(1811-1886)
Life.
Franz Liszt was born October 22, 1811 in the village Doboryan (Hungary). In childhood he was fascinated with Gypsy music and fun dancing Hungarian peasants.
Liszt's father, manager of a large estate of Count Esterhazy, was a local musician and promotes the interests of his son to music, he also taught the foundations of a child piano. At the age of 9 years,
Ferenc gave his first concert in the nearby town of Sopron. Soon he was invited to the magnificent Esterhazy Palace, the boy game so impressed the guests graph that several Hungarian noblemen offered to pay for his further musical education.
Franz was sent to Vienna, where he studied composition with A. Salieri and piano teacher from the major European K. Czerny. Vienna debut
Liszt took place on Dec. 1, 1822. Critics were ecstatic, and since then the pages were provided with glory and full houses. From the well-known publisher of A. Diabelli, he was invited to compose variations on a waltz by Diabelli invented, so the young musician was in the company of the great Beethoven and Schubert, to which publishers have made the same request. Despite this, leaf (as a foreigner) was not adopted in the Paris Conservatoire, and he had to continue their education in private. At this time he made several trips to concerts in France and England. After his father's death (1827) Leaf began to give lessons. At the same time became acquainted with the young composers Berlioz and Chopin F., . art which had a strong influence on him: he was able to 'translate into the language of the piano' richness of color and combine the scores of Berlioz soft lyricism of Chopin with his own violent temper,
. In the early 1830's, became the idol of
Liszt's Italian violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini,
Liszt set out to create an equally brilliant piano style, and even borrowed from Paganini, some features of its behavior in concert. Now leaf had almost no rivals as a piano virtuoso.
Liszt was a man of passionate and charismatic, he was handsome, and each concert becomes a true representation. Sheets became the idol of the whole of Europe, and the concert tours of those years were invariably accompanied by loud and publicly discussed affaires de coeur, 'novels'. In 1834,
Liszt began life together with the Countess Marie d'Agde (later she performed as a writer under the pseudonym Daniel Stern). From their union were born three children - a son and two daughters, the youngest of whom, Cosimo, was married to a great pianist and conductor G.fon Billow, and later became the wife of R. Wagner. Relationship of
Liszt and Countess lasted about ten years, and in recent years this period, leaf resumed long concert tours and conducted completely free life. He has performed in Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Hungary, Scotland, Russia, and in 1849 gave a series of concerts, the proceeds of which went to the construction of the monument to Beethoven in Bonn.
In 1844,
Liszt became Kapellmeister at the ducal court in Weimar. This small German town was once a thriving cultural center, and
Liszt wanted to return the glory of the capital Weimar Arts. In 1847, deciding to devote himself to Weimar,
Liszt made a farewell concert tour. During his stay in Russia, he met with Princess Caroline Zein-Wittgenstein, and returned with her in Weimar. In the role of conductor sheet supported all the new, radical, sometimes - but rejected by others. With equal fervor, he performed the works of old masters and the experiences of emerging composers. He arranged a week of music by Berlioz at a time when the romantic style of this composer did not meet understanding in France. Leaf even managed to organize in Weimar premiere of Wagner's Tannhauser in the years when its author was a political exile, and he threatened to arrest.
Leaf managed to fight with the Duke of Weimar at the cost overruns in its budget, to defend the court of his artistic freedom while composing, conducting and teaching. It appeared only in the Weimar composer's Piano Sonata, as well as a number of orchestral pieces, and from 1849 - orchestral poems.
Liszt composed a lot of virtuoso concert music and did not spare time to teaching: his classes, . in the second half of the day, . were filled with aspiring pianists from different countries, . that, . the will of the teacher, . paid nothing for their participation in these meetings on,
. Since 1858 Leaf resigned Kapellmeister, but their goal achieved: when it really became the center of Weimar European music and the musician - the acknowledged leader of the European intellectual elite.
In 1860,
Liszt went to Rome, hoping to overcome several obstacles to political and religious nature, which made it impossible for his marriage to Princess Wittgenstein. When the Roman Catholic Church refused to bless their union, passionate musician, tired and disappointed in life, retired from the madding crowd. In 1865
Liszt joined the Franciscan Order tertsiariev (its members could remain in the world, . to marry and have the property, . but taking on special religious obligations and were to lead an ascetic life and engage in charity) and lived at first in Rome, . and then to the Tivoli with Cardinal Gustav Adolf Hohenlohe,
. This privacy, however, did not last long: two years later he returned to his normal life of a wandering virtuoso. In 1871
Liszt was named adviser to the Hungarian king, and two years later in Budapest has been celebrated on the fiftieth anniversary of extraordinary creative activity of a musician. In 1879 Pope Pius IX granted him an honorary canon, which gave the right to wear robes, but not the title of 'Abbe
Liszt', which the composer sometimes signed. After Wagner's death in 1883 in Weimar,
Liszt held a memorial concert. In early 1886 75-year-old
Liszt went to England, where he was received by Queen Victoria and enthusiastically received by his admirers. England tired and feel funny
Liszt came to Bayreuth for the annual Wagner Festival. In this city he died July 31, 1886.
Music.
Liszt as a pianist.
