Franz Liszt (German: [fʁant͡s lɪst]); Hungarian: Liszt Ferencz, in modern use Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.
Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age. In the 1840s he was considered by some to be perhaps the greatest pianist of all time. He was also a well-known composer, piano teacher, and conductor. He was a benefactor to other composers, including 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. He also played an important role in popularizing a wide array of music by transcribing it for piano.
Plot
A send-up of the bawdy life of Romantic composer/piano virtuoso Franz Liszt, with ubiquitous phallic imagery and a good portion of the film devoted to Liszt's "friendship" with fellow composer Richard Wagner. The film begins during the time when Franz would give piano performance to a crowd of shrieking teenage fans while maintaining affairs with his (multiple!) mistresses. He eventually seeks Princess Carolyne of St. Petersburg (at her invitation), elopes, and, after their marriage is forbidden by the Pope, he embraces the monastic life as an abbé.
Keywords: absurdism, anachronism, art-vs-politics, belch, blessing, bondage, candle, cape, castle, castration
The erotic, exotic electrifying rock fantasy... It out-Tommy's TOMMY.
Cosima: I've polished your sword! What do you want it for, to kill the critics?::Liszt: Time kills critics, my dear.
Liszt: Piss off, Brahms!
Marie d'Agoult: Spare him, Francois! Don't cut off his... genius in it's prime!::Count d'Agoult: Oh, is that what you call it?
Richard Wagner: So you're the jid who only makes music on a cash register?::Felix Mendelsohn: Music, shmusic, it's a living, dear boy.
Liszt: I know it sounds improbable, Your Holiness, but I...::The Pope: But truth is stranger than fiction? We've kept going for two thousand years on that one.
Hans Von Buelow: No, Wagner! Stay in hell where you belong!
Princess Carolyn: You and the Tsar are just different sides of the same coin: false gods worshiped in different ways. Dress the Tsar as a peasant and you have a peasant. [searches for Liszt] Stop skulking behind that screen! [continues] Dress Liszt in a crinoline and what do you have? The same thing: a sham. Rather than walk naked through the world, he chooses to play the imposter. What do you say?::Liszt: Bollocks!::Princess Carolyn: "Bollocks"? I don't speak Hungarian.
Richard Wagner: The trouble with your friends, Liszt, is they're all bourgeois pigs.::Liszt: Oh, pigs if you please. But aristocratic pigs, not bourgeois.
Richard Wagner: Is it true that when Liszt was a kid he played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata at a concert and the composer himself jumped up and kissed him?::Rossini: Certainly Beethoven kissed the boy. By that time he was as deaf as a post.
Richard Wagner: You are Robert Schumann?::Strauss: No no no. That's Schumann. I am Strauss.::Richard Wagner: Not Johann Strauss?::Strauss: [annoyed] No! Levi Strauss!
His Scandalous Affairs Shocked the World!
Countess Marie: I met Franz at a musical party. I remember he played a ballade in A-flat major by Chopin. I thought I'd never seen anything as beautiful as Franz looked when he sat at the piano. I... I wanted to cry. He watched me as he played; Franz never fails to notice a pretty woman in his audience. Afterward, he followed me into the hall. I remember he said, "May I escort you somewhere, madame?" And I said, "Yes." And he said, "Where?" And I said, "Paradise." He didn't smile - he said, "I'll call a carriage."::Princess Carolyne: Did he?::Countess Marie: What?::Princess Carolyne: Drive you there - to paradise?::Countess Marie: [a pause, and a meaningful look as she turns to leave the room] He doesn't know the road, madame.
Plot
Composer Robert Schumann struggles to compose his symphonies while his loving wife Clara offers her support. Also helping the Schumanns is their lifelong friend, composer Johannes Brahms.
Keywords: asylum, based-on-play, classical-music, composer, debt, disappointment, failure, fictional-biography, loss-of-husband, love-triangle
Plot
Prof. Joseph Elsner guides his protégé Frydryk Chopin through his formative years to early adulthood in Poland. At a recital in a duke's home Chopin insults the new Russian-installed governor, and must flee the country. The professor takes him to Paris, where he eventually comes under the wing and influence of novelist George Sand and rises to prominence in the music world, to the exclusion of his old friends and patriotic feelings towards Poland.
Keywords: classical-music, composer, mallorca, paris-france, pianist, piano, piano-concerto, poland, writer
George Sand: [to Chopin] Discontinue that so-called Polonaise jumble you've been playing for days.
Prof. Joseph Elsner: What's going on here? Is the reception over?::Alfred DeMusset: For some people, yes. For others, just beginning.
Plot
Aging composer 'Franz Liszt' (qv) lives in an abbey. On his birthday, a priest brings him a box that was just delivered to the abbey. There is no return address. In the box he finds a single flower. The flower brings back memories of his lost love of long ago, who inspired him to compose his unforgettable melodies.
Keywords: abbey, gypsy, gypsy-camp