Name	Petrarch
Birth date	July 20, 1304
Birth place	Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
Death date	July 19, 1374
Death place	Arquà Petrarca, Veneto, Italy
Occupation	Renaissance humanist
Nationality	Italian
Period	Early Renaissance}}

Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374), known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism". In the 16th century, Pietro Bembo created the model for the modern Italian language based on Petrarch's works, as well as those of Giovanni Boccaccio and, especially, Dante Alighieri. This would be later endorsed by the Accademia della Crusca. Petrarch's sonnets were admired and imitated throughout Europe during the Renaissance and became a model for lyrical poetry. He is also known for being the first to develop the concept of the Dark Ages.

Biography

Youth and early career

Petrarch was born on Garden Street in the city of Arezzo, just at dawn on a Monday. He was the son of Ser Petracco. He spent his early childhood in the village of Incisa, near Florence. Petrarch spent much of his early life at Avignon and nearby Carpentras, where his family moved to follow Pope Clement V who moved there in 1309 to begin the Avignon Papacy. He studied law at the University of Montpellier (1316–20) and Bologna (1320–23) with a lifelong friend and schoolmate called Guido Sette. Because his father was in the profession of law he insisted that Petrarch and his brother study law also. Petrarch however was primarily interested in writing and Latin literature and considered these seven years wasted. Additionally he proclaimed that through legal manipulation his guardians robbed him of his small property inheritance in Florence, which only reinforced his dislike for the legal system. He protested, "I couldn't face making a merchandise of my mind", as he viewed the legal system as the art of selling justice.

Petrarch was a prolific letter writer and counted Boccaccio among his notable friends to whom he wrote often. After the death of their parents, Petrarch and his brother Gherardo went back to Avignon in 1326, where he worked in numerous clerical offices. This work gave him much time to devote to his writing. With his first large scale work, ''Africa'', an epic in Latin about the great Roman general Scipio Africanus, Petrarch emerged as a European celebrity. On April 8, 1341, he became the first poet laureate since antiquity and was crowned on the holy grounds of Rome's Capitol.

He traveled widely in Europe and served as an ambassador and has been called "the first tourist" because he traveled just for pleasure, which was the basic reason he climbed Mont Ventoux. During his travels, he collected crumbling Latin manuscripts and was a prime mover in the recovery of knowledge from writers of Rome and Greece. He encouraged and advised Leontius Pilatus's translation of Homer from a manuscript purchased by Boccaccio, although he was severely critical of the result. Petrarch had acquired a copy, which he did not entrust to Leontius, but he knew no Greek; Homer, Petrarch said, "was dumb to him, while he was deaf to Homer". In 1345 he personally discovered a collection of Cicero's letters not previously known to have existed, the collection ''ad Atticum''.

Disdaining what he believed to be the ignorance of the centuries preceding the era in which he lived, Petrarch is credited with creating the concept of a historical "Dark Ages".

Mont Ventoux

Petrarch recounts that on April 26, 1336, with his brother and two servants, he climbed to the top of Mont Ventoux (), a feat which he undertook for recreation rather than necessity. The exploit is described in a celebrated letter addressed to his friend and confessor, the monk Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro, composed some time after the fact. In it Petrarch claimed to have been inspired by Philip V of Macedon's ascent of Mount Haemo and that an aged peasant had told him that nobody had ascended Ventoux before or after himself, 50 years before, and warned him against attempting to do so. However, the nineteenth-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt noted that Jean Buridan had climbed the same mountain a few years before, and other ascents are recorded from the Middle Ages, including Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne.

Scholars note that Petrarch's letter to Dionigi displays a strikingly "modern" attitude of aesthetic gratification in the grandeur of the scenery and is still often cited in books and journals devoted to the sport of mountaineering. In Petrarch, this attitude is coupled with an aspiration for a virtuous Christian life, and on reaching the summit, he took from his pocket a volume by his beloved mentor, Saint Augustine, that he always carried with him.

For pleasure alone he climbed Mount Ventoux, which rises to more than six thousand feet, beyond Vaucluse. It was no great feat, of course; but he was the first recorded Alpinist of modern times, the first to climb a mountain merely for the delight of looking from its top. (Or almost the first; for in a high pasture he met an old shepherd, who said that fifty years before he had attained the summit, and had got nothing from it save toil and repentance and torn clothing.) Petrarch was dazed and stirred by the view of the Alps, the mountains around Lyons, the Rhone, the Bay of Marseilles. He took St. Augustine's ''Confessions'' from his pocket and reflected that his climb was merely an allegory of aspiration towards a better life".

As the book fell open, Petrarch's eyes were immediately drawn to the following words:

Petrarch's response was to turn from the outer world of nature to the inner world of "soul":

James Hillman argues that this rediscovery of the inner world is the real significance of the Ventoux event. The Renaissance begins not with the ascent of Mont Ventoux but with the subsequent descent—the "return [...] to the valley of soul", as Hillman puts it.

Later years

The later part of Petrarch's life he spent in journeying through northern Italy as an international scholar and poet-diplomat. His career in the Church did not allow him to marry, but he is believed to have fathered two children by a woman or women unknown to posterity. A son, Giovanni, was born in 1337, and a daughter, Francesca, was born in 1343. Both he later legitimized.

Giovanni died of the plague in 1361. Francesca married Francescuolo da Brossano (who was later named executor of Petrarch's will) that same year. In 1362, shortly after the birth of a daughter, Eletta (same name as Petrarch's mother), they joined Petrarch in Venice to flee the plague then ravaging parts of Europe. A second grandchild, Francesco, was born in 1366, but died before his second birthday. Francesca and her family lived with Petrarch in Venice for five years from 1362 to 1367 at Palazzo Molina; although Petrarch continued to travel in those years.

About 1368 Petrarch and his daughter Francesca (with her family) moved to the small town of Arquà in the Euganean Hills near Padua, where he passed his remaining years in religious contemplation. He died in his house in Arquà on July 19, 1374 – one day short of his seventieth birthday.

Petrarch's will (dated April 4, 1370) leaves 50 florins to Boccaccio "to buy a warm winter dressing gown"; various legacies (a horse, a silver cup, a lute, a Madonna) to his brother and his friends; his house in Vaucluse to its caretaker; for his soul, and for the poor; and the bulk of his estate to his son-in-law, Francescuolo da Brossano, who is to give half of it to "the person to whom, as he knows, I wish it to go"; presumably his daughter, Francesca, Brossano's wife. The will mentions neither the property in Arquà nor his library; Petrarch's library of notable manuscripts was already promised to Venice, in exchange for the Palazzo Molina. This arrangement was probably cancelled when he moved to Padua, the enemy of Venice, in 1368. The library was seized by the lords of Padua, and his books and manuscripts are now widely scattered over Europe. Nevertheless, the Biblioteca Marciana traditionally claimed this bequest as its founding, although it was in fact founded by Cardinal Bessarion in 1468.

Works

Petrarch is best known for his Italian poetry, notably the ''Canzoniere'' ("Songbook") and the ''Trionfi'' ("Triumphs"). However, Petrarch was an enthusiastic Latin scholar and did most of his writing in this language. His Latin writings include scholarly works, introspective essays, letters, and more poetry. Among them are ''Secretum'' ("My Secret Book"), an intensely personal, guilt-ridden imaginary dialogue with Augustine of Hippo; ''De Viris Illustribus'' ("On Famous Men"), a series of moral biographies; ''Rerum Memorandarum Libri'', an incomplete treatise on the cardinal virtues; ''De Otio Religiosorum'' ("On Religious Leisure") and ''De Vita Solitaria'' ("On the Solitary Life"), which praise the contemplative life; ''De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae'' ("Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul"), a self-help book which remained popular for hundreds of years; ''Itinerarium'' ("Petrarch's Guide to the Holy Land"); a number of invectives against opponents such as doctors, scholastics, and the French; the ''Carmen Bucolicum'', a collection of 12 pastoral poems; and the unfinished epic ''Africa''.

thumb|left|upright|Petrarch revived the work and letters of the ancient [[Roman Senate|Roman Senator Marcus Tullius Cicero]]Petrarch also published many volumes of his letters, including a few written to his long-dead friends from history such as Cicero and Virgil. Cicero, Virgil, and Seneca were his literary models. Most of his Latin writings are difficult to find today. However, several of his works are scheduled to appear in the Harvard University Press series ''I Tatti''. It is difficult to assign any precise dates to his writings because he tended to revise them throughout his life.

In addition, Petrarch collected his letters into two major sets of books called ''Epistolae familiares'' ("Familiar Letters") and ''Seniles'' ("Of Old Age"), a plan suggested to him by knowledge of Cicero's letters. He kept out of ''Epistolae familiares'' a special set of 19 controversial letters called ''Liber sine nomine'' that contained much criticism of the Avignon papacy. These were published "without names" to protect the recipients, all of whom had close relationships to Petrarch. The recipients of these letters included Philippe de Cabassoles, bishop of Cavaillon; Ildebrandino Conti, bishop of Padua; Cola di Rienzo, tribune of Rome; Francesco Nelli, priest of the Prior of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Florence; and Niccolò di Capoccia, a cardinal and priest of Saint Vitalis. His "Letter to Posterity" (the last letter in ''Seniles'') gives an autobiography and a synopsis of his philosophy in life. It was originally written in Latin and was completed in 1371 or 1372.

While Petrarch's poetry was set to music frequently after his death, especially by Italian madrigal composers of the Renaissance in the 16th century, only one musical setting composed during Petrarch's lifetime survives. This is ''Non al suo amante'' by Jacopo da Bologna, written around 1350.

Laura and poetry

On April 6, 1327, Good Friday, after Petrarch gave up his vocation as a priest, the sight of a woman called "Laura" in the church of Sainte-Claire d'Avignon awoke in him a lasting passion, celebrated in the ''Rime sparse'' ("Scattered rhymes"). Later, Renaissance poets who copied Petrarch's style named this collection of 366 poems ''Il Canzoniere'' ("Song Book"). Laura may have been Laura de Noves, the wife of Count Hugues de Sade (an ancestor of the Marquis de Sade). There is little definite information in Petrarch's work concerning Laura, except that she is lovely to look at, fair-haired, with a modest, dignified bearing. Laura and Petrarch had little or no personal contact. According to his "Secretum", she refused him for the very proper reason that she was already married to another man. He channeled his feelings into love poems that were exclamatory rather than persuasive, and wrote prose that showed his contempt for men who pursue women. Upon her death in 1348, the poet found that his grief was as difficult to live with as was his former despair. Later in his "Letter to Posterity", Petrarch wrote: "In my younger days I struggled constantly with an overwhelming but pure love affair – my only one, and I would have struggled with it longer had not premature death, bitter but salutary for me, extinguished the cooling flames. I certainly wish I could say that I have always been entirely free from desires of the flesh, but I would be lying if I did". While it is possible she was an idealized or pseudonymous character – particularly since the name "Laura" has a linguistic connection to the poetic "laurels" Petrarch coveted – Petrarch himself always denied it. His frequent use of ''l'aura'' is also remarkable: for example, the line "Erano i capei d'oro a ''l'aura'' sparsi" may both mean "her hair was all over Laura's body", and "the wind ("l'aura") blew through her hair". There is psychological realism in the description of Laura, and Petrarch's love is by no means conventional – unlike some cliché women of troubadours and courtly love. Her presence causes him unspeakable joy, but his unrequited love creates unendurable desires, inner conflicts between the ardent lover and the mystic Christian, making it impossible to reconcile the two, his quest for love a hopeless, endless agony.

Laura is unreachable – the few physical descriptions are vague, almost impalpable as the love he pines for, and such is perhaps the power of his verse, which lives off the melodies it evokes against the fading, diaphanous image that is no more consistent than a ghost. Francesco De Sanctis remarks much the same thing in his ''Storia della lera italiana'', and contemporary critics agree on the powerful music of his verse. Perhaps the poet was inspired by a famous singer he met in Veneto around 1350's. Gianfranco Contini, in a famous essay on Petrarch's language ("Preliminari sulla lingua del Petrarca". Petrarca, Canzoniere. Turin, Einaudi, 1964) has spoken of linguistic indeterminacy – Petrarch never rises above the "bel pié" (her lovely foot): Laura is too holy to be painted; she is an awe-inspiring goddess. Sensuality and passion are suggested rather by the rhythm and music that shape the vague contours of the lady.

Dante

Petrarch's is a world apart from Dante and his ''Divina Commedia''. In spite of the metaphysical subject, the ''Commedia'' is deeply rooted in the cultural and social milieu of turn-of-the-century Florence: Dante's rise to power (1300) and exile (1302), his political passions call for a "violent" use of language, where he uses all the registers, from low and trivial to sublime and philosophical. Petrarch confessed to Boccaccio that he had never read the ''Commedia'', remarks Contini, wondering whether this was true or Petrarch wanted to distance himself from Dante. Dante's language evolves as he grows old, from the courtly love of his early stilnovistic ''Rime'' and ''Vita nuova'' to the ''Convivio'' and ''Divina Commedia'', where Beatrice is sanctified as the goddess of philosophy – the philosophy announced by the Donna Gentile at the death of Beatrice.

In contrast, Petrarch's thought and style are relatively uniform throughout his life – he spent much of it revising the songs and sonnets of the ''Canzoniere'' rather than moving to new subjects or poetry. Here, poetry alone provides a consolation for personal grief, much less philosophy or politics (as in Dante), for Petrarch fights within himself (sensuality versus mysticism, profane versus Christian literature), not against anything outside of himself. The strong moral and political convictions which had inspired Dante belong to the Middle Ages and the libertarian spirit of the commune; Petrarch's moral dilemmas, his refusal to take a stand in politics, his reclusive life point to a different direction, or time. The free commune, the place that had made Dante an eminent politician and scholar, was being dismantled: the ''signoria'' was taking its place. Humanism and its spirit of empirical enquiry, however, were making progress – but the papacy (especially after Avignon) and the empire (Henry VII, the last hope of the white Guelphs, died near Siena in 1313) had lost much of their original prestige.

Petrarch polished and perfected the sonnet form inherited from Giacomo da Lentini and which Dante widely used in his ''Vita nuova'' to popularise the new courtly love of the ''Dolce Stil Novo''. The tercet benefits from Dante's terza rima (compare the ''Divina Commedia''), the quatrains prefer the ABBA-ABBA to the ABAB-ABAB scheme of the Sicilians. The imperfect rhymes of ''u'' with closed ''o'' and ''i'' with closed ''e'' (inherited from Guittone's mistaken rendering of Sicilian verse) are excluded, but the rhyme of open and closed ''o'' is kept. Finally, Petrarch's enjambment creates longer semantic units by connecting one line to the following. The vast majority (317) of Petrarch's 366 poems collected in the ''Canzoniere'' (dedicated to Laura) were ''sonnets'', and the Petrarchan sonnet still bears his name.

Philosophy

thumb|left|upright|200px|Statue of Petrarch on the Uffizi Palace, in FlorencePetrarch is traditionally called the father of Humanism and considered by many to be the "father of the Renaissance." He was the first to offer a combination of abstract entities of classical culture and Christian philosophy. In his work ''Secretum meum'' he points out that secular achievements did not necessarily preclude an authentic relationship with God. Petrarch argued instead that God had given humans their vast intellectual and creative potential to be used to their fullest. He inspired humanist philosophy which led to the intellectual flowering of the Renaissance. He believed in the immense moral and practical value of the study of ancient history and literature – that is, the study of human thought and action. Petrarch was a devout Catholic and did not see a conflict between realizing humanity's potential and having religious faith.

A highly introspective man, he shaped the nascent humanist movement a great deal because many of the internal conflicts and musings expressed in his writings were seized upon by Renaissance humanist philosophers and argued continually for the next 200 years. For example, Petrarch struggled with the proper relation between the active and contemplative life, and tended to emphasize the importance of solitude and study. Later the politician and thinker Leonardo Bruni argued for the active life, or "civic humanism". As a result, a number of political, military, and religious leaders during the Renaissance were inculcated with the notion that their pursuit of personal fulfillment should be grounded in classical example and philosophical contemplation.

Legacy

The Romantic composer Franz Liszt set three of Petrarch's Sonnets (47, 104, and 123) to music for voice, ''Tre sonetti del Petrarca'', which he later would transcribe for solo piano for inclusion in the suite ''Années de Pèlerinage''.

In November, 2003, it was announced that pathological anatomists would be exhuming Petrarch's body from his casket in Arquà Petrarca, in order to verify 19th-century reports that he had stood 1.83 meters (about six feet), which would have been tall for his period. The team from the University of Padua also hoped to reconstruct his cranium in order to generate a computerized image of his features to coincide with his 700th birthday. The tomb had been opened previously in 1873 by Professor Giovanni Canestrini, also of Padua University. When the tomb was opened, the skull was discovered in fragments and a DNA test revealed that the skull was not Petrarch's, prompting calls for the return of Petrarch's skull.

The researchers are fairly certain that the body in the tomb is Petrarch's due to the fact that the skeleton bears evidence of injuries mentioned by Petrarch in his writings, including a kick from a donkey when he was 42.

See also

Italian Renaissance

Italian literature

Chaucer coming in contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio

Footnotes

References

Bartlett, Kenneth R. (1992). ''The Civilization of the Italian Renaissance; a Source Book''. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company. ISBN 0-669-20900-7

Bishop, Morris (1961). "Petrarch." In J. H. Plumb (Ed.), ''Renaissance Profiles'', pp. 1–17. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-131162-6 .

Hanawalt, A. Barbara. "The Middle Ages:An Illustrated History" pp. 131–132 Oxford University Press New York 1998

Kallendorf, Craig. "The Historical Petrarch," The American Historical Review, Vol 101, No. 1 (Feb. 1996): <130-141.>

Further reading

Bernardo, Aldo (1983). "Petrarch." In ''Dictionary of the Middle Ages'', volume 9.

Hollway-Calthrop, Henry. (1907). ''Petrarch: His Life and Times'', Methuen. From Google Books.

Kohl, Benjamin G. (1978). "Francesco Petrarcha: Introduction; How a Ruler Ought to Govern His State," in ''The Earthly Republic: Italian Humanists on Government and Society'', ed. Benjamin G. Kohl and Ronald G. Witt, 25-78. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1097-2

Nauert, Charles G. (2006). ''Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe: Second Edition''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-54781-4

Rawski, Conrad H. (1991). ''Petrarch's Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul'' A Modern English Translation of ''De remediis utriusque Fortune'', with a Commentary. ISBN 0-253-34849-8

Robinson, James Harvey (1898). ''Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and Man of Letters'' Harvard University

N. Mann, ''Petrarca'' [Ediz. orig. Oxford University Press (1984)] – Ediz. ital. a cura di G. Alessio e L. Carlo Rossi – Premessa di G. Velli, LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 1993, ISBN 88-7916-021-4

''Il «Canzoniere» di Francesco Petrarca. La Critica Contemporanea'', G. Barbarisi e C. Berra (edd.), LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 1992, ISBN 88-7916-005-2

G. Baldassari, ''Unum in locum. Strategie macrotestuali nel Petrarca politico'', LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2006, ISBN 88-7916-309-4

Francesco Petrarca, ''Rerum vulgarium Fragmenta. Edizione critica di Giuseppe Savoca'', Olschki, Firenze, 2008, ISBN 978-88-222-5744-4

Giuseppe Savoca, ''Il ''Canzoniere'' di Petrarca. Tra codicologia ed ecdotica'', Olschki, Firenze, 2008, ISBN 978-88-222-5805-2

Roberta Antognini, ''Il progetto autobiografico delle "Familiares" di Petrarca'', LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2008, ISBN 978-88-7916-396-5.

Paul Geyer und Kerstin Thorwarth (hg), ''Petrarca und die Herausbildung des modernen Subjekts'' (Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009) (Gründungsmythen Europas in Literatur, Musik und Kunst, 2).

External links

Canzoniere (different edition) and other works

Petrarch from the ''Catholic Encyclopedia''.

Excerpts from his works and letters

Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304-1374)

Timeline of life of Petrarch

Poems From The Canzoniere, translated by Tony Kline.

Francesco Petrarca at ''The Online Library of Liberty''

''De remediis utriusque fortunae'', Cremonae, B. de Misintis ac Caesaris Parmensis, 1492. (Vicifons)

Petrarch and Laura Multi-lingual site including translated works in the public domain and biography, pictures, music.

Petrarch - the poet who lost his head April 2004 article in ''The Guardian'' regarding the exhumation of Petrarch's remains

Category:1304 births Category:1374 deaths Category:People from Arezzo Category:Italian poets Category:Italian Renaissance humanists Category:Italian Renaissance writers Category:Sonneteers Category:Rhetoricians Category:14th-century historians Category:14th-century Latin writers Category:Renaissance Latin-language writers Category:Roman Catholic writers Category:Bibliophiles

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Marc-André Hamelin, OC, CQ, (born September 5, 1961) is a French Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Marc-André Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five. His father, a pharmacist by trade who was also a pianist, introduced him to the works of Alkan, Godowsky, and Sorabji when he was still young. He studied at the École de musique Vincent-d'Indy in Montreal and then at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Marc-André Hamelin has given recitals in many cities. Festival appearances have included Bad Kissingen, Belfast, Cervantino, La Grange de Meslay, Husum Piano Rarities, Lanaudière, Ravinia, La Roque d’Anthéron, Ruhr Piano, Halifax (Nova Scotia), Singapore Piano, Snape Maltings Proms, Turku and Ottawa Strings of the Future, as well as the Chopin Festivals of Bagatelle (Paris), Duszniki and Valldemossa. Marc-André Hamelin appears regularly in both the Wigmore Hall Masterconcert Series and the International Piano Series at London’s South Bank Centre. He plays annually in the Herkulessaal in Munich and has given a series of recitals in Tokyo.

He has made recordings of a wide variety of composers with the Hyperion label. His recording of Leopold Godowsky's complete ''Studies on Chopin's Études'' won the 2000 Gramophone Magazine Instrumental Award. He is well known for his attention to lesser-known composers especially of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (Leo Ornstein, Nikolai Roslavets, Georgy Catoire), and for performing difficult works by pianist-composers such as Leopold Godowsky, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Kaikhosru Sorabji, Nikolai Kapustin, Franz Liszt, Nikolai Medtner and Frederic Rzewski.

Hamelin has also composed several works, including a set of piano études in all of the minor keys, which was completed in September 2009 and is published by C. F. Peters, with a recording released on the Hyperion label. The twelfth and oldest in the cycle, composed in 1986, a ''Prelude and Fugue'', has been published by Doberman-Yppan; a cycle of seven pieces, called ''Con Intimissimo Sentimento'', was published (with a recording by Hamelin) by Ongaku No Tomo Sha; and a transcription of Zequinha de Abreu's ''Tico-Tico No Fubá'' has been published by Schott Music. Although the majority of his compositions are for piano solo, he has also written three pieces for player-piano (including the comical ''Circus Galop'' and ''Solfeggietto a cinque'', which is based on a theme by C.P.E. Bach), and several works for other forces, including ''Fanfares'' for three trumpets, published by Presser. His other works are distributed by the Sorabji Archive.

In 1985 he won the Carnegie Hall International Competition for American Music. In 2004 Hamelin received the international record award in Cannes. He has been made an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Québec (National Order of Quebec).

Most recently, he won the 2008 Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble—Alkan Concerto for Solo Piano.

His first marriage was to soprano Jody Karin Applebaum. He currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife, Cathy Fuller, pianist and WGBH classical music broadcaster.

Discography

References

Hamelin, Marc-André entry in ''Encyclopedia of Music in Canada'' part of ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''

External links

Official Website

Marc-André Hamelin at Hyperion Records

Complete Discography

Discography of Marc-André Hamelin, organized alphabetically by composer in three categories (Solo recordings, Concerto recordings, Other), with month and year of recording (by Frazer Jarvis)

Profile Last Fm

Category:1961 births Category:Canadian classical pianists Category:Contemporary classical music performers Category:French Quebecers Category:Juno Award winners Category:Knights of the National Order of Quebec Category:Living people Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:Musicians from Montreal Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers

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Noel Mewton-Wood (20 November 19225 December 1953) was an Australian-born concert pianist who achieved some fame during his short life.

Born in Melbourne, he studied with Waldemar Seidel at the Melbourne Conservatorium until the age of fourteen. After further studies at London's Royal Academy of Music, Mewton-Wood spent time with Artur Schnabel in Italy.

In March 1940, he returned to London for his debut performance at Queen's Hall, performing Beethoven's third piano concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham. He later performed in France, Germany, South Africa, Poland, Turkey and Australia.

Mewton-Wood's ''The Times'' obituary of 7 December 1953 described his debut performance:

Mewton-Wood was a close friend of Benjamin Britten. In 1952-53, while Britten was occupied in the writing of his opera ''Gloriana'', Mewton-Wood deputised as the accompanist for Britten's partner Peter Pears.

At the age of thirty-one, Mewton-Wood committed suicide by drinking prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide), apparently blaming himself for the death of a friend. The notes written by a friend of Mewton-Wood, John Amis, for the reissue of the Bliss Concerto recording, indicate that Mewton-Wood was gay and was depressed by the recent death of his lover.

Benjamin Britten wrote ''Canticle III: Still falls the rain'' for Mewton-Wood's memorial concert.

Repertoire

In addition to Beethoven, Mewton-Wood's repertoire included:

Sir Arthur Bliss's Piano Concerto (as Mewton-Wood was an exponent of this piece, Bliss wrote him a piano sonata)

Busoni's ''Fantasia contrappuntistica'' and Piano Concerto (a 1948 recording with Sir Thomas Beecham in 1948 is the earliest complete recording of the Busoni concerto known to survive)

Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor

Hindemith's ''Ludus Tonalis''

Tchaikovsky's three piano concertos, G major sonata, and Concert Fantasia

Tippett's song cycle ''The Heart's Assurance''

Works by Bartók, Britten (Mewton-Wood gave the world premiere of the revised version of Britten's Piano Concerto), Liszt, Schubert, Mahler and Schumann.

He also composed chamber music, a piano concerto, ballet music, and music for the films ''Tawny Pipit'' (1944) and ''Chance of a Lifetime'' (1950).

Books

Noel Mewton-Wood features in Sonia Orchid's novel, ''The Virtuoso'', narrated by a fictional obsessive admirer and sometime lover of Noel. The novel is informed by the author's own musical background as an accomplished pianist, and her interviews with many of Noel Mewton-Wood's friends and contemporaries.

References

Sadie, S. (ed.) (1980) ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians'', [vol. 12.]

Nixa label, CLP 1153, original recording, ''Chopin Piano Concerto No 1 in E Minor, Opus 11'', Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Mewton-Wood, Pianist, Walter Goehr, Conductor.

External links

A "community weblog" posting containing links and discussion

An interview with the Sonia Orchard, author of The Virtuoso

Entry on Noel Mewton-Wood in Australian Dictionary of Biography

Category:1922 births Category:1953 deaths Category:Australian classical pianists Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Category:LGBT people from Australia Category:LGBT musicians from Australia Category:Classical musicians who committed suicide Category:Suicides by poison

fr:Noel Mewton-Wood ja:ノエル・ミュートン＝ウッド sl:Noel Mewton-Wood

Egon Petri (23 March 188127 May 1962) was a classical pianist.

Biography

Petri's family was Dutch and he was born a Dutch citizen, but he was born in Hanover in Germany and was brought up in Dresden. His father was a professional violinist who taught his son that instrument. Petri played in the Dresden Court Orchestra and with his father's string quartet while still a teenager. He studied composition and theory with Hermann Kretzschmar and Felix Draeseke at the Dresden Conservatory.

From an early age, Petri had also taken piano lessons and he eventually concentrated on that instrument, after strong encouragement from Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Ferruccio Busoni. He studied with Busoni, who proved to be a great influence on him. He considered himself more of a disciple of Busoni's than his student. Thanks to Busoni, Petri focused on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt, composers that, along with Busoni himself, remained at the centre of his repertoire.

Petri moved with Busoni to Switzerland during World War I where he assisted him in editing Bach's keyboard works. In the 1920s Petri taught in Berlin, Victor Borge, Gunnar Johansen and Vitya Vronsky being among his students. In 1923 he became the first non-Soviet soloist to play in the Soviet Union. In 1927 he moved to Zakopane in Poland where he conducted summer and early fall sessions and master-classes to a group of pre-selected piano students until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. From 1929 he made a number of recordings for several labels including Columbia Records.

Petri escaped Poland the day before the German invasion in September 1939, but he had to leave behind all his books, music and letters, including his correspondence with Busoni (these papers survived and have been recovered). He moved to the United States, working first at Cornell University and later at Mills College in Oakland, California. He pointedly refused ever to play in Germany again. He became a naturalised American citizen in 1955.

Although a Dutch citizen until he was 74, he never lived in the Netherlands and was never at ease with the Dutch language. On one occasion he performed for Queen Wilhelmina, but they needed to converse in German. He was fluent in German, English, French, Italian, Polish and Russian.

He was an influential figure among many pianists of the middle 20th century. Earl Wild, Ozan Marsh and John Ogdon were among his international students. A big man, Petri had a superb technique and a powerful sonority, and was a superlative exponent of the larger works of Beethoven, Liszt and Brahms. He was also a proponent of new music.

Petri died in 1962 in Berkeley, California.

Students

Petri's students included:

Victor Borge (1909–2000)

Lee Hoiby (born 1926) Gunnar Johansen (1906–1991) Leonard Klein Alexander Libermann Lois Maer

Ozan Marsh (1920–1992)

Phillip Morgan John Moriarty (born 1930) John Ogdon (1937–1989) Ruth Orr Newman Powell Ruth Preusser Alice Ray

Daniell Revenaugh

Forrest Robinson Friedrich Schnapp (1900–1983) John Sweeney

Vitya Vronsky (1909-1992)

Gordon Watson

Earl Wild (1915–2010) Terry Wohl

References

External links

http://www.pianoeu.com/petri.html

Category:1881 births Category:1962 deaths Category:Dutch classical pianists Category:American classical pianists Category:Hochschule für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber" alumni Category:People who emigrated to escape Nazism Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States

de:Egon Petri es:Egon Petri he:אגון פטרי nl:Egon Petri ja:エゴン・ペトリ pl:Egon Petri ru:Петри, Эгон fi:Egon Petri

Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, and teacher.

Liszt became renowned throughout Europe during the nineteenth century for his great, virtuosic skill as a performer. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically-advanced pianist of his age and perhaps the greatest pianist of all time. He was also an important and influential composer, a notable piano teacher, a conductor who contributed significantly to the modern development of the art, and a benefactor to other composers and performers, notably Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin.

As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the "Neudeutsche Schule" ("New German School"). He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work, in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony.

Life

Early life

The earliest known ancestor of Franz Liszt is his great-grandfather, Sebastian List, who as one of the thousands of German migrant serfs locally migrating within the Austrian Empire's territories (around the area nowadays constituting Lower Austria and Hungary), in the first half of the 18th century, and died in 1793 in Rajka, Moson County, Kingdom of Hungary. Liszt's grandfather was an overseer on several Esterházy estates; he could play the piano, violin and organ. The Liszt clan dispersed throughout Austria and Hungary and gradually lost touch with one another.

Franz Liszt was born to Marie Anna Lager and Adam Liszt on October 22, 1811, in the village of Doborján () in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary. His father would use only the Hungarian language when dealing, as steward, with the folk of the village in which the family settled.

Liszt's father played the piano, violin, cello, and guitar. He had been in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy and knew Haydn, Hummel and Beethoven personally. At age six, Franz began listening attentively to his father's piano playing and showed an interest in both sacred and Romani music. Adam began teaching him the piano at age seven, and Franz began composing in an elementary manner when he was eight. He appeared in concerts at Sopron and Pozsony (; ) in October and November 1820 at age 9. After the concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Franz's musical education abroad.

In Vienna, Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. He also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, who was then music director of the Viennese court. His public debut in Vienna on December 1, 1822, at a concert at the "Landständischer Saal," was a great success. He was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and also met Beethoven and Schubert. In spring 1823, when the one year leave of absence came to an end, Adam Liszt asked Prince Esterházy in vain for two more years. Adam Liszt therefore took his leave of the Prince's services. At the end of April 1823, the family returned to Hungary for the last time. At end of May 1823, the family went to Vienna again.

Towards the end of 1823 or early 1824, Liszt's first published composition appeared in print, a Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli (now S. 147), which was Variation 24 in Part II of ''Vaterländischer Künstlerverein''. This anthology, commissioned by Diabelli, included 50 variations on his waltz by 50 different composers (Part II), Part I being taken up by Beethoven's 33 variations on the same theme, which are now better known as the ''Diabelli Variations'', Op. 120.

Adolescence in Paris

After his father's death Liszt moved to Paris; for the next five years he was to live with his mother in a small apartment. He gave up touring. To earn money, Liszt gave lessons in piano playing and composition, often from early morning until late at night. His students were scattered across the city and he often had to cover long distances. Because of this, he kept uncertain hours and also took up smoking and drinking—all habits he would continue throughout his life.

The following year he fell in love with one of his pupils, Caroline de Saint-Cricq, the daughter of Charles X's minister of commerce. However, her father insisted that the affair be broken off. Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and pessimism. He again stated a wish to join the Church but was dissuaded this time by his mother. He had many discussions with the Abbé de Lamennais, who acted as his spiritual father, and also with Chrétien Urhan, a German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists. Urhan also wrote music that was anti-classical and highly subjective, with titles such as ''Elle et moi, La Salvation angélique'' and ''Les Regrets'', and may have whetted the young Liszt's taste for musical romanticism. Equally important for Liszt was Urhan's earnest championship of Schubert, which may have stimulated his own lifelong devotion to that composer's music.

During this period Liszt read widely to overcome his lack of a general education, and he soon came into contact with many of the leading authors and artists of his day, including Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine and Heinrich Heine. He composed practically nothing in these years. Nevertheless, the July Revolution of 1830 inspired him to sketch a Revolutionary Symphony based on the events of the "three glorious days," and he took a greater interest in events surrounding him. He met Hector Berlioz on December 4, 1830, the day before the premiere of the ''Symphonie fantastique''. Berlioz's music made a strong impression on Liszt, especially later when he was writing for orchestra. He also inherited from Berlioz the diabolic quality of many of his works.

Paganini

After attending an April 20, 1832 concert for charity, for the victims of a Parisian cholera epidemic, by Niccolò Paganini, Liszt became determined to become as great a virtuoso on the piano as Paganini was on the violin. Paris in the 1830s had become the nexus for pianistic activities, with dozens of pianists dedicated to perfection at the keyboard. Some, such as Sigismond Thalberg and Alexander Dreyschock, focused on specific aspects of technique (e.g. the "three-hand effect" and octaves, respectively). While it was called the "flying trapeze" school of piano playing, this generation also solved some of the most intractable problems of piano technique, raising the general level of performance to previously unimagined heights. Liszt's strength and ability to stand out in this company was in mastering all the aspects of piano technique cultivated singly and assiduously by his rivals.

In 1833 he made transcriptions of several works by Berlioz, including the ''Symphonie fantastique''. His chief motive in doing so, especially with the ''Symphonie'', was to help the poverty-stricken Berlioz, whose symphony remained unknown and unpublished. Liszt bore the expense of publishing the transcription himself and played it many times to help popularise the original score. He was also forming a friendship with a third composer who influenced him, Frédéric Chopin; under his influence Liszt's poetic and romantic side began to develop.

With Countess Marie d'Agoult

In 1833, Liszt began his relationship with the Countess Marie d'Agoult. In addition to this, at the end of April 1834 he made the acquaintance of Felicité de Lamennais. Under the influence of both, Liszt's creative output exploded. In 1834 Liszt debuted as a mature and original composer with his piano compositions ''Harmonies poétiques et religieuses'' and the set of three ''Apparitions''. These were all poetic works which contrasted strongly with the fantasies he had written earlier. In 1835 the countess left her husband and family to join Liszt in Geneva; their daughter Blandine was born there on December 18. Liszt taught at the newly founded Geneva Conservatory, wrote a manual of piano technique (later lost) and contributed essays for the Paris ''Revue et gazette musicale''. In these essays, he argued for the raising of the artist from the status of a servant to a respected member of the community.

For the next four years Liszt and the countess lived together, mainly in Switzerland and Italy, where their daughter, Cosima, was born in Como, with occasional visits to Paris. On May 9, 1839 Liszt's and the countess's only son, Daniel, was born, but that autumn relations between them became strained. Liszt heard that plans for a Beethoven monument in Bonn were in danger of collapse for lack of funds, and pledged his support. Doing so meant returning to the life of a touring virtuoso. The countess returned to Paris with the children, while Liszt gave six concerts in Vienna, then toured Hungary.

Touring virtuoso

For the next eight years Liszt continued to tour Europe, spending holidays with the countess and their children on the island of Nonnenwerth on the Rhine in summers 1841 and 1843. In spring 1844 the couple finally separated. This was Liszt's most brilliant period as a concert pianist. Honours were showered on him and he was adulated everywhere he went. Since Liszt often appeared three or four times a week in concert, it could be safe to assume that he appeared in public well over a thousand times during this eight-year period. Moreover, his great fame as a pianist, which he would continue to enjoy long after he had officially retired from the concert stage, was based mainly on his accomplishments during this time.

After 1842 "Lisztomania" swept across Europe. The reception Liszt enjoyed as a result can only be described as hysterical. Women fought over his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs. Helping fuel this atmosphere was the artist's mesmeric personality and stage presence. Many witnesses later testified that Liszt's playing raised the mood of audiences to a level of mystical ecstasy.

Adding to his reputation was the fact that Liszt gave away much of his proceeds to charity and humanitarian causes. In fact, Liszt had made so much money by his mid-forties that virtually all his performing fees after 1857 went to charity. While his work for the Beethoven monument and the Hungarian National School of Music are well known, he also gave generously to the building fund of Cologne Cathedral, the establishment of a ''Gymnasium'' at Dortmund, and the construction of the Leopold Church in Pest. There were also private donations to hospitals, schools and charitable organizations such as the Leipzig Musicians Pension Fund. When he found out about the Great Fire of Hamburg, which raged for three weeks during May 1842 and destroyed much of the city, he gave concerts in aid of the thousands of homeless there.

Liszt in Weimar

In February 1847, Liszt played in Kiev. There he met the Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who dominated most of the rest of his life. She persuaded him to concentrate on composition, which meant giving up his career as a travelling virtuoso. After a tour of the Balkans, Turkey and Russia that summer, Liszt gave his final concert for pay at Elisavetgrad in September. He spent the winter with the princess at her estate in Woronince. By retiring from the concert platform at 35, while still at the height of his powers, Liszt succeeded in keeping the legend of his playing untarnished.

The following year, Liszt took up a long-standing invitation of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia to settle at Weimar, where he had been appointed ''Kapellmeister Extraordinaire'' in 1842, remaining there until 1861. During this period he acted as conductor at court concerts and on special occasions at the theatre. He gave lessons to a number of pianists, including the great virtuoso Hans von Bülow, who married Liszt's daughter Cosima in 1857 (years later, she would marry Richard Wagner). He also wrote articles championing Berlioz and Wagner. Finally, Liszt had ample time to compose and during the next 12 years revised or produced those orchestral and choral pieces upon which his reputation as a composer mainly rests. His efforts on behalf of Wagner, who was then an exile in Switzerland, culminated in the first performance of ''Lohengrin'' in 1850.

Princess Carolyne lived with Liszt during his years in Weimar. She eventually wished to marry Liszt, but since she had been previously married and her husband, Russian military officer Prince Nikolaus zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Ludwigsburg (1812–1864), was still alive, she had to convince the Roman Catholic authorities that her marriage to him had been invalid. After huge efforts and a monstrously intricate process, she was temporarily successful (September 1860). It was planned that the couple would marry in Rome, on October 22, 1861, Liszt's 50th birthday. Liszt having arrived in Rome on October 21, 1861, the Princess nevertheless declined, by the late evening, to marry him. It appears that both her husband and the Tsar of Russia had managed to quash permission for the marriage at the Vatican. The Russian government also impounded her several estates in the Polish Ukraine, which made her later marriage to anybody unfeasible.

Liszt in Rome

The 1860s were a period of great sadness in Liszt's private life. On December 13, 1859, he lost his son Daniel, and on September 11, 1862, his daughter Blandine also died. In letters to friends, Liszt afterwards announced that he would retreat to a solitary living. He found it at the monastery ''Madonna del Rosario'', just outside Rome, where on June 20, 1863, he took up quarters in a small, Spartan apartment. He had on June 23, 1857, already joined a Franciscan order.

On April 25, 1865, he received the tonsure at the hands of Cardinal Hohenlohe. Following this he was sometimes called the ''Abbé'' Liszt. On July 31, 1865 he received the four minor orders of porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte. On August 14, 1879 he was made an honorary canon of Albano. The title 'Abbé', the French equivalent of 'Father', is a courtesy title often given in the 18th Century to men in minor orders; Liszt was never a priest. (''Abbé'' can also mean abbot, but that definition does not apply here at all.)

On some occasions, Liszt took part in Rome's musical life. On March 26, 1863, at a concert at the ''Palazzo Altieri'', he directed a programme of sacred music. The "Seligkeiten" of his "Christus-Oratorio" and his "Cantico del Sol di Francesco d'Assisi", as well as Haydn's "Die Schöpfung" and works by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Jommelli, Mendelssohn and Palestrina were performed. On January 4, 1866, Liszt directed the "Stabat mater" of his "Christus-Oratorio", and on February 26, 1866, his "Dante Symphony". There were several further occasions of similar kind, but in comparison with the duration of Liszt's stay in Rome, they were exceptions. Bódog Pichler, who visited Liszt in 1864 and asked him for his future plans, had the impression that Rome's musical life was not satisfying for Liszt.

Threefold life

Liszt was invited back to Weimar in 1869 to give master classes in piano playing. Two years later he was asked to do the same in Budapest at the Hungarian Music Academy. From then until the end of his life he made regular journeys between Rome, Weimar and Budapest, continuing what he called his "vie trifurquée" or threefold existence. It is estimated that Liszt travelled at least 4000 miles a year during this period in his life—an exceptional figure given his advancing age and the rigours of road and rail in the 1870s.

Last years

On July 2, 1881, Liszt fell down the stairs of the Hotel in Weimar. Though friends and colleagues had noted swelling in Liszt's feet and legs when he had arrived in Weimar the previous month, Liszt had up to this point been in reasonably good health, and his body had retained the slimness and suppleness of earlier years. The accident, which immobilised him for eight weeks, changed this. A number of ailments manifested—dropsy, asthma, insomnia, a cataract of the left eye and chronic heart disease. The last-mentioned eventually contributed to Liszt's death. He became increasingly plagued by feelings of desolation, despair and preoccupation with death—feelings which he expressed in his works from this period. As he told Lina Ramann, "I carry a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound."

He died in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 31, 1886, at age 74, officially as a result of pneumonia which he may have contracted during the Bayreuth Festival hosted by his daughter Cosima. Questions have been posed as to whether medical malpractice played a direct part in Liszt's demise.

Composer Camille Saint-Saëns, an old friend, whom Liszt had once called "the greatest organist in the world" dedicated his Symphony No. 3 "Organ Symphony" to Liszt; it had premiered in London only a few weeks before his death.

Liszt as pianist

Performing style

There are few, if any, good sources that give an impression of how Liszt really sounded from the 1820s. Carl Czerny claimed Liszt was a natural who played according to feeling, and reviews of his concerts especially praise the brilliance, strength and precision in his playing. At least one also mentions his ability to keep absolute tempo, which may be due to his father's insistence that he practice with a metronome. His repertoire at this time consisted primarily of pieces in the style of the brilliant Viennese school, such as concertos by Hummel and works by his former teacher Czerny, and his concerts often included a chance for the boy to display his prowess in improvisation.

Following the death of Liszt's father in 1827 and his hiatus from the life as a touring virtuoso, it is likely Liszt's playing gradually developed a more personal style. One of the most detailed descriptions of his playing from this time comes from the winter of 1831/1832, during which he was earning a living primarily as a teacher in Paris. Among his pupils were Valerie Boissier, whose mother Caroline kept a careful diary of the lessons. From her we learn that:

"M. Liszt's playing contains abandonment, a liberated feeling, but even when it becomes impetuous and energetic in his fortissimo, it is still without harshness and dryness. [...] [He] draws from the piano tones that are purer, mellower and stronger than anyone has been able to do; his touch has an indescribable charm. [...] He is the enemy of affected, stilted, contorted expressions. Most of all, he wants truth in musical sentiment, and so he makes a psychological study of his emotions to convey them as they are. Thus, a strong expression is often followed by a sense of fatigue and dejection, a kind of coldness, because this is the way nature works."

Possibly influenced by Paganini's showmanship, once Liszt began focusing on his career as a pianist again his emotionally vivid presentations of the music were rarely limited to mere sound. His facial expression and gestures at the piano would reflect what he played, for which he was sometimes mocked in the press. Also noted was the extravagant liberties he could take with the text of a score at this time. Berlioz tells us how Liszt would add cadenzas, tremolos and trills when playing the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and created a dramatic scene by changing the tempo between Largo and Presto. In his ''Baccalaureus letter'' to George Sand from the beginning of 1837, Liszt admitted that he had done so for the purpose of gaining applause, and promised to follow both the letter and the spirit of a score from then on. It has been debated to what extent he realized his promise, however. By July 1840 the British newspaper ''The Times'' could still report

"His performance commenced with Händel's Fugue in E minor, which was played by Liszt with an avoidance of everything approaching to meretricious ornament, and indeed scarcely any additions, except a multitude of ingeniously contrived and appropriate harmonies, casting a glow of colour over the beauties of the composition, and infusing into it a spirit which from no other hand it ever received."

Repertoire

During his years as a travelling virtuoso Liszt performed an enormous amount of music throughout Europe, but his core repertoire always centered around his own compositions, paraphrases and transcriptions. Studying Liszt's German concerts between 1840 and 1845, the five most frequently played pieces were the ''Grand galop chromatique'', Schubert's ''Erlkönig'' (in Liszt's transcription), ''Réminiscences de Don Juan'', ''Réminiscences de Robert le Diable'', and ''Réminiscences de Lucia de Lammermoor''. Among the works by other composers we find compositions like Weber's ''Invitation to the Dance'', Chopin mazurkas, études by composers like Ignaz Moscheles, Chopin and Ferdinand Hiller, but also major works by Beethoven, Weber and Hummel, and from time to time even selections from Bach, Handel and Scarlatti.

Most of the concerts at this time were shared with other artists, and as a result Liszt also often accompanied singers, participated in chamber music, or performed works with an orchestra in addition to his own solo part. Frequently played works include Weber's Konzertstück, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto and Choral Fantasy, and Liszt's reworking of the Hexameron for piano and orchestra. His chamber music repertoire included Hummel's Septet, Beethoven's Archduke Trio and Kreutzer Sonata, and a large selection of songs by composers like Rossini, Donizetti, Beethoven and especially Schubert. At some concerts Liszt could not find musicians to share the program with, and consequently was among the first to give solo piano recitals in the modern sense of the word. The term was coined by the publisher Frederick Beale, who suggested it for Liszt's concert at the Hanover Square Rooms in London on June 9, 1840, even though Liszt had given concerts all by himself already by March 1839.

Musical works

Liszt was a prolific composer. His composition career has a clear arch that follows his changing professional and personal life. Liszt is best known for his piano music, but he wrote extensively for many media. Because of his background as a forefront technical piano virtuoso, Liszt's piano works are often marked by their difficulty. Liszt is very well known as a programmatic composer, or an individual who bases his compositional ideas in extra-musical things such as a poetry or painting. Liszt is credited with the creation of the Symphonic Poem which is a programmatic orchestral work that generally consists of a single movement.

Liszt's compositional style delved deeply into issues of unity both within and across movements. For this reason, in his most famous and virtuosic works, he is an archetypal Romantic composer. Liszt pioneered the technique of thematic transformation, a method of development which was related to both the existing variation technique and to the new use of the Leitmotif by Richard Wagner.

Piano music

The largest and best-known portion of Liszt's music is his original piano work. His thoroughly revised masterwork, "Années de pèlerinage" ("Years of Pilgrimage") includes arguably his most provocative and stirring pieces. This set of three suites ranges from the virtuosity of the Suisse Orage (Storm) to the subtle and imaginative visualizations of artworks by Michelangelo and Raphael in the second set. Années contains some pieces which are loose transcriptions of Liszt's own earlier compositions; the first "year" recreates his early pieces of "Album d'un voyageur", while the second book includes a resetting of his own song transcriptions once separately published as "Tre sonetti di Petrarca" ("Three sonnets of Petrarch"). The relative obscurity of the vast majority of his works may be explained by the immense number of pieces he composed, and the level of technical difficulty which was present in much of his composition.

Liszt's piano works are usually divided into two categories. On the one hand, there are "original works", and on the other hand "transcriptions", "paraphrases" or "fantasies" on works by other composers. Examples for the first category are works such as the piece ''Harmonies poétiques et religieuses'' of May 1833 and the ''Piano Sonata in B minor'' (1853). Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert songs, his fantasies on operatic melodies, and his piano arrangements of symphonies by Berlioz and Beethoven are examples from the second category. As special case, Liszt also made piano arrangements of his own instrumental and vocal works. Examples of this kind are the arrangement of the second movement "Gretchen" of his ''Faust Symphony'' and the first "Mephisto Waltz" as well as the "Liebesträume No. 3" and the two volumes of his "Buch der Lieder".

Transcriptions

When Liszt wrote transcriptions of works by other composers, he invested a lot of creativity in doing so. Instead of just overtaking original melodies and harmonies, he ameliorated them. In the case of his fantasies and transcriptions in the Italian style, composers such as Bellini and Donizetti knew that certain forms, usually periods of eight measures, were to be filled with music. Occasionally, while the first half of a period was composed with inspiration, the second half was added with mechanical routine. Liszt changed this by modifying the melody, bass and occasionally the harmonies.

Liszt's transcriptions yielded results that were often more inventive than what Liszt or the original composer could have achieved alone. Some notable examples are the ''Sonnambula-fantasy'' (Bellini), the ''Rigoletto-Paraphrase'' (Verdi), the ''Faust-Walzer'' (Gounod), and "Réminiscences de Don Juan" (Mozart). Hans von Bülow admitted that Liszt's transcription of his ''Dante Sonett'' "Tanto gentile" was much more refined than the original he himself had composed. Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert songs, his fantasies on operatic melodies, and his piano arrangements of symphonies by Berlioz and Beethoven are other well known examples of piano transcriptions.

Liszt was the second pianist (after Kalkbrenner) to transcribe Beethoven's symphonies for the piano. He usually performed them for audiences that would probably never have an opportunity to hear the orchestral version.

Original songs

Franz Liszt composed about six dozen original songs with piano accompaniment. In most cases the lyrics were in German or French, but there are also some songs in Italian and Hungarian and one song in English. Liszt began with the song "Angiolin dal biondo crin" in 1839, and by 1844 had composed about two dozen songs. Some of them had been published as single pieces. In addition, there was an 1843–1844 series "Buch der Lieder". The series had been projected for three volumes, consisting of six songs each, but only two volumes appeared.

Although Liszt's early songs are seldom sung, they show him in much better light than works such as the paraphrase "Gaudeamus igitur" and the ''Galop'' after Bulhakow, both composed in 1843. The transcriptions of the two volumes of the "Buch der Lieder" can be counted among Liszt's finest piano works. However, the contemporaries had much to criticise with regard to the style of the songs. Further critical remarks can be found in Peter Raabe's ''Liszts Schaffen''.

Today, Liszt's songs are nearly entirely forgotten. As an exception, most frequently the song "Ich möchte hingehen" is cited. It is because of a single bar, most resembling the opening motif of Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde''. While it is commonly claimed that Liszt wrote that motif ten years before Wagner started work on his masterpiece, it has turned out that this is not true: the original version of "Ich möchte hingehn" was composed in 1844 or 1845. There are four manuscripts, and only a single one, a copy by August Conradi, contains the said bar with the ''Tristan'' motif. It is on a paste-over in Liszt's hand. Since in the second half of 1858 Liszt was preparing his songs for publication, and he just at that time received the first act of Wagner's ''Tristan'', it is most likely that the version on the paste-over was a quotation from Wagner. This is not to say, the motif was originally invented by Wagner. An earlier example can be found in bar 100 of Liszt's Ballade No. 2 in B minor for piano, composed in 1853.

Programme music

Liszt, in some of his works, supported the idea of programme music – that is, music intended to evoke extra-musical ideas. By contrast, absolute music (a radical new idea in the 19th century world of music) stands for itself and is intended to be appreciated without any particular reference to the outside world.

Liszt's own point of view regarding programme music can for the time of his youth be taken from the preface of the ''Album d'un voyageur'' (1837). According to this, a landscape could evoke a certain kind of mood. Since a piece of music could also evoke a mood, a mysterious resemblance with the landscape could be imagined. In this sense the music would not paint the landscape, but it would match the landscape in a third category, the mood.

In July 1854 Liszt wrote his essay about Berlioz and ''Harold in Italy'' that stated that not all music was programme music. If, in the heat of a debate, a person would go so far as to claim the contrary, it would be better to put all ideas of programme music aside. But it would be possible to take means like harmony, modulation, rhythm, instrumentation and others to let a musical motif endure a fate. In any case, a programme should only be added to a piece of music if it was necessarily needed for an adequate understanding of that piece.

Still later, in a letter to Marie d'Agoult of November 15, 1864, Liszt wrote: :"Without any reserve I completely subscribe to the rule of which you so kindly want to remind me, that those musical works which are in a general sense following a programme must take effect on imagination and emotion, independent of any programme. In other words: All beautiful music must be first rate and always satisfy the absolute rules of music which are not to be violated or prescribed".

Symphonic poems

A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in one movement in which some extramusical program provides a narrative or illustrative element. This program may come from a poem, a story or novel, a painting, or another source. The term was first applied by Liszt to his 13 one-movement orchestral works in this vein. They were not pure symphonic movements in the classical sense because they dealt with descriptive subjects taken from mythology, Romantic literature, recent history or imaginative fantasy. In other words, these works were programmatic rather than abstract. The form was a direct product of Romanticism which encouraged literary, pictorial and dramatic associations in music. It developed into an important form of program music in the second half of the 19th century.

The first 12 symphonic poems were composed in the decade 1848–58 (though some use material conceived earlier); one other, ''Von der Wiege bis zum Grabe'' (''From the Cradle to the Grave''), followed in 1882. Liszt's intent, according to Hugh MacDonald in the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980)'', was for these single-movement works "to display the traditional logic of symphonic thought." That logic, embodied in sonata form as musical development, was traditionally the unfolding of latent possibilities in given themes in rhythm, melody and harmony, either in part or in their entirety, as they were allowed to combine, separate and contrast with one another. To the resulting sense of struggle Beethoven had added an intensity of feeling and the involvement of his audiences in that feeling, beginning from the ''Eroica'' Symphony to use the elements of the craft of music—melody, bass, counterpoint, rhythm and harmony—in a new synthesis of elements toward this end.

Liszt attempted in the symphonic poem to extend this revitalization of the nature of musical discourse and add to it the Romantic ideal of reconciling classical formal principles to external literary concepts. To this end, he combined elements of overture and symphony with descriptive elements, approaching symphonic first movements in form and scale. While showing extremely creative amendments to sonata form, Liszt used compositional devices such as cyclic form, motifs and thematic transformation to lend these works added coherence. Their composition proved daunting, requiring a continual process of creative experimentation that included many stages of composition, rehearsal and revision to reach a version where different parts of the musical form seemed balanced.

Late works

With some works from the end of the Weimar years Liszt drifted more and more away from the musical taste of his time. An early example is the melodrama "Der traurige Mönch" ("The sad monk") after a poem by Nikolaus Lenau, composed in the beginning of October 1860. While in the 19th century harmonies were usually considered as major or minor triads to which dissonances could be added, Liszt took the augmented triad as central chord.

More examples can be found in the third volume of Liszt's ''Années de Pèlerinage''. "Les Jeux d'Eaux à la Villa d'Este" ("The Fountains of the Villa d'Este"), composed in September 1877, foreshadows the impressionism of pieces on similar subjects by Debussy and Ravel. However, other pieces such as the "Marche funèbre, En mémoire de Maximilian I, Empereur du Mexique" ("Funeral march, In memory of Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico") composed in 1867 are without stylistic parallel in the 19th and 20th centuries.

At a later stage Liszt experimented with "forbidden" things such as parallel 5ths in the "Csárdás macabre" and atonality in the ''Bagatelle sans tonalité'' ("Bagatelle without Tonality"). In the last part of his "2de Valse oubliée" ("2nd Forgotten waltz") Liszt composed that he could not find a lyrical melody. Pieces like the "2nd Mephisto-Waltz" are shocking with nearly endless repetitions of short motives. Also characteristic are the "Via crucis" of 1878, as well as ''Unstern!'', ''Nuages gris'', and the two works entitled ''La lugubre gondola'' of the 1880s.

Literary works

Besides his musical works, Liszt wrote essays about many subjects. Most important for an understanding of his development is the article series "De la situation des artistes" ("On the situation of the artists") which was published in the Parisian ''Gazette musicale'' in 1835. In winter 1835–36, during Liszt's stay in Geneva, about half a dozen further essays followed. One of them was slated to be published under the pseudonym, "Emm Prym", was about Liszt's own works. It was sent to Maurice Schlesinger, editor of the ''Gazette musicale''. Schlesinger, however, following the advice of Berlioz, did not publish it. In the beginning of 1837, Liszt published a review of some piano works of Sigismond Thalberg. The review provoked a huge scandal. Liszt also published a series of writings titled "Baccalaureus letters", ending in 1841.

During the Weimar years, Liszt wrote a series of essays about operas, leading from Gluck to Wagner. Liszt also wrote essays about Berlioz and the symphony ''Harold in Italy'', Robert and Clara Schumann, John Field's nocturnes, songs of Robert Franz, a planned Goethe foundation at Weimar, and other subjects. In addition to essays, Liszt wrote a book about Chopin as well as a book about the Romanis (Gypsies) and their music in Hungary.

While all of those literary works were published under Liszt's name, it is not quite clear which parts of them he had written himself. It is known from his letters that during the time of his youth there had been collaboration with Marie d'Agoult. During the Weimar years it was the Princess Wittgenstein who helped him. In most cases the manuscripts have disappeared so that it is difficult to determine which of Liszt's literary works actually were works of his own. However, until the end of his life it was Liszt's point of view that it was he who was responsible for the contents of those literary works.

Liszt also worked until at least 1885 on a treatise for modern harmony. Pianist Arthur Friedheim, who also served as Liszt's personal secretary, remembered seeing it among Liszt's papers at Weimar. Liszt told Friedheim that the time was not yet ripe to publish the manuscript, titled ''Sketches for a Harmony of the Future''. Unfortunately, this treatise has been lost.

Liszt also wrote a biography of his friend and fellow composer Frederic Chopin, "Life of Chopin".

Legacy

Although there was a period in which many considered Liszt's works "flashy" or superficial, it is now held that many of Liszt's compositions such as ''Nuages gris'', ''Les jeux d'eaux a la vill d'Este'', etc., which contain parallel fifths, the whole-tone scale, parallel diminished and augmented triads, and unresolved dissonances, anticipated and influenced twentieth century music like that of Debussy, Ravel and Bartok.

Liszt's students

Early students

Liszt was one of the most noted teachers of the 19th century. This part of his career commenced after his father's death in August 1827. For the purpose of earning his own and his mother's living, Liszt gave lessons in composition and piano playing. According to a letter to Monsieur de Mancy on December 23, 1829, he was so full of lessons that each day, from half-past eight in the morning till 10 at night, he had scarcely breathing time. Most of Liszt's students of this period were amateurs, but there were also some who made a professional career. An example of the first kind is Valérie Boissier, the later Comtesse de Gasparin. Examples of the second kind are Julius Eichberg, Pierre Wolff, and Hermann Cohen. During winter 1835–36 they were Liszt's colleagues at the Conservatoire at Geneva. Wolff then went to Saint Petersburg.

Cohen, who from George Sand received the nickname "Puzzi", developed into a very successful pianist. Of Jewish origin, he was baptized on August 28, 1847. On this day he experienced what he called an "apparition" of Christ, Mary and the saints in an "ecstasy of love". A year later he became novice of a Carmelite convent. When on October 7, 1850, he was professed, he took the name Père Augstin–Marie du Très Saint Sacrament ("Pater Augustin–Mary of the Holiest Sacrament"). On April 19, 1851, he was ordained as priest. In spring 1862 he met Liszt in Rome. After colloquies with Pater Augustin, Liszt decided that he would himself become ecclesiastic.

During the years of his tours Liszt gave only few lessons. Examples of students from this period are Johann Nepumuk Dunkl and Wilhelm von Lenz. Dunkl received lessons from Liszt during winter 1839–40. He had introduced himself by playing Thalberg's Fantasy Op. 6 on melodies from Meyerbeer's opera "Robert le diable". Liszt later called him a "Halbschüler" ("half-student"). Lenz, from St. Petersburg, had met Liszt already at the end of 1828. In summer 1842 he was in Paris again where he received further lessons from Liszt. He was merely an amateur with a repertoire of pieces such as Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9/2. In spring 1844, in Dresden, Liszt met the young Hans von Bülow, his later son in law. Bülow's repertoire included Thalberg's Fantasy "La Donna del Lago" Op. 40 and Liszt's ''Sonnambula-Fantasy''.

Later students

Since Liszt had settled in Weimar, the number of those who received lessons from him was steadily increasing. Until his death in 1886 there would have been several hundred people who in some sense may have been regarded as his students. August Göllerich published a voluminous catalogue of them. In a note he added the remark that he had taken the connotation "student" in its widest sense. As consequence, his catalogue includes names of pianists, violinists, cellists, harpists, organists, composers, conductors, singers and even writers. Another catalogue was prepared by Carl Lachmund. In Lachmund's catalogue his own wife's name, missing in Göllerich's catalogue, is included. She had successfully persuaded Liszt to listen to her playing the harp. After she had played a single piece, without Liszt saying a word about it, she was nominated as Liszt's student by her husband.

The following catalogue by Ludwig Nohl, headed with "Die Hauptschüler Liszts" ("Liszt's main students"), was approved in September 1881 and, with regard to the order of the names, corrected, by Liszt. {|cellpadding="3" |- |Hans von Bülow||Carl Tausig||Franz Bendel|| |- |Hans von Bronsart||Karl Klindworth||Alexander Winterberger |- |Julius Reubke||Theodor Ratzenberger||Robert Pflughaupt |- |Friedrich Altschul||Nicolaus Neilissoff||Carl Baermann|| |- |Dionys Pruckner||Ferdinand Schreiber||Louis Rothfeld |- |Antal Sipos||Julius Eichberg||Josef Wieniawsk |- |Louis Jungmann||William Mason||Max Pinner |- |Juliusz Zarębski||Giovanni Sgambati||Carlo Lippi |- |Siegfried Langgaard||Karl Pohlig||Arthur Friedheim |- |Louis Marek||Eduard Reuss||Bertrand Roth |- |Berthold Kellermann||Carl Stasny||Julius Richter |- |Ingeborg Starck-Bronsart||Sophie Menter-Popper||Sophie Pflughaupt |- |Aline Hundt||Pauline Fichtner-Erdmannsdörfer||Ahrenda Blume |- |Anna Mehlig||Vera Timanova||Martha Remmert |- |Sara Magnus-Heinze||Dora Petersen||Ilonka Ravacz |- |Cäcilia Gaul||Marie Breidenstein||George Leitert |}

In 1886 a similar catalogue would have been much longer, including names such as Eugen d'Albert, Walter Bache, Carl Lachmund, Moriz Rosenthal, Emil Sauer, Alexander Siloti, Conrad Ansorge, William Dayas, August Göllerich, Bernhard Stavenhagen, August Stradal, István Thomán and others.

Nohl's catalogue was by far not complete, and this even when the restriction to the period since the Weimar years is neglected. Of Liszt's Hungarian students, for example, only Antal Sipos and Ilonka Ravasz were mentioned. Sipos had become Liszt's student in 1858 in Weimar, after Liszt had heard him playing at a concert and invited him. In 1861 Sipos returned to Budapest, where in 1875 he founded a music school. Ilonka Ravasz was since winter 1875–76 one of Liszt's most gifted students at the newly founded Royal Academy for Music at Budapest. Astonishingly, the names of Aladár Juhász and Károly Aggházy are missing in Nohl's catalogue, although both had been among Liszt's favourite students at the Hungarian Academy.

Also missing are the names of Agnes Street-Klindworth and Olga Janina. Agnes Street-Klindworth had in 1853 arrived in Weimar, where she received lessons in piano playing from Liszt and lessons in composition from Peter Cornelius. Until 1861 she was Liszt's secret mistress. Olga Janina had joined the circle around Liszt in 1869 in Rome. According to Liszt's impression, she had rare and admirable musical talents. In his presence, she performed his piano concertos in E-flat and A Major as well as further examples of his works.

Unfortunately, Olga Janina fell in love with Liszt. They had a short affair, until in spring 1871—on Liszt's initiative—they separated. Olga went to America, but in spring 1873 returned to Budapest. In a telegram to Liszt she had announced that she would kill him. After three adventurous days together with Liszt in an apartment in Budapest she left. Together with Liszt's student Franz Servais she first went to Belgium where she gave concerts which were brilliant successes. She then, together with Servais, went to Italy.

During the 1870s Olga Janina wrote several scandalous books about Liszt, among them the novel ''Souvenirs d'une Cosaque'', published under the pseudonym "Robert Franz". In Göllerich's catalogue of Liszt's students she is registered as "Janina, Olga, Gräfin (Marquise Cezano) (Genf)". Thus she may have changed her name and moved to Geneva. Taking the preface of her ''Souvenirs d'une Cosaque'' literally, she had first moved from Italy to Paris where she had lived in poverty. The last paragraph of the preface can be read as a dedication to Liszt.

Besides Liszt's master students there was a crowd of those who could at best reach only moderate abilities. In such cases, Liszt's lessons changed nothing. However, also several of Liszt's master students were disappointed about him. An example is Eugen d'Albert, who in the end was on nearly hostile terms with Liszt. The same must be said of Felix Draeseke who had joined the circle around Liszt at Weimar in 1857, and who during the first half of the 1860s had been one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School. In Nohl's catalogue he is not even mentioned. Also Hans von Bülow, since the 1860s, had more and more drifted towards a direction which was not only different from Liszt's, but opposite to it

According to August Stradal, some of Liszt's master students had claimed that Anton Rubinstein was a better teacher than Liszt. It might have been meant as allusion to Emil Sauer, who had in Moscow studied with Nikolai Rubinstein. During a couple of months in summers 1884 and 1885 he studied with Liszt at Weimar. When he arrived for the first time, he already was a virtuoso of strongest calibre who shortly before had made a concert tour through Spain. The question of whether there was any change in his playing after he had studied with Liszt remains open. According to his autobiography ''Meine Welt'', he had found it imposing when Arthur Friedheim was thundering Liszt's ''Lucrezia-Fantasy''. Regarding Liszt's playing a Beethoven Sonata, however, he wrote, Liszt had at least given a good performance as actor. As his opinion, Sauer had told his fellow students that Anton Rubinstein was a greater composer than Liszt. In Sauer's own compositions, a piano concerto, two sonatas, about two and a half dozen Etudes and several concert pieces, no influence of Liszt as composer of the 1880s can be recognized.

Liszt's teaching approach

Liszt offered his students little technical advice, expecting them to "wash their dirty linen at home," as he phrased it. Instead, he focused on musical interpretation with a combination of anecdote, metaphor and wit. He advised one student tapping out the opening chords of Beethoven's ''Waldstein'' Sonata, "Do not chop beefsteak for us." To another who blurred the rhythm in Liszt's ''Gnomenreigen'' (usually done by playing the piece too fast in the composer's presence): "There you go, mixing salad again." Liszt also wanted to avoid creating carbon copies of himself; rather, he believed in preserving artistic individuality.

There were some pieces which Liszt famously refused to hear at his masterclasses. Among them were Carl Tausig's transcription of J. S. Bach's organ Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and Chopin's Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor. Liszt also did not like to hear his own Polonaise No. 2 in E Major, as it was overplayed and frequently badly played.

Liszt did not charge for lessons. He was troubled when German newspapers published details of pedagogue Theodor Kullak's will, revealing that Kullak had generated more than one million marks from teaching. "As an artist, you do not rake in a million marks without performing some sacrifice on the altar of Art," Liszt told his biographer Lina Ramann. However, Carl Czerny charged an expensive fee for lessons and even dismissed Stephen Heller when he was unable to afford to pay for his lessons. Interestingly, Liszt spoke very fondly of his former teacher, to whom he dedicated his Transcendental Etudes. He wrote the ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'', urging Kullak's sons to create an endowment for needy musicians, as Liszt himself frequently did.

In the summer of 1936, Hungarian-French music critic Emil Haraszti published a two-part essay on Liszt, entitled ''Liszt á Paris'' in the publication ''La Revue musicale''. In 1937 he published ''Deux Franciscians: Adam et Franz Liszt'' and in December of that year published ''La Probleme Liszt''. The essay, which is a deep exploration of the musicality of Liszt, established Haraszti as one of the foremost Liszt scholars of his generation.

Royal Academy of Music at Budapest

Since the early 1860s there were attempts of some of Liszt's Hungarian contemporaries to have him settled with a position in Hungary. In January 1862, in Rome, Liszt received a letter by Baron Gábor Prónay, since 1850 President of a Conservatory in Pest. Baron Prónay offered Liszt the position as President. When in 1867 the Conservatory became "Ungarisches National Konservatorium" ("Hungarian National Conservatory"), Baron Prónay still tried to persuade Liszt to take the leadership. Liszt, however, in letters to Baron Prónay and further ones of his Hungarian contemporaries explained that his career as virtuoso and as conductor had finally ended. If he took a position in Hungary, it would be solely for the purpose of spreading his own compositions, his Oratorios and his symphonic works. Besides, as soon as he left Rome, it was his duty to spend some months of the year in Weimar. The Grand Duc had for several times asked for it.

In 1871 the Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy made a new attempt. In a writing of June 4, 1871, to the Hungarian King he demanded an annual rent of 4,000 Gulden and the rank of a "Königlicher Rat" ("Councellor of the King") for Liszt, who in return would permanently settle in Budapest, directing the orchestra of the National Theatre as well as music schools and further musical institutions. With decision of June 13, 1871, the King agreed. By that time there were also plans of the foundation of a Royal Academy for Music at Budapest, of which the Hungarian state should be in charge. The Royal Academy is not to be confused with the National Conservatory which still existed. The National Conservatory, of which the city Budapest was in charge, was until his death in 1875 directed by Baron Prónay. His successor was Count Géza Zichy.

The plan of the foundation of the Royal Academy was in 1871 refused by the Hungarian Parliament, but a year later the Parliament agreed. Liszt was ordered to take part in the foundation. In March 1875 he was nominated as President. According to his wishes, the Academy should have been opened not earlier than in late autumn 1876. However, the Academy was officially opened already on November 14, 1875. Since it was Liszt's opinion that his colleagues Franz Erkel, the director, Kornél Ábrányi and Robert Volkmann could quite well do this job without him, he was absent. He arrived on February 15, 1876, in Budapest. On March 2 he started giving lessons, and on March 30 he left. The main purpose of his coming to Budapest had been a charity concert on March 20 in favour of the victims of a flood.

In November 1875, 38 students had passed the entrance examinations. 21 of them wanted to study piano playing, the others composition. Details of the entrance examinations are known from an account by Károly Swoboda (Szabados), one of Liszt's first students at the Royal Academy. According to this, candidates for a piano class had to play a single piano piece of their own choice. It could be a sonata movement by Mozart, Clementi or Beethoven. The candidates then had to sight read an easy further piece. Candidates for a composition class had to reproduce and continue a given melody of 4, 5 or 8 bars, after Volkmann had played it for about half a dozen times to them. Besides, they had to put harmonies to a given bass which was written on a table.

After Liszt had arrived, he selected 8 students for his class for advanced piano playing. To these came Áladár Juhász as the most outstanding one. As exception, he was to study piano playing only with Liszt. The others were matriculated as students of Erkel, since it was him from whom they would receive their lessons during Liszt's absence. Erkel also gave lessons in specific matters of Hungarian music. Volkmann gave lessons in composition and instrumentation. Ábrányi gave lessons in music aesthetics and harmony theory. Liszt had wished that there should have been a class for sacral music, led by Franz Xaver Witt. He had also wished that Hans von Bülow should take a position as piano professor. However, neither Witt nor Bülow agreed.

In spite of the conditions under which Liszt had in June 1871 been appointed as "Königlicher Rat", he neither directed the orchestra of the National Theatre, nor did he permanently settle in Hungary. As usual case, he arrived in mid-winter in Budapest. After one or two concerts of his students by the beginning of spring he left. He never took part in the final examinations, which were in summer of every year. Most of his students were still matriculated as students of either Erkel or later Henrik Gobbi. Some of them joined the lessons which he gave in summer in Weimar. In winter, when he was in Budapest, some students of his Weimar circle joined him there.

Judging from the concert programs of Liszt's students at Budapest, the standard resembled that of an advanced masterclass of our days. There was a difference, however, with regard to the repertoire. Most works as played at the concerts were works of composers of the 19th century, and many of the composers are now forgotten. As rare exceptions, occasionally a piece of J. S. Bach or Händel was played. Mozart and Haydn, but also Schubert and Weber, were missing. Of Beethoven only a comparatively small selection of his works was played. In typical cases Liszt himself was merely represented with his transcriptions.

The actual abilities Liszt's students at Budapest and the standard of their playing can only be guessed. Liszt's lessons of winter 1877–78 were in letters to Lina Ramann described by Auguste Rennebaum, herself Liszt's student at the Royal Academy. According to this, there had been some great talents in Liszt's class. However, the abilities of the majority had been very poor. August Stradal, who visited Budapest in 1885 and 1886, took the same point of view. In contrast to this, Deszö Legány claimed, much in Stradal's book was nonsense, taken from Stradal's own fantasy. Legány's own reliability, however, is not beyond doubt since many of his attempts of whitewashing Liszt and—even more—the Hungarian contemporaries are too obvious. Margit Prahács shared and supported Stradal's view. Her quotations from the contemporary Hungarian press show that much of Stradal's critique had been true. Concerning Liszt's relation with his Hungarian contemporaries at the end of his life, for example, in spring 1886 the journal ''Zenelap'' wrote: :"It is solely in Budapest, where musicians are wandering on such high clouds that they hardly take notice when Liszt is among them."

In 1873, at the occasion of Liszt's 50th anniversary as performing artist, the city Budapest had installed a "Franz Liszt Stiftung" ("Franz Liszt Foundation"). The foundation was destined to provide stipends of 200 Gulden for three students of the Academy who had shown excellent abilities and especially had achieved progress with regard to Hungarian music. Every year it was Liszt alone who could decide which one of the students should receive the money. He gave the total sum of 600 Gulden either to a single student or to a group of three or more of them, not asking whether they were actually matriculated at the Academy.

It was also Liszt's habit to declare all students who took part in his lessons as his private students. As consequence, nearly none of them paid any charge at the Academy. Since the Academy needed the money, there was a ministerial order of February 13, 1884, according to which all those who took part in Liszt's lessons had to pay an annual charge of 30 Gulden. However, Liszt did not respect this, and in the end the Minister resigned. In fact, the Academy was still the winner, since Liszt gave much money from his taking part in charity concerts.

The lessons in specific matters of Hungarian music turned out as problematic enterprise, since there were different opinions, exactly what Hungarian music actually was. In 1881 a new edition of Liszt's book about the Romanis and their music in Hungary appeared. According to this, Hungarian music was identical with the music as played by the Hungarian Romanis. Liszt had also claimed, Semitic people, among them the Romanis, had no genuine creativity. For this reason, according to Liszt's book, they only adopted melodies from the country where they lived. After the book had appeared, Liszt was in Budapest accused for a presumed spreading of anti-Semitic ideas. In the following year no students at all wanted to be matriculated for lessons in Hungarian music. According to the issue of July 1, 1886, of the journal ''Zenelap'', this subject at the Hungarian Academy had already a long time ago been dropped.

In 1886 there was still no class for sacral music, but there were classes for solo and chorus singing, piano, violin, cello, organ and composition. The number of students had grown to 91 and the number of professors to 14. Since the winter of 1879–80, the Academy had its own building. On the first floor there was an apartment where since the winter of 1880–81 Liszt lived during his stays in Budapest. His last stay was from January 30 to March 12, 1886. After Liszt's death Janós Végh, since 1881 vice-president, became president. No earlier than 40 years later the Academy was renamed to "Franz Liszt Akademie". Until then, due to world war I, Liszt's Europe and also his Hungary had died. Mainly, the only connection between Franz Liszt and the "Franz Liszt Akademie" was the name.

Liszt School of Music Weimar

On June 24, 1872, the composer and conductor Karl Müller-Hartung founded an "Orchesterschule" ("Orchestra School") at Weimar. Although Liszt and Müller-Hartung were on friendly terms, Liszt took no active part in that foundation. The "Orchesterschule" later developed to a conservatory which still exists and is now called "Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt", Weimar".

See also

Compositions by Franz Liszt

War of the Romantics

Cross motif

Notes

References

Bibliography

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* Cooper, Martin, "The Symphonies"

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* Shulstad, Reeves, "Liszt's symphonic poems and symphonies"

Jerger, Wilhelm (ed.): ''The Piano Master Classes of Franz Liszt 1884–1886, Diary Notes of August Göllerich'', translated by Richard Louis Zimdars, Indiana University Press 1996.

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* Spencer, Piers, "Symphonic poem [tone-poem]"

Legány, Dezső: ''Franz Liszt, Unbekannte Presse und Briefe aus Wien 1822–1886'', Wien 1984.

Legány, Dezső: ''Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1869–1873'', Occidental Press, Budapest 1983.

Legány, Dezső: ''Ferenc Liszt and His Country, 1874–1886'', Occidental Press, Budapest 1992.

Liszt, Franz: ''Briefwechsel mit seiner Mutter'', edited and annotated by Klara Hamburger, Eisenstadt 2000.

Liszt, Franz and d'Agoult, Marie: ''Correspondence'', ed. Daniel Ollivier, ''Tome I: 1833–1840'', Paris 1933, ''Tome II: 1840–1864'', Paris 1934.

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Ollivier, Daniel: ''Autour de Mme d'Agoult et de Liszt'', Paris 1941.

Prahács, Margit (ed.): ''Franz Liszt, Briefe aus ungarischen Sammlungen, 1835–1886'', Budapest 1966.

Prahács, Margit: ''Franz Liszt und die Budapester Musikakademie'', in: Hamburger (ed.): ''Franz Liszt, Beiträge von ungarischen Autoren'', pp. 49ff.

Raabe, Peter: ''Liszts Schaffen'', Cotta, Stuttgart und Berlin 1931.

Ramann, Lina: ''Lisztiana, Erinnerungen an Franz Liszt in Tagebuchblättern, Briefen und Dokumenten aus den Jahren 1873–1886/87'', ed. Arthur Seidl, text revision by Friedrich Schnapp, Mainz 1983.

Rellstab, Ludwig: ''Franz Liszt'', Berlin 1842.

Rosen, Charles. The Romantic Generation. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1995.

ed Sadie, Stanley, ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, First Edition'' (London: Macmillian, 1980). ISBN 0-333-23111-2

* MacDonald, Hugh, "Symphonic poem," "Transformation, thematic"

* Searle, Humphrey, "Liszt, Franz"

* Temperley, Nicholas, "Symphony: II. 19th century"

Saffle, Michael: ''Liszt in Germany, 1840–1845'', ''Franz Liszt Studies Series No.2'', Pendragon Press, Stuyvesant, NY, 1994.

Sauer, Emil: ''Meine Welt'', Stuttgart 1901.

Steinbeck, Arne: ''Franz Liszt's approach to piano playing'', PhD dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park 1971.

Stradal, August: ''Erinnerungen an Franz Liszt'', Bern, Leipzig 1929.

Walker, Alan: ''Franz Liszt, The Virtuoso Years (1811–1847)'', revised edition, Cornell University Press 1987.

Walker, Alan: ''Franz Liszt, The Final Years (1861–1886)'', Cornell University Press 1997.

Walker, Alan: Article ''Liszt, Franz'', in: Sadie, Stanley (ed.), ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition'', London 2001).

Walker, Alan et al. "Liszt, Franz." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. November 20, 2009.

Watson, Derek: ''Liszt'', Schirmer Books, 1989, ISBN 0-02-872705-3

External links

Printable scores by Franz Liszt

Lina Ramann's classical Liszt biography (in German) at Zeno.org

The Students of Liszt on Record and Reproducing Piano Roll by Mark Arnest

Franz Liszt, written and directed by James a. Fitzpatrick; fictional 11-minute 1925 film short about Franz Liszt; Liszt's music performed by Nathaniel Shilkret's Orchestra.

Complete recordings of Studies, Années de Pelerinage, Valses oubliées on klassik-resampled

Category:Romantic composers Category:Hungarian people of Austrian descent Category:Hungarian classical organists Category:Hungarian classical pianists Category:Hungarian composers Category:Child classical musicians Category:Hungarian Germans Category:Composers for pipe organ Category:Organ improvisers Category:Hungarian Roman Catholics Category:Franciscans Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Category:People from Oberpullendorf District Category:1811 births Category:1886 deaths Category:19th-century Hungarian people Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society

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