Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, has just been released and there’s that curious phrase in the title: “Years of Pilgrimage.” The reference, of course, is to Franz Liszt’s celebrated piano works about his

In festo transfigurationis Domini nostri Jesu Christi, S188/R74 It was relatively easy to start this series on Franz Liszt and his romantic conquests. However, it is somewhat more difficult to conclude it. Since Liszt was a fairly discreet lover, there

Orpheus, S98/R415 For 12 years, the Villa Altenberg in Weimar became the holy shrine celebrating the religious and personal cults of Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein and Franz Liszt. Working together in a church like atmosphere of religious solitude, they wrote essays,

The differences between Marie Duplessis and Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein could not have been more pronounced. Marie experienced a wretched and squalid upbringing with Daddy selling her into prostitution by age 12. Carolyne Ivanovska, on the other hand, was the only

Liszt Liebestraum After Franz Liszt had successfully escaped the ravenous attention of Lola Montez in early autumn 1845, he hastily made his way to Paris. Performing in a variety of public and salon concerts, he apparently liked to spend his

Liszt Was Liebe sei?, S288/1/R575a Was Liebe sei?, S288/2/R575b Was Liebe sei?, S288/3/R575c After a highly successful tour of Russia, Franz Liszt arrived in Berlin and played his first recital at the Berlin Singakademie on 27 December 1841. His performance

Piano Concerto No. 2 in A minor, Op. 85 (1819) While in the waning stages of his relationship with Marie d’Agoult, Franz Liszt would deliberately forget to put their “fidelity ring” on his finger. “I felt a curious pleasure in

Franz Liszt Annees de pelerinage, 2nd year, Italy, S161/R10b In the second volume of his “Years of Pilgrimage” (Deuxième année: Italie), Franz Liszt musically recalls some of the emotionally fulfilling days traveling in the company of his lover Marie d’Agoult.