - Internet Archive .
• Manfred Wagner : Franz Liszt - Works and Life. Holzhausen, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-85493-019-4 ( online ).
• Alan Walker: Franz Liszt
  • The Virtuoso Years, 1811-1847. revised edition, Cornell University Press, 1987.
  • The Weimar Years, 1848-1861. New York 1989.
  • The Final Years, 1861-1886. Cornell University Press, 1997.
• Artist changes . In: The Gazebo . Issue 10, 1866, pp. 149, 152–155 ( full text [ Wikisource ] - with illustration).

Bibliographies

• Charles Suttoni: Liszt Correspondence in Print. An Expanded, Annotated Bibliography. In: Journal of the American Liszt Society. 25 (1989).
• Barbara Meier: Franz Liszt. Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-499-50633-8 .
• Michael Saffle: Franz Liszt. A Research and Information Guide. New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-415-99839-0 .
• Klara Hamburger: Franz Liszt's life and work. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20581-2 .

Web links

Commons : Franz Liszt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Franz Liszt  - Sources and full texts

• Entry on Franz Liszt in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Works by and about Franz Liszt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Franz Liszt  in the German Digital Library
• Newspaper article about Franz Liszt in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Literature about Franz Liszt in the bibliography of the music literature
• List of works at Klassika.info
• Liszt Ferenc Archive Göppingen / Budapest
• Catalog raisonné after Humphrey Searle
• Exchange of letters between Franz Liszt and Louis Spohr
• Franz Liszt. Genius and humble teacher. A biography in the blog of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

grades

• Sheet music and audio files by Franz Liszt in the International Music Score Library Project
• Sheet music in the public domain by Franz Liszt in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)
• Works by Franz Liszt in the Mutopia project
• Song portal
• Digitized musical works in the Bavarian State Library

Recordings

• Audio samples and full pieces
• Piano Society - Liszt (free recordings)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hungarian authors occasionally use the spelling Ferenc . Liszt's first name is registered as Ferencz in his Hungarian passport from 1874 (shown in Óváry: Ferenc Liszt. P. 29) , so this spelling is preferred. See also the facsimile of a sheet music example signed by Liszt as Liszt Ferencz in Óváry: Ferenc Liszt. P. 38.
2. ^ A study of Franz Liszt's concepts of changing. (PDF) Retrieved June 29, 2017 . 
3. ↑ A European in Saxony . In: Neues Deutschland , 16./17. June 2018, p. 22.
4. ↑ Michael Lorenz : "An Unknown Grandmother of Liszt" , Vienna 2012.
5. ↑ See the note from the Transylvanian Volksfreund of November 27, 1846, in Burger: Franz Liszt. P. 164.
6. ↑ An example of Hungarian nationalism is Óváry's book Ferenc Liszt .
7. ↑ The relevant part of the original French Baccalaureus letter appeared in German translation by Baron Lannoy in the Wiener Allgemeine Musikalischen Anzeiger on January 31, 1839. This version can be found in Legány: Unbekannte Presse. P. 22 f.
8. ↑ See the frequently cited letter to Baron Antal Augusz of May 7, 1873, in Jung (Ed.): Franz Liszt in his letters. P. 236 f., In which Liszt complains about his ignorance of the Hungarian language. In Dezső Legánys Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1860–1873 , Liszt's knowledge of Hungarian is assessed much more favorably, but without convincing source evidence.
9. ↑ Cf. Békefi: Franz Liszt. His parentage - his family. P. 29.
10. ↑ See Liszt's written information to Lina Ramann from August 1874, in Ramann: Lisztiana. P. 388. One sheet equals eight pages.
11. ↑ Quoted from the illustration of the original in Burger: Franz Liszt. P. 17.
12. ↑ Czerny later described the lessons in his memoirs . The part concerning Liszt can be found in Jung (Ed.): Franz Liszt in his letters. P. 7 ff.
13. ↑ See, for example, Walker: Virtuoso Years. P. 81 ff. Walker's attempt to save at least part of the legend with reference to a publication by Ilka Horowitz-Barnay from 1875 is hardly convincing, since the reliability of this publication itself is doubtful; see. Legány: Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1874–1886. P. 303, note 71.
14. ↑ Cf. Legány: Unknown press from Vienna. P. 19.
15. ↑ See Adam Liszt's letter to Czerny of July 29, 1824, in Burger: Franz Liszt. P. 36.
16. ↑ See Rellstab: Franz Liszt. P. 63 f. In an interview with Rellstab, Liszt said that transposing the joints was a very difficult task for him, and that it often stopped and erred.
17. ↑ The spelling Litz for Liszt's name is still in the title of his first Paganini etude in the Schonenberger edition published in February 1841 and in an advertisement for his arrangements of Schubert's songs in the France musicale of April 18, 1841, p. 140 Find. There was also the spelling Listz . See the discussion in Le Pianiste of November 20, 1834, p. 15. In the opinion of this author, Liszt's handwritten signature was to be read as Listz , while the spellings Litz and Liszt were rejected as incorrect.
18. ↑ A detailed description of Liszt's concert behavior during this time is contained in the letter from the lawyer Lecourt in Marseille of spring 1825 or 1826 to the piano teacher Jenny Montgolfier in Lyon. Eckhardt, Maria: Liszt à Marseille. In: Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 24 1982, p. 168 f.
19. ↑ Reinhold Sietz (Ed.): From Ferdinand Hiller's correspondence. Contributions to the history of music in the Rhineland. Issue 28, Cologne, p. 14.
20. ↑ For the details of Liszt's concert activities cf. Keeling: Liszt's Appearances in Parisian Concerts 1.
21. ↑ Cf. Burger: Franz Liszt. P. 54.
22. ↑ See http://saintcricq.com/
23. ↑ Details can be found in Œuvres de Saint-Simon & d'Enfantin , publiées par les membres du conseil institué par Enfantin pour l'exécution de ses dernières volontés, quarante-septième volume de la collection générale. Réimpression photoméchanique de l'édition 1865–78. Otto Zeller, Aalen 1964.
24. ↑ A Madame Goussard is mentioned as an early example (cf. Ramann: Franz Liszt I, 2, p. 137). Also a Jeanne Frédérique Ahénais de Saint-Hippolyte, Comtesse de Benoist de la Prunarède, known as Adèle de Prunarède, who is said to have seduced him in January 1831 during a visit to her Marlioz Castle in Savoy . Then there is Charlotte Laborie, whose mother wanted to arrange a marriage with Liszt. Cf. Jacqueline Bellas: Liszt et la fille de Madame D ..... In: Littératures, Université de Toulouse. no. 2, automne 1980, p. 133 ff.
25. ↑ Cf. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Travel Letters 1830–32. P. 315.
26. ↑ Do Tytusa Woyciechowskiego w Poturzynie . pl.chopin.nifc.pl (Polish)
27. ^ Wolfgang Dömling : Franz Liszt and his time. P. 157.
28. ↑ See Jung (Ed.): Franz Liszt in his letters. P. 169.
29. ↑ Cf. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Travel Letters 1830–32. P. 325.
30. ↑ It was April 20, 1832. The date on which Liszt attended Paganini's concert comes from a note in his calendar.
31. ↑ Translated from the French, after La Mara (Ed.): Franz Liszts Briefe. First volume, Leipzig 1893, p. 7 f.
32. ↑ See Christian Goubault. Les trois concerts de Franz Liszt a Rouen. In: Revue internationale de musique française. 13 1984, p. 91.
33. ↑ See Keeling: Liszt's Appearances in Parisian Concerts 1. pp. 30 f.
34. ↑ See the note on the concert in Le Pianiste of November 20, 1834, p. 16, and Liszt's letter to Jules Janin, in Vier (ed.): L'artiste - le clerc. P. 145. The identity of the piece played by Liszt is demonstrated in Keeling: Liszt's Appearances in Parisian Concerts 1. p. 29.
35. ↑ An example is an assessment by François Stoepel in the Leipziger Allgemeine musical newspaper of September 30, 1835.
36. ↑ On the success of the performance and Liszt's presence, cf. the letter from Berlioz to his father of December 6, 1830, in Berlioz, Hector: Correspondance générale , éditée sous la direction de Pierre Citron, I, 1803-1832, Paris 1972, p. 384.
37. ↑ This emerges from a letter to her mother dated December 25, 1832; see. Four: Comtesse d'Agoult, I. p. 130; d'Agoult: Souvenirs I. S. 420, note 160.
38. ↑ See Apponyi: Journal II. P. 306.
39. ↑ See Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance I. S. 19.
40. ↑ In the older literature, December 1833 is given, when they met in Paris at a Marquise le Vayer. Other sources speak of December 1832.
41. ↑ See the letter to Valerie Boissier of December 12, 1832, in Bory, Robert: Diverses lettres inédites de Liszt. In: Swiss Yearbook for Musicology. 3 1928, p. 11.
42. ↑ A characteristic example is the preface to the single piece Harmonies poétiques et religieuses , which Liszt composed for Marie d'Agoult in May 1833.
43. ↑ On Liszt's podium behavior during this time cf. the description in the Notice Biographique sur Franz Liszt, which he himself authorized . P. 140, which appeared in May 1843 as Extrait de la Revue générale biographique et littéraire, publiée sous la direction de ME Pascallet with the author's name Duverger. See also the description in Le Pianiste of March 20, 1835, p. 77.
44. ↑ The stay in Basel and the journey through Switzerland are described in great detail in an autobiographical manuscript by Marie d'Agoult, which is received - unfortunately only incompletely - in a copy of her daughter Claire; see. d'Agoult: souvenirs. P. 73 ff.
45. ↑ See Liszt's letter to George Sand of June 27, 1835 from Hospental, in Marix-Spire: Le cas George Sand. P. 611.
46. ↑ See four on this: Comtesse d'Agoult I. P. 393 f., Note 50.
47. ↑ For details, see Bory, Robert: Une retraite romantique. deuxième édition considérablement augmentée, Lausanne 1930.
48. ↑ Cf. d'Agoult: Souvenirs I. P. 330 ff.
49. ↑ On October 1, 1835, Liszt appeared in a concert by Prince Belgiojoso, and on April 6, 1836, he gave his own concert in the Geneva casino.
50. ↑ See Liszt's letter to George Sand from the autumn of 1835, in Marix-Spire: Le cas George Sand. P. 614 f.
51. ↑ The letter to Hiller can be found in Kroó, György: “La ligne intérieure” - the Years of Transformation and the “Album d'un voyageur”. In: Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 28 1986, p. 250.
52. ↑ She later became known as a writer under the pseudonym "Daniel Stern".
53. ↑ See Apponyi: Journal III. P. 151.
54. ↑ Cf. Joseph Mainzer's report in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 4 1836, p. 166.
55. ↑ In November 1835, the Revue musicale and the Gazette musicale were merged to form the Revue et Gazette musicale .
56. ↑ This emerges from Liszt's letters to Marie d'Agoult from Lyon.
57. ↑ See Apponyi: Journal III. P. 231.
58. ^ Translated from the French, after Marix-Spire: Le cas George Sand. P. 471.
59. ↑ As an example cf. the article "Virtuosity versus Virtuosity or Liszt versus Thalberg" in the Leipziger Allgemeine Musical Zeitung 39 1837, p. 106 ff. According to a note in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik of January 20, 1837, p. 28, Schumann wanted Liszt's review would have been better left unprinted.
60. ↑ See the detailed review of Joseph d'Ortigues in the Revue et Gazette musicale of March 19, 1837, p. 96 ff., And Joseph Mainzer's report in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 6, 1837, p. 185. According to Mainzer's description Thalberg was proclaimed "King of the Pianists", while Liszt had to give way. Both authors were friends of Liszt.
61. ↑ See the review in the Revue et Gazette musicale of April 9, 1837, p. 126, in which Liszt was advised to take Thalberg as an example. In La Presse of April 10, 1837, in a review of Liszt's “Farewell Concert” the day before, he was given the same advice. Further comments in the contemporary press in Gooley: The Virtuoso Liszt , and in the comments on Liszt's Thalberg review in Liszt, Franz: Complete writings , edited by Detlef Altenburg, Volume 1: Early writings , edited by Rainer Kleinertz, commented with the assistance of Serge Good , Wiesbaden 2000.
62. ↑ Translated into German from the French original. Fétis had heard Thalberg's game in Brussels on several occasions and also listened to Liszt's current game on a visit to Paris in late October or early November 1836.
63. ↑ This is shown in Protzies: Studies on Franz Liszt's Biography. P. 220 ff.
64. ↑ On the time of Lyon, cf. Rainer Kleinertz: Subjectivity and the public sphere - Liszt's rivalry with Thalberg and its consequences. In: Liszt Studies 4. p. 63. On the origin of the melody used by Liszt cf. Kroó, György: Années de Pélerinage - Première Année: Versions and Variants. A Challenge to the Thematic Catalog. In: Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 34 1992, p. 419.
65. ↑ Many details are documented in Chiappari, Luciano: Liszt a Firenze, Pisa e Lucca . Pacini, Pisa 1989.
66. ↑ Grandes Etudes. Trois airs suisses , Fragments poétiques , Fleurs mélodiques des Alpes. Galop chromatique. Paganini Etudes .
67. ↑ In a letter to Tito Ricordi of April 1, 1838, Liszt stated that he would be staying in Venice for the next three weeks; see. Mary Tibaldi-Chiesa: Franz Liszt in Italia. In: Nouva Antologia 386 1936, p. 143. A day later he announced his trip to Vienna in a letter to Count Amadé; see. Charles Suttoni: Liszt Correspondance in Print: An Expanded Annotated Bibliography. In: Journal of the American Liszt Society. 25 (January - June 1989), p. 107.
68. ↑ Cf. Marie d'Agoult's description in her autobiographical manuscript Episode de Venise. in d'Agoult: Souvenirs II. p. 247 ff. In Protzies: Studies on the biography of Franz Liszt. P. 92, it is shown that the person referred to in the manuscript as "Theodoro" and "Miri" was Count Emilio Malazzoni.
69. ↑ Cf. d'Agoult: Souvenirs I. S. 201.
70. ↑ . See Marie d'Agoults letters of 26 September 1839 Henri Lehmann, in Joubert: Correspondance romantique. P. 31, as well as from October 6, 1839 to Adolphe Pictet, in Bory: Retraite romantique. P. 164. See also the note dated July 23, 1839 in Marie d'Agoult's diary, in d'Agoult: Souvenirs II, p. 206.
71. ↑ hh.schule.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
72. ↑ helles-koepfchen.de
73. ^ Wolfgang Dömling: Franz Liszt and his time. Laaber 1985, pp. 20-25.
74. ↑ See the description in the memoirs of the banker Charles Dubois in Liège, in Burger: Liszt. P. 147.
75. ↑ See Liszt's letter to Marie d'Agoult of June 19, 1841, in Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance II. P. 162.
76. ↑ Cf. Liszt's letter to Marie d'Agoult, in Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance I. S. 450. For a better understanding of the letter cf. also: d'Agoult: Souvenirs II. p. 251, as well as p. 332, note 266.
77. ↑ See Marie d'Agoult's letter of November 11, 1840, in Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance II. P. 51 f.
78. ↑ This emerges from a letter from Liszt dated March 3, 1843; see. Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance II. P. 270.
79. ↑ The director Schumann was imprisoned for high debts, and the opera's income was confiscated; see. on this the report under the heading “Von Kunst-Dinge” in the Hamburg Correspondents of June 4, 1842.
80. ↑ On this complex cf. Gooley: The virtuoso Liszt. P. 191 ff.
81. ↑ For more detailed information, cf. Liszt's letter to Marie d'Agoult of November 8, 1842, in Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance II. p. 227 f.
82. ↑ This emerges from numerous attempts at justification by Liszt in his letters to Marie d'Agoult from 1842 and 1843.
83. ↑ See Liszt's letter to Marie d'Agoult of October 22, 1842 and his subsequent letters, in Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance II., P. 227 ff.
84. ↑ See Liszt's letter to Marie d'Agoult of the same day, in Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance II. P. 229.
85. ↑ See, for example, his letter of January 22, 1843, in Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance II. P. 253.
86. ↑ Details on the publication of the novel can be found in Fleuriot de Langle, Paul: Le lancement d'un roman en 1846 (avec des documents inédites). In: Mercure de France. February 15, 1929, p. 120 ff.
87. ↑ This emerges from Schilling's foreword in Franz Liszt .
88. ↑ This source material included Adam Liszt's diary and a selection of the Baccalaureus letters published under Liszt's name .
89. ↑ In a note from the publisher, the book is listed as the only correct and authentic biography of Liszt. An appendix shows that Liszt read and corrected the book before it was published.
90. ↑ For the details cf. Liszt's letter to Massart of April 27, 1845, in Vier (ed.): L'artiste - le clerc. P. 73 ff., And Liszt's descriptions in letters to his mother, in Liszt: Correspondence with his mother. P. 169 ff.
91. ↑ In his will of September 1861, Liszt put the capital he had invested with Rothschild at around 220,000 francs; see. Walker: Weimar Years. P. 558. Of this, 60,000 francs had already been available from the time of Liszt's concerts as a child prodigy. See Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance I. p. 437.
92. ↑ The two girls visited their mother for the first time in early 1850 after they had found out their address. On Liszt's reaction cf. Walker: Weimar Years. P. 429 ff. A new contact was not made until 1854.
93. ↑ See the illustration of the decree in Burger: Franz Liszt. P. 175.
94. ↑ Chélard, in office since June 1840, retired in 1851. His position was then filled first with Carl Götze and later with Eduard Lassen.
95. ↑ In a review in the Leipziger Allgemeine musical newspaper 46 1844, p. 244 f., Liszt was praised for his direction of Beethoven's 5th symphony, but heavily criticized as a pianist.
96. ↑ She claimed to be pregnant by Liszt. To avoid a scandal, she received money from him until November 1848. In November 1848, she stated that she had lost her child in a miscarriage. See Anna Liszt's letter of November 18, 1848, ibid, p. 418.
97. ↑ In analogy to the term “serf”, this meant that beyond Liszt's death the princess had power of disposal over his soul for all eternity. On Liszt's status as the princess's “soul owner” cf. for example his letter to Franz Schober of April 22, 1848, in Jung (ed.): Franz Liszt in his letters. P. 108.
98. ↑ From a letter to Adelheid von Schorn, 1882. See Wolfgang Dömling : Franz Liszt and his time. P. 24.
99. ↑ Liszt's son Daniel, who was poetically gifted, died in 1859 of consumption . The eldest daughter, Blandine, died in 1862 after giving birth to their first child. Cosima was 92 years old and died in Bayreuth in 1932.
100. ↑ On the conditions of Raff's employment cf. Helene Raff: Franz Liszt and Joachim Raff. P. 387.
101. ↑ In June 1856 Raff left Weimar to follow his bride Doris Genast to Wiesbaden. He remained on friendly terms with Liszt until the end of his life.
102. ↑ So the designation in the concert announcement in the Weimarische Zeitung of February 21, 1854. On the genesis of Les Préludes cf. Andrew Bonner: Liszt's Les Preludes and Les Quatre Élémens: A Reinvestigation. In: 19th Century Music. 10 1986, p. 95 ff. Raff was with Liszt's Orpheus in the second half of January 1854 . busy and therefore not free; see. Deaville: Weimar Dream. P. 192, note 31.
103. ↑ See the Princess's letter to Liszt of March 31, 1854, in Walker: Weimar Years. P. 307, note 13.
104. ↑ See Müller-Reuther: Konzertlexikon. P. 266. The pieces Festklänge and Hungaria were left without a preface.
105. ↑ The published, the original and two other versions of the preface to Les Preludes can be found ibid, p. 293 ff.
106. ↑ The publication dates of these versions and the orchestral parts published much later are documented in ibid, p. 266.
107. ↑ See his self-assessment in the letter to Julius Schuberth of January 27, 1860, in Jung (ed.): Franz Liszt in his letters. P. 180 ff.
108. ↑ The correspondence is of great importance in terms of art history and provides insights into the artistic work of the two composers.
109. ↑ This was not approved by the Grand Duke.
110. ↑ A prominent example are the reactions to his participation as a conductor at the music festival in Karlsruhe in October 1853; see. Walker: Weimar Years. P. 279 ff; Deaville: Weimar Dream. P. 194 ff.
111. ↑ A list of the works conducted by Liszt can be found in Walker: Weimar Years. P. 285 ff.
112. ↑ On the Neu Weimar Association cf. ibid, p. 252 ff.
113. ↑ The listing in Deaville: New German music critics. P. 73 ff. Shows that the contemporaries were literally showered with journalistic articles by Liszt's group.
114. ↑ Details of the musical part of the assembly are documented in Pohl: The Leipzig Tonkünstler Assembly .
115. ↑ Many details are documented in Walker: Weimar Years, p. 514 ff.
116. ^ Rehberg: Liszt. Munich 1978, p. 382; Julius Kapp : Liszt , Stuttgart 1924, p. 224.
117. ↑ After the war-related destruction in April 1945, the burial chapel was rebuilt true to the original and consecrated in 1979. - See: Bayreuth: Liszt grave chapel rebuilt . In: BF , No. 12/1979, March 21, 1979 (XLIX year), p. 45 below.
118. ↑ Main work in 24 volumes: The internal causes of the external weakness of the Church (in the original French)
119. ↑ Ralf-Rüdiger Targiel : Stormy, never-ending applause in Märkische Oderzeitung , January 17, 2018, p. 16
120. ↑ Virtuoso trailblazer for modernity, On the anniversary of the death of the composer Franz Liszt on WDR on July 31, 2011.
121. ↑ Memorial plaque on Bayreuth Castle Church
122. ↑ Quoted from Bartók: Liszt's Music. P. 119.
123. ↑ The planned total number of three volumes can be found on the title page of the first volume; see. the review of the first volume in the NZfM 19 1843, p. 205 f.
124. ↑ See La Mara (ed.): Liszts Briefe. Volume 2, No. 394.
125. ↑ This may have come about because Peter Raabe, as President of the German Reich Chamber of Music, took the view that Liszt was an exemplary champion of National Socialism. Compare the speech “Franz Liszt and the German musical life”, in Raabe, Peter: Deutsche Meister. Regensburg 1937.
126. ↑ See Brendel: F. Liszt's symphonic poems. P. 121 ff. It can be assumed that Brendel - like Hanslick - used the terms “feeling” and “sensation” according to the Hegelian sense; see. on this Hanslick: On the musically beautiful. Part 1, p. 27. Then “sensation” means something like “perception through the senses”. On the other hand, “feelings” are states of the soul caused by “sensations”, that is to say “emotions”.
127. ↑ See ibid., P. 199 f.
128. ^ Eduard Hanslick: Complete writings: essays and reviews. Online partial view
129. ^ Translated from the French, after Liszt-d'Agoult: Correspondance II. P. 411.
130. ↑ Cf. Raabe: Liszts Schaffen. P. 148.
131. ↑ Hans Lippold: An Albertus for the composer . Ostpreußenblatt , October 6, 1973
132. ↑ archive.org
133. ↑ Lipsius biography Fr. Liszt portrait Klinkuht Musik Wesenberg St. Petersburg 1886.
134. ↑ See the illustration of the letter of nobility from October 30, 1859 in Burger: Franz Liszt. P. 215.
135. ↑ Blasonierung by: Austrian State Archives Vienna, General Administration Archive, Adelsarchiv: Adelsakt Franz Liszt, October 30, 1859
136. ^ Serge Gut: Franz Liszt. Sinzig 2009, p. 760.
137. ↑ From: Composers on Music
138. ^ Letter from Richard Wagner to Franz Liszt, May 18, 1872.
139. ↑ From a concert review from 1912.
140. ↑ International FRANZ LISZT piano competition
141. ↑ International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists
142. ↑ Musikhochschule Weimar: The Altenburg
143. ↑ Franz Liszt Memorial Organ, Weimar ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
144. ^ Franz Liszt organ, Dentstedt
145. ↑ Source: https://deutsche-liszt-gesellschaft.de/images/archiv/liszt-nachrichten/anders/LN_16_17_10-2012_3c.pdf , page 4, accessed on May 12, 2019