How great a pianist was Franz Liszt?
Have you ever heard about the word “Virtuosos”? Europe in the early 19th century was the era of Virtuosos. A virtuoso is a person who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, music, singing, playing a musical instrument, or composition. Performers with their own skills studied more complex and splendid skills to create numerous difficult songs. And at the center was a violinist named Nicolo Paganini. He held a charity concert for the victims of the plague in Paris in 1832, and one of the many audiences who came to see his performance was a young musician, which is the Franz Liszt I will explain. His father loved music so much that he started teaching him piano at the age of six, and he showed extraordinary enthusiasm and talent. Liszt learned the piano from Beethoven’s pupil Karl Cerny, and he also learned composition from Antonio Salieri. Mozio Clementi who is italian pianist said about young Liszt “This Hungarian boy is the greatest pianist of his time.”(Mozio Clementi, KBS Liberal Arts, youtube)
Liszt is said to have pursued a sturdy and splendid performance equivalent to the sound of an orchestra, ignoring all of the past piano playing techniques, that is, the traditional technique of grasping quiet, precise, elegant, and concise harmony according to the overall style of the song he composed. He also said “A person of any mental quality has ideas of his own. This is common sense.” about his songs. As a result, his performance is said to have been characterized by flashy, emotional, and unprecedented speed. An example is the piano sonata in b minor. For pianists, the relaxation of the thumb is very important, and Liszt’s hand was very flexible and highly movable, as well as relaxation, so Liszt used a technique called the three-handed effect. This effect makes you play as if three hands are playing. Examples include Talberg’s songs (Talberg was a rival with Liszt as a character that implemented the three-handed effect). “ I think Liszt is much harder than it sounds..! The transcendental etudes seem so easy but they are extremely difficult.” (Hodi)
In the heyday of piano music in the 1830s, he was known among the people as the best pianist, showing his tremendous songs and performances. During Liszt’s stay in Switzerland, pianist Talberg said he was the best pianist in Europe, and they had a piano duel, and the winner was Liszt. The songs played at that time are songs that are not played at all today, because they were songs of the highest difficulty that could not be played without Liszt and Talberg. He is also the first person to set the direction of the piano aside. By opening the lid of the piano towards the audience, people could hear the sound better, and he was able to show his charming face and quick hand movements together. His showmanship is also great. What he showed to the crowd were things other pianists couldn’t even think of. Thanks to such showmanship, he has a lot of fans called Lisztomania. And there are many more stories about the greatest pianist, Liszt.
Franz Liszt was born on October 22, 1811 in a village near raiding, Sopron County, Hungary. His parents were Adam Liszt, father and Anna Liszt, mother. Anna Liszt said that she was convinced that she had a special child when she saw a large comet appear in the sky from the beginning of her pregnancy. However, young Liszt’s body was fragile, and there were quite a few times when Liszt’s parents had even prepared a casket. Adam Liszt became acquainted with the Ester Haji court musicians, and his father began teaching the piano when he saw Liszt watch and follow his father’s performance when he was 6 years old. Adam encouraged his son to learn a variety of techniques, including memorizing music sheets, improvising, and firsthand, and the list reached a tremendous level in a short time. He went to Vienna and learned to play the piano with Karl Cerny and compose with Antonio Salieri. “This is the first time I’ve seen this talent since Schubert,” said Karl Chernih when he saw his play as a child. He held his debut concert when he was 11 years old, his piano skills gradually became famous in Vienna and became known outside of Vienna.
Despite the fact that the Liszt family received some money from Hungarian nobles, the economic situation was bad, and the Liszt family’s income was actually only concerts in Liszt. Adam paid attention to Paris, which has emerged as a cultural and artistic center in my Europe. On his way to Paris, just like Mozart’s concert tour, Liszt held performances in Augsburg, Stuttgart and Strasbourg, and upon arriving in Paris in 1823, he applied for admission to the Paris Conservatory. Luigi Cherubini, the director of the Paris Conservatory, refused admission because he was a foreigner. He studied composition with Ferdinando Paer, the music director of Theatre Italien, and learned music theory from Anton Leiha, a counterpoint professor at the Paris Conservatory.
He studied composition with Ferdinando Paer, the music director of Theatre Italien, and learned music theory from Anton Leiha, a counterpoint professor at the Paris Conservatory. Still, he was able to play in several places thanks to his letter of introductions he received in Hungary and Vienna. Even after his success in Paris, Liszt had to go on a playing tour to England with his father. In 1825 he held concerts in cities such as London and Manchester, and since then, Liszt had been constantly traveling for touring performances as usual for three years.
When cholera outbreaks in 1832, the cholera outbreak made it strong and one after another, the great violinist of the time, Paganini, came to a charity concert to help them. To Liszt, a pianist who was 21 years old at the time, viewing the concert brought a major turn to his music: He was shocked to hear Paganini’s incredibly splendid and skillful performance, and hone his piano technique to grasp the audience like Paganini. He invested a lot of time and effort in Liszt’s characteristic flaunting and gorgeous passages starting from this point.
His performance has a great influence on Paganini’s colorful and technical playing style, and his songs are evaluated as very difficult to play like Paganini’s playing. He did not care about the original traditional techniques and performed strong and colorful performances like an orchestra. The song he composed was very fast, colorful, and emotional. An example of one of the very difficult songs of Liszt that were like the king of the Virtuosos, and the song I’m going to explain is the list sonata in b minor.
This song has the most unconventional form of his songs and a very difficult technique. He was in his 40s, the heyday for pianists, and he made refined and neat songs by reducing his too much excessive decoration or expression in the past. At the same time, using his piano technique, he made a very difficult but splendid song. Before the list, there were 3 or 4 movements of about 8 minutes to form a single sonata, but he ignored the tradition and composed only one movement. It was expressed in one movement, which was expressed through several movements. As a result, the length of one movement of his sonata was as much as 30 minutes. Musical elements, including techniques that should be dispersed in several movements, were concentrated in one movement, and various techniques were used. Among them, there is an octave progression of both hands. An octave progression of both hands for piano, It makes a strong and heavy sound and puts strain on the wrists and arms. Liszt repeats octaves with both hands for a long period of about 30 bars from the beginning of the song. Second is the arpeggio (spread chord). Arpeggios were very important to pianists, but this song on the list had a lot of modified (difficult) arpeggios that deviated from the existing sound form a lot. It is very difficult to play this arpeggio, semjeorim, and all musical expressions. He also used metamorphosis in this song to transform one melody into a completely different atmosphere. Of course, even in the sweet part, he added a lot of ad libs to make the difficulty difficult. In addition, he used what is called the three-handed playing effect in the sweet part. This means that the right hand plays a brilliant tone like arpeggio in the high range, the left hand plays the accompaniment in the low range, and the thumb of both hands plays the melody in the mid range. Liszt’s hand had perfect thumb relaxation, which is very important to a pianist, so it was flexible and mobile, so he could use the three-handed effect. ( Most of Liszt’s music we play today has been modified several times. His signature song, La Campanella, had two major revisions, and his Transcendental Études also had two revisions. In the process, the difficulty has become a lot easier). If you listen to current Liszt’s songs, you must be amazed after you know that Liszt played much more difficult songs than what you heard.
In the 1830s, when the instrument of piano was at its peak, in Paris, many pianists tried to introduce new techniques that completely surpassed the previous era. While Liszt stayed in Switzerland, pianist Talberg challenged Liszt, claiming that he was the best pianist in Europe. They had a piano duel under the title “Who is Europe’s best pianist?” at Princess Belgioso’s salon in Paris. Liszt gives the audience a magical time (Unlike Talberg, Liszt played with her whole body), and Princess Belgioso said, “Talberg is the best pianist in the world, but on top of it is Liszt of the Absolutes.” Through his work, he showed people his assessment of being the best pianist as true and that he was at the highest level among pianists.
He was also the first to set the lateral orientation of the piano. By opening the lid of the piano towards the audience, people could hear the sound better, showing his charming face and quick gestures together. His showmanship is also great. What he showed to the audience were things other pianists couldn’t even think of. He had played with a cigar between the ring finger and middle finger, and he had thrown sheet music at the audience. His showmanship created “Lisztomania”, a fanatic fandom. His fans said that the female audience cheered, some of them fainted, and when the performance was over, the audience threw flowers, precious metals, and even the underwear they were wearing at him. The hottest item for them was his hair, and for that reason they even wrote letters to send him some hair. After playing, there were lots of carriages chasing him behind his carriage. He had numerous fans not only for his great piano playing skills, but also because of his playing skills and appearance.
My answer to How great a pianist was Franz Liszt? is “the absolute who went beyond the limits of pianists(virtuosos) at the time.” Franz Liszt showed amazing talents from an early age. And seeing Paganini’s performance was an opportunity to change his playing style. He ignored his original traditional techniques and surprised many people by creating his own colorful, emotional, and very fast songs. He used a lot of difficult things in his songs, such as the three-handed effect and the modified arpeggio. His fame was unprecedented, and Talberg, who challenged him, also lost in the piano match and Princess Belgioso said, “Talberg is the best pianist in the world, but on top of it is Liszt of the Absolutes.” The way he changed the performance, the showmanship he showed in the performance, and his sculptural appearance made him countless fans, they were called Lisztomania. It’s a maniac fandom about Liszt, not only stalking, but fans trying to get his hair, the cigarette butts he smoked, and so much more.
He is one of the people who has greatly raised the level of the piano, like Paganini, who has raised the level of violin playing, and is the founder of a new genre called symphony. He was also the first to set the lateral orientation of the piano. He was loved by countless people as the best pianist of his time, and it can be said that he was the beginning of an idol fandom called Lisztomania. I think he deserves to be called the absolute master of piano forever.
Specify: this blog is for the purpose of my class. Mr Michaud’s English 10 Honors, Final Project.
Works Cited
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Franz Liszt, Franz Liszt Quotes, BrainyMedia Inc, 2021, accessed 24 May 2021, link: https://www.brainyquote.com/citation/quotes/franz_liszt_314372
Hodi, Why does Liszt seem so hard?, pianostreet.com, 7 Dec 2004, accessed 24 May 2021, link: https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=5713.0
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