Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist of nineteenth-century Romantic Europe, born in 1811. He grew up at the court of Prince Esterhazy, where his father was a cellist. From the age of ten, he studied piano in Vienna with Salieri, where he gave his first concert in 1822. He lived in Paris until 1835, where he composed his only opera for the Opéra Le Peletier in 1825, Don Sanche ou Le château de l'amour. It was in the salons of the capital that he made a name for himself with his ‘recitals’ and met Berlioz, Sand, Paganini, Chopin and Musset. In 1836, he toured Europe with Marie d'Agoult. Listz arrived in Weimar in 1842, where he conducted the Grand Duke's orchestra and wrote numerous pieces: the first of the nineteen Hungarian Rhapsodies (1846-1885), the Sonata in B minor and the Faust-Symphony (1857). His symphonic poems (1857-1882) are emblematic of this style. Marked by the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, he defined himself as a nationalist composer. He spent time in Rome and Paris and, unable to marry Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, joined the Franciscans in 1865. He composed numerous religious works inspired by the Renaissance: the oratorio Christus in 1866, the Coronation Mass in 1867 for the new King Franz Joseph, and mystical pieces for piano such as Gondole lugubre, Csardas macabre and Bagatelle sans tonalité. This was a period when he was still travelling, particularly in Italy, where he composed his famous Jeux d'eau at the Villa d'Este (1877). He died in Bayreuth in 1886.

Franz LisztComposer