Editing Franz Liszt (section)

== Pianist ==
At his performing peak Liszt was considered the greatest pianist of his time, and was perhaps one of the greatest who ever lived.{{sfn|Burton-Hill|2016}}{{sfn|Esteban|1971|p=4}} His popularity during the "Lisztomania" period of the 1840s was unrivalled, and the critic [[Peter G. Davis]] has written that "Perhaps [Liszt] was not the most transcendent virtuoso who ever lived, but his audiences thought he was, and no pianist since has seriously challenged the legend."{{sfn|Davis|1987}}{{sfn|Walker|1973|p=30}}

=== Performing style ===
[[File:Josef Danhauser Liszt am Flügel 1840 01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|left|''Franz Liszt Fantasizing at the Piano'' (1840), by [[Josef Danhauser|Danhauser]]. The imagined gathering shows seated [[Alexandre Dumas]], [[George Sand]], Liszt, and [[Marie d'Agoult]]; standing [[Victor Hugo]], [[Niccolò Paganini]], and [[Gioachino Rossini]]; with a bust of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] looking on.{{sfn|Francis|2014|pp=140-141}}]]
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Liszt's performance style changed throughout his life, in his interpretive decisions as well as his physicality (the young Liszt was extremely animated at the keyboard, but in old age he was very still).{{sfn|Hamilton|2008|p=242}} No recordings of Liszt exist, so to get an impression of his style scholars must go by contemporary writings and the output of his pupils, while allowing for a certain amount of mythologising around his extraordinary talent.{{sfn|Hamilton|2008|pp=225, 229}}

From a young age Liszt had displayed an aptitude for improvisation and sight reading. Czerny observed that Liszt was a natural who played according to feeling{{emdash}}"one saw that Nature herself had formed a pianist."{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§1}} Liszt's fourteen months under Czerny solidified his technical skills as he enthusiastically studied exercises and works.{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§1}} In later life, however, he would express the opinion that despite his work under Czerny his early training had been unfocused, and he had excelled mainly "by force of personality".{{sfn|Hamilton|2008|p=250}} Reviews of his early concerts especially praise the brilliance, strength, and precision in his playing.{{sfn|Ramann|1882|pp=80-81}} At least one also mentions his ability to keep absolute tempo.{{sfn|Eckhardt|1982|p=165}}

One of the most detailed descriptions of his playing from that time comes from the diary entries of [[Caroline Boissier-Butini]], whose daughter Valerie was a pupil of Liszt's from 1831 to 1832, when he was earning a living primarily as a teacher in Paris:
<blockquote>
Boissier records that Liszt did not keep his hands 'in a rounded position' nor were they 'altogether flat', but rather his fingers were 'so flexible as to possess no fixed position'.{{nbsp}}... Mme Boissier writes that Liszt's 'hand is never unwieldy, for he moves it with grace according to his fancy', then she stresses that 'he does not play with his arms or shoulders'. In a later lesson, Liszt instructed Valerie to play 'without exception, entirely with a wrist action'{{nbsp}}... without any interference by the arm{{nbsp}}... Crucially, Liszt emphasised the role of the wrist, not the arm, in producing a full tone for individual notes, and did so not just in relation to octaves or chords.{{sfn|Davison|2006|pp=37-38}}
</blockquote>

During his performance career Liszt took unusually bold liberties with the score, changing tempo and adding embellishment at will. In one instance he decided on "a sudden, drastic slowing down" while performing the Scherzo movement of Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|Sixth Symphony]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2008|pp=228,234-235}} In a regretful letter to George Sand from 1837 Liszt admitted that he made such decisions to gain public acclaim:

<blockquote>
[I]n order to wring bravos from the public that is always slow, in its awesome simplicity, to comprehend beautiful things, I had no qualms about changing the tempos of the pieces or the composers' intentions. In my arrogance I even went so far as to add a host of rapid runs and cadenzas, which, by securing ignorant applause for me, sent me off in the wrong direction{{emdash}}one that I fortunately knew enough to abandon quickly.{{nbsp}}... Now I no longer divorce a composition from the era in which it was written, and any claim to embellish or modernize the works of earlier periods seems just as absurd for a musician to make as it would be for an architect, for example, to place a Corinthian capital on the columns of an Egyptian temple.{{sfn|Hamilton|2008|pp=234-235}}
</blockquote>

Despite his apparent contrition, however, Liszt did continue to make large interpretive changes while performing, although he would be more concerned with fidelity to the score and composer's intentions later in life. He would be more open to pupils revising his own compositions, and he himself often produced different versions of his works over the course of his lifetime.{{sfn|Hamilton|2008|pp=235-236}}{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§28}} This attitude was in keeping with the shift in audience preferences that began in the 1830s, which started to favour a faithfully rendered memorised performance over the improvisation that Liszt employed in these years.{{sfn|Mishra|2016|p=13}}

Certain information about Liszt's style can be inferred from the writings of his many pupils. Musicologist [[Kenneth Hamilton]] identifies several themes which occurred through Liszt's teachings, including avoiding excessive sentimentality, imagining the orchestration of the piece, flexibility of tempo, and the importance of a sense of music.{{sfn|Hamilton|2008|pp=242-243}} [[Amy Fay]] studied under Liszt in his later life, 1869{{endash}}1875, and her writings align with Boissier's four decades earlier. She also notes that Liszt kept his fingers close to the keyboard to achieve a better legato, and that Liszt discouraged unnecessary hand movements, in contrast to his flamboyant gestures during his prime. Notes by his pupil Pauline Fichtener in the 1870s again stress freedom and flexibility of the wrist.{{sfn|Davison|2006|pp=39-40}}

=== Concert repertoire ===
[[File:Boesendorfer Liszt Franz Joseph.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Liszt giving a concert for Emperor [[Franz Joseph I]] on a [[Bösendorfer]] piano]]

Up to 1840, most concerts featuring a solo pianist included other acts, such as an orchestra, singers and ballet.{{sfn|Gould|2005|pp=62-63}} The increasing prominence of the solo piano virtuoso in the 1830s led to other acts on the bill being described as "assistant artists", with Liszt declaring his pre-eminence in a letter to a friend dated June 1839: "Le concert, c'est moi".{{sfn|Gould|2005|pp=63-64}} Liszt is credited as the first pianist to give solo recitals in the modern sense of the word; the term was first applied to Liszt's concert at the [[Hanover Square Rooms]] in London on 9 June 1840.{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§8}}

During his years as a travelling virtuoso Liszt performed an enormous amount of music, usually from memory.{{sfn|Walker|1973|p=51}} He was the first to include the full range of repertoire, from [[J. S. Bach]] to Chopin.{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§8}} His concerts included original compositions such as ''[[Grand galop chromatique]]'', ''Fantaisie romantique sur deux mélodies suisses'' and ''Grande Valse di Bravura''; and his transcriptions of Schubert's ''[[Schwanengesang]]'', ''[[Symphonie Fantastique]]'' by Berlioz and Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|sixth symphony]].{{sfn|Keeling|1992|pp=400-401}} Liszt would champion Beethoven's work throughout his life, and his concerts helped popularise the [[Piano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)|''Hammerklavier'' sonata]] and ''[[Diabelli Variations]]''.{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§8}}

=== Instruments ===
[[File:FranzLisztPiano.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|One of Franz Liszt's pianos from his apartment in Budapest]]

After arriving in Paris in 1823, [[Sébastien Érard]] presented Liszt with a grand piano featuring his newly patented double escapement mechanism, a key development in piano technology allowing for faster note repetition.{{sfn|Walker|1973|pp=24-25}} Among the composer's pianos in Weimar were an Érard, a [[C. Bechstein|Bechstein]], the Beethovens' [[John Broadwood & Sons|Broadwood]] grand and a [[Boisselot & Fils|Boisselot]]. It is known that Liszt used Boisselot pianos in his Portugal tour{{sfn|Walker|1987|p=409}} and then later in 1847 in a tour to Kiev and Odessa. Liszt kept the piano at his Villa Altenburg residence in Weimar.{{sfn|Walker|1987b|p=77}}

The earliest records of Liszt playing the organ date from 1836. He developed an interest in J. S. Bach's organ music in the early 1840s, probably due to Mendelssohn's influence. Later, Liszt commissioned a "piano-organ" from the Paris company Alexandre Père et Fils. The instrument was made in 1854 under Berlioz's supervision, using an 1853 Érard piano, and was a combination of piano and harmonium with three manuals and a pedal board.{{sfn|Domokos|2019}} The company called it a "Liszt piano-harmonium" and installed it in Villa Altenburg in July 1854;{{sfn|Pocknell|2000|p=68}} the instrument is now exhibited in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde collection in Vienna.{{sfn|Domokos|2019}}

Liszt owned two other organs which were installed later in his Budapest residence. The first was a "piano-orgue": this was a smaller version of Weimar's instrument, a combination of a 1864 Érard piano and a harmonium, with two independent manuals, the upper for the piano and lower for the harmonium, built again by Alexandre Père et Fils in 1865. The second was a "cabinet organ", a large concert harmonium built by the American company [[Mason & Hamlin]] and given to Liszt in 1877.{{sfn|Domokos|2019}}