Editing Franz Liszt (section)

=== Teaching ===
{{anchor|List of music students by teacher: G to M#Franz Liszt}}
{{For LMST|Franz|Liszt}}

From 1827 until the last month of his life, Liszt gave lessons in composition and piano playing.{{sfn|Walker|1973|p=26}}{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§23}} He wrote in 1829 that his schedule was "so full of lessons that each day, from half-past eight in the morning till 10 at night, I have scarcely breathing time".{{sfn|Liszt|2021|loc=23 December 1829}} Estimates of the total number of pupils he taught range as high as over 400, although some of these may only have had one lesson, or perhaps even none at all.{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§23}}

In Weimar Liszt pioneered the concept of the [[Master class|masterclass]], in which he would instruct each pupil in turn while the others observed. Students from this time included [[Karl Tausig]], [[Hans von Bülow]], [[Karl Klindworth]] and [[Hans Bronsart von Schellendorff]]. Members of these classes would also accompany Liszt to concerts and other events. In later years some in Weimar would criticise the masterclasses as a vanity club more interested in praising Liszt than in learning pianistic excellence, although [[Carl Lachmund]] commented that the success of many of its pupils, such as [[Arthur Friedheim]], [[Moriz Rosenthal]], [[Frederic Lamond (pianist)|Frederic Lamond]] and [[Alexander Siloti]], proved the groups' effectiveness.{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§23}}

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 [[Piano Sonata No. 21 (Beethoven)|''Waldstein'' Sonata]], "Do not chop beefsteak for us." To another who blurred the rhythm in Liszt's ''Gnomenreigen'': "There you go, mixing salad again." Liszt also wanted to avoid creating carbon copies of himself, believing instead in preserving his pupils' artistic individuality. This was in contrast to his contemporaries, who focused on drilling students in a uniform approach.{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§23}}

Liszt did not charge for lessons.{{sfn|Walker|1973|p=94}} He was troubled when German newspapers revealed that pedagogue [[Theodor Kullak]] had earned 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".{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§23}} He wrote an open letter to Kullak's sons, published in the ''[[Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung]]'', urging them to create an endowment for needy musicians, as Liszt himself frequently did.{{sfn|Eckhardt|Mueller|Walker|2001|loc=§23}}