However, Adam Liszt benefited from his largesse, being personally acquainted with Haydn and Beethoven, thus setting a precedent for his son’s amazing set of acquaintances during his life. Incidentally, he also maintained a private brothel for his own entertainment (!) and suffered financial ruin late in life (facts which are not unconnected). Nikolaus had revived the tradition of a musical establishment at Eisenstadt, supporting Haydn and commissioning a Mass from Beethoven (which he famously hated, deeming it “ridiculous and detestable” - an interesting take on a genius).

Famously, he announced to an audience in Budapest, “ Je suis Hongrois”, using French as he spoke no Hungarian!įranz’s father, Adam, was a musician too, playing piano, violin, cello and guitar, and had been in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterhazy, the last employer of Haydn.

As I delved more into his life and work, I became fascinated by this famous Hungarian, whose first language was German and who preferred to speak French as his language of choice. I had never sung any Liszt, and, while not being on the same level as Brahms, his music proved to be interesting and worth exploring. A few years ago, I gave a recital in the Edinburgh Festival (along with one of my excellent students from St Andrews University, Catherine Hooper, and the fine accompanist Walther Blair), amusingly (as I thought) entitled ‘Brahms and Liszt’, featuring songs by those two composers. Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Wagner, Chopin, Debussy – these were just a few of the famous people Liszt knew personally, as well as great figures from literature, art and politics. However, research into his life for a recent review of a piano recital in the Edinburgh Festival by Mariam Batsashvili (see my review on EMR), brought home to me just what an influence Liszt exerted on 19th century music, and how this influence has shaped the musical history of the past 200 years. He only composed a few songs and a couple of sacred works, so he shouldn’t really be included in my survey of vocal composers. Nevertheless the boy born in Raiding in Burgenland in Austria/Hungary became one of the most famous composers in the world, a figure of immense significance in Western music, a virtuoso pianist who made members of his audience swoon with emotion, a 19th century Tom Jones or Mick Jagger, as it were. Whether this was an omen as some people suggested is unknown. The Great Comet of 1811 was nearing the end of its visibility when Franz Liszt was born in October of that year.

Franz liszt interesting facts