By the time he was fifteen, Franz Liszt had already begun work on what would become one of his most important early compositions; the Etude en douze exercices. This collection, first published in 1826 in both Marseille and Paris, was

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was the greatest piano virtuoso of his time, possibly the greatest of all time. His sensational technique and captivating concert personality made him the ultimate rock star of the 19th century. With his set of twelve Transcendental

A Mysterious Envelope Arrives. On 14 November 1849, Ludwika Jędrzejewicz opened an envelope. Ludwika Jędrzejewicz was having a bad month. Her marriage was in shambles because she had left Poland to be at her brother Frédéric Chopin’s deathbed. She had

The two concertos for piano and orchestra by Franz Liszt belong to the standard concerto repertoire. A serious challenge for every pianist, they have been audience favourites for well over one hundred years. As a critic wrote, “these concertos are

Women loved Franz Liszt, and Franz Liszt loved women. The pianist and composer is almost as famous for his love life and his effect on women as his music-making. Today we’re looking at ten of the most intense love affairs

It is the fall of 1871. A twenty-six-year-old Ukrainian woman sends a cable to Europe to pianist and composer Franz Liszt. She warns him that she is about to cross the ocean to kill him. Ten days later, she shows

Franz Liszt first sought medical care in 1881, suffering from the early cardio-respiratory disease that would eventually take his life. Concurrently, Liszt also noted a gradual decline in the vision of his left eye. He had used corrective lenses for

The Fantasia / Fantasy as a genre in the 19th century (versus the 17th-century English fantasias, which were very different) gave the composer enormous range to use his imagination on whatever he had decided to fantasize about. In Liszt’s case,