Franz Liszt : Reconsidered
Franz Liszt’s life would make a great movie. He was arguably the greatest pianist in history, for many years he lived as a virtuoso performing all across Europe and having a few scandalous (for the period) love affairs in the process. Then at the height of his fame, he retired abruptly from the concert stage choosing to live in partial seclusion devoted to composition and finally taking lower orders in the Catholic Church, ending his life as an Abbé.
Liszt was a tireless promoter of other composers, among them Wagner (especially during his long exile from Germany and its music scene), and Berlioz, as well as proselytizing styles from the past such as Bach's sacred music and Gregorian chant. His operatic transcriptions were a unique way of promoting new music and his piano reductions of Beethoven symphonies brought these works to places where they might not have been heard. Although he was a target in the so-called "music wars" of the 19th century, he was not a participant and was gracious when meeting with Brahms, much more so than Brahms was towards him.
His wrote some of the most technically demanding music for the piano, innovative music for orchestra, and spiritually sublime music for organ and choir. His influence was huge, however, for decades his impact as a composer has been undervalued, if not ignored entirely.
RTRH
