Franz Liszt 18111886

By Shawn Silva

Early Life
Born on October 22, 1811 in Raiding, Hungary
Father was a multi-instrumentalist who taught him
how to play piano
By the time he was 6 he was recognized as a child
prodigy. When was 8 he was composing elementary
works When Liszt was 9 years old he was already
performing at sold out concert halls
Traveled to Vienna with his father and met Antonio
Salieri who offered to train him in composition free of
charge for severla months
His father introduced him to Ferdinando Paer who
would teach him composition and during this time he
wrote his first and only opera Don Sanche at the age
of 12

Early life Continued

In 1826 his father passed away and this
was an extremely pivotal point in Franzs
life at the age of 15
Franz began to lose his interest in music
and turned away from performing and
began reading profusely
1833 at the age of 22 Liszt met the
Comtesse Marie dAgoult and composed
several impression of the swiss country
side in Albumb dun voyageur
1834 he debuted his piano compositions
and began to take Europe by storm and

Teaching Career
1847 he met Princess Carolyne zu SaynWitthenstein who encouraged him to stop
touring and teach and compose so he
could settle down with her
He held large master classes of 10-20
students at once
Very tough teaching style and worked his
students very hard, some say he was a
perfectionist
He thought all aspects of music from
composers, theory, musical approach, and
piano technique

Musical Career
Considered the first rock star of all time
Played all over Europe with his virtuoso
performances
Women would literally attack him after
concerts to try and meet him this was
called Lisztomania
He never brought his scores on stage, he
always played from memory during his
touring life
First performer to stride out form the wings
of the concert hall to take his seat at the

Famous Musical Works

Hungarian Rhapsodies
La Campanella
Annees de Pelerinage
Liebestraume
Transcendental Etudes
Totentanz
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tluFQCOez
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