LISZT, FRANZ (1811-1886), Hungarian pianist and com poser, was born on Oct. 22, 1811, at Raiding, Hungary. His appeal to musicians was made in a threefold capacity, and we have, therefore, to deal with Liszt, the unrivalled pianoforte virtuoso (183o-48) ; Liszt, the conductor of the "music of the future," at Weimar, the teacher of Taussig, Biilow and a host of lesser pian ists, the eloquent writer on music and musicians, the champion of Berlioz and Wagner (1848-61) ; and Liszt the prolific composer, who for some 35 years continued to put forth pianoforte pieces, songs, symphonic orchestral pieces, cantatas, masses, psalms and oratorios (1847-82). As virtuoso he held his own for the entire period during which he chose to appear in public ; but the militant conductor and prophet of Wagner had a hard time of it ; and the composer's place is still in dispute.
Liszt's father, a clerk to the agent of the Esterhazy estates and an amateur musician of some attainment, was Hungarian by birth and ancestry, his mother an Austrian-German. The boy's gifts attracted the attention of certain Hungarian magnates, who fur nished 600 gulden annually for some years to enable him to study music at Vienna and Paris. At Vienna he had lessons in pianoforte playing from Carl Czerny of "Velocity" fame, and from Salieri in harmony and analysis of scores. In his 11th year he began to play in public there, and Beethoven came to his second concert in April 1823. During the three years following he played in Paris, the French provinces and Switzerland, and paid three visits to England. In Paris he had composition lessons from Paer, and a six months' course of lessons in counterpoint from Reicha. In the autumn of 1825 the handsome and fascinating enfant gate of the salons and ateliers—"La Neuvieme Merveille du monde"—had the luck to get an operetta (Don Sancho) performed three times at the Academie Royale. The score was accidentally destroyed by fire, but a set of studies a la Czerny and Cramer, belonging to 1826 and published at Marseille as 12 Etudes, op. i., is extant, and shows remarkable precocity. After the death of his father in 1828 young Liszt gave pianoforte lessons in Paris, got through a good deal of miscellaneous reading, and felt the influence of the religious, literary and political aspirations of the time. He attended the meetings of the Saint-Simonists, lent an ear to the romantic mysticism of Pere Enfantin and later to the teaching of Abbe Lamennais. He also played Beethoven and Weber in public—a very courageous thing in those days.
The appearance of the violinist Paganini in Paris, 1831, marks the starting-point of the supreme eminence Liszt ultimately at tamed as a virtuoso. Paganini's marvellous technique inspired him to practise as no pianist had ever practised before. He tried to find equivalents for Paganini's effects, transcribed his violin caprices for the and perfected his own technique. After
Paganini he received a fresh impulse from the playing and the compositions of Chopin, who arrived in 1831, and yet another im pulse of equal force from a performance of Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique, episode de la vie d'un artiste," in 1832. Liszt tran scribed this work, and its influence ultimately led him to the composition of his "Poemes symphoniques" and other examples of orchestral programme-music.
From 1833 to 1848—when, with characteristic indifference to material considerations, he gave up playing in public—he was the prince of pianists. Five years (1835-40) were spent in Switzer land and Italy, in semi-retirement in the company of the comtesse d'Agoult (q.v.), by whom he had three children, one of them afterwards Frau Cosima Wagner. These years were devoted to further study and were interrupted only by occasional appearances at Geneva, Milan, Florence and Rome, and by annual visits to Paris, when a famous contest with Thalberg took place in 1837. The enthusiasm aroused by Liszt's playing and his personality— the two are inseparable—reached a climax at Vienna and Budapest in 1839-40, when he received a patent of nobility from the em peror of Austria, and a sword of honour from the magnates of Hungary in the name of the nation. During the eight years fol lowing he was heard at all the principal European centres. He gained much money, and gave large sums in charity. His munifi cence with regard to the Beethoven statue at Bonn made a great stir. The monument was completed at his expense, and unveiled at a musical festival conducted by Spohr and himself in In 1848 he settled at Weimar with Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein (d. 1887), and remained there till 1861. During this period he acted as conductor at court concerts and on special occasions at the theatre, gave lessons to a number of pianists, wrote articles of permanent value on certain works of Berlioz and the early operas of Wagner, and produced those orchestral and choral pieces upon which his reputation as a composer mainly depends. His efforts on behalf of Wagner, then an exile in Switzerland, cul minated in the first performance of Lohengrin on Aug. 28, 185o Among other works produced during this period for the first time or revived with a view to the furtherance of musical art were Wagner's Tannhduser, Der fliegende Hollander, Das Liebesmahl der Apostel, and Eine Faust Overture, Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini, the Symphonie Fantastique, Harold en Italie, Romeo et Juliette, La Damnation de Faust, and L'Enfance du Christ—the last two conducted by the composer—Schumann's Genoveva, Paradise and the Peri, the music to Manfred and to Faust, Weber's Euryanthe, Schubert's Alfonso and Estrella, Raff's Konig Alfred, Cornelius's Der Barbier von Baghdad and many more.