Artist Info

  • Name: Franz Liszt
  • Birthday: 10/22/1811
  • Birth Place: Raiding
  • Died: 07/31/1886
  • Place of Death: Bayreuth, Germany
  • Period: Romantic
  • Genre: Classical

1 to 50
Works & Performances

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Title Release
  • (68) Années de pèlerinage, 1st Year ("Suisse"), suite for piano, S. 160 (LW A159)
  • 1972
  • (69) Années de pèlerinage, 2nd Year ("Italie"), suite for piano, S. 161 (LW A55)
  • 1975
  • (33) Années de pèlerinage, 3rd Year, suite for piano, S. 163 (LW A283)
  • 1976
  • (48) Ballade, for piano No. 2 (II) in B minor, S. 171 (LW A181)
  • (69) Consolations (6), for piano, S. 172 (LW A111a/2)
  • 1996
  • (20) Hungarian Rhapsodies (6), for orchestra, S. 359 (LW G21)
  • (632) Liebesträume, notturno for piano No. 3 in A flat major ("O Lieb, so lang du lieben kannst"), S. 541/3 (LW A103/3)
  • (313) Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, S. 124 (LW H4)
  • 1942
  • (154) Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S. 125 (LW H6)
  • (274) Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178 (LW A179) W
  • 1971
  •  Album d'un voyageur (12 pieces in 3 books), for piano, S. 156 (LW A40)
  • 1992
  • (4) Am Grabe Richard Wagners, for string quartet & harp (ad lib), S. 135 (LW D21)
  • (3) Psalm 13, Herr, wie lange (I &II), for tenor, chorus & orchestra, S. 13b (LW I3b)
  • 1967
  • (2) Work(s), songs for voice & piano
  • (2) Arpeggio, etude for piano in E major (Transcendental Paganini Etudes No. 4), S. 140/4 (LW A52/4)
  • 2003
  • (2) Ave Maria (IV), for voice & organ (or piano) in G major, S. 341 (LW K8)
  • (2) Die Heimkehr, transcription for piano (after Chopin Op. 74/6), S. 480/6 (LW A193/6) WA
  • (7) Polonaises (2), for piano, S. 223 (LW A171) WA
  • 1925
  •  Präludium und Fuge über das Motiv B.A.C.H., for piano, S. 529/1 (LW A250/1)
  • 2002
  •  Via Crucis (Les 14 stations de la croix), for piano 4 hands, S. 583 (LW B52)
  • 2004
  •  An die Künstler (II, III & IV), for male vocal soloists, male chorus & orchestra (or organ), S. 70/2-4 (LW L9/2-3)
  • (4) Grande Fantaisie sur des motifs de Niobe (I & II), divertissment for piano (after Pacini), S. 419 (LW A24)
  •  Hungaria (Ungaria-Kantate), cantata for soloists, male chorus & orchestra (or piano), S. 83 (LW L5)
  •  Septem sacramenta, responsories for soloists, chorus & organ, S. 52 (LW J35)
  • (6) Hungarian Rhapsody, for violin & piano No. 12 in C sharp minor, S. 379a
  • 1994
  • (2) Salve Polonia, for piano (Interlude to St Stanislaus Oratorio), S. 518 (LW A225)
  •  Dem Andenken Petófis, for piano 4 hands, S. 614 (LW B47)
  • (7) À la Chapelle Sixtine (Miserere d'Allegri et Ave verum corpus de Mozart, I & II), for piano, S. 461 (LW A217)
  • 1986
  • (3) À la Chapelle Sixtine, transcribed for orchestra, S. 360 (LW G26)
  • 1995
  •  A magyarok Istene (Ungarns Gott), for soloist, male chorus & wind band, S. 345a (LW L16)
  • 2002
  • (2) A magyarok Istene (Ungarns Gott), transcription for organ, S. 674 (LW E37) WA
  • 2004
  •  A magyarok Istene (Ungarns Gott), transcription for piano left-hand, S. 543bis (LW A309/2)
  • 1990
  • (4) A magyarok Istene (Ungarns Gott), transcription for piano, S. 543 (LW A309/1)
  • (5) Ab irato, étude de perfectionnement de la Méthode de Fétis, for piano, S. 143 (LW A63b)
  • 1995
  •  Abscheid, transcription for piano (after Schubert, D. 957/7), S. 560/5 (LW A49/5)
  • (10) Abschied (Russisches Volkslied), for piano (after Russian folksong), S. 251 (LW A324)
  • 2007
  • (7) Adagio vom Bach, for organ (after Bach's Violin Sonata, BWV 1017), S. 661 (LW E13)
  • 1994
  • (5) Adagio, for organ in D flat major (Consolations No. 2), S. 759 (LW E22/2)
  •  Adagio, for piano, in C major, S. 158d
  • 1989
  • (4) Adelaide (I), song transcription for piano (after Beethoven Op. 46), S. 466i (LW A58)
  •  Adelaide (II), song transcription for piano (after Beethoven Op. 46), S. 466ii (LW A58)
  • 1996
  • (2) Adeste fidelis, for female chorus (incomplete), S. 49a
  • (2) Agnus Dei de la Messa de Requiem di Verdi (I & II), for piano, S. 437 (LW A284)
  • 1991
  • (3) Agnus Dei de la Messe de Requiem, transcription for organ (after Verdi), S. 675c (LW E29) WA
  • 2004
  • (16) Aida: Danza sacra e duetto finale, transcription for piano (after Verdi), S. 436 (LW A276)
  • 1988
  •  Air cosaque, for piano, S. 249c
  • 1997
  • (6) Air du Stabat Mater, transcription for piano (after Rossini: "Cujus animam"), S. 553/1 (LW A141/1)
  • 1977
  •  Album-Leaf, for piano in A flat major, S. 166c
  • 1997
  •  Album-Leaf, for piano in A flat major, S. 166l
  • 2003
  •  Album-Leaf, for piano in D major, S. 164h
  • 2003

    Individual Bio

    Liszt was the only contemporary whose music Richard Wagner gratefully acknowledged as an influence upon his own. His lasting fame was an alchemy of extraordinary digital ability -- the greatest in the history of keyboard playing -- an unmatched instinct for showmanship, and one of the most progressive musical imaginations of his time. Hailed by some as a visionary, reviled by others as a symbol of empty romantic excess, Franz Liszt wrote his name across music history in a truly inimitable manner.

    From his youth, Liszt demonstrated a natural facility at the keyboard that placed him among the top performing prodigies of his day. Though contemporary accounts describe his improvisational skill as dazzling, his talent as a composer emerged only in his adulthood. Still, he was at the age of eleven the youngest contributor to publisher Anton Diabelli's famous variation commissioning project, best remembered as the inspiration for Beethoven's final piano masterpiece. An oft-repeated anecdote -- first recounted by Liszt himself decades later, and possibly fanciful -- has Beethoven attending a recital given by the youngster and bestowing a kiss of benediction upon him.

    Though already a veteran of the stage by his teens, Liszt recognized the necessity of further musical tuition. He studied for a time with Czerny and Salieri in Vienna, and later sought acceptance to the Paris Conservatory. When he was turned down there -- foreigners were not then admitted -- he instead studied privately with Anton Reicha. Ultimately, his Hungarian origins proved a great asset to his career, enhancing his aura of mystery and exoticism and inspiring an extensive body of works, none more famous than the Hungarian Rhapsodies (1846-1885).

    Liszt soon became a prominent figure in Parisian society, his romantic entanglements providing much material for gossip. Still, not even the juiciest accounts of his amorous exploits could compete with the stories about his wizardry at the keyboard. Inspired by the superhuman technique -- and, indeed, diabolical stage presence -- of the violinist Paganini, Liszt set out to translate these qualities to the piano. As his career as a touring performer, conductor, and teacher burgeoned, he began to devote an increasing amount of time to composition. He wrote most of his hundreds of original piano works for his own use; accordingly, they are frequently characterized by technical demands that push performers -- and in Liszt's own day, the instrument itself -- to their limits. The "transcendence" of his Transcendental Etudes (1851), for example, is not a reference to the writings of Emerson and Thoreau, but an indication of the works' level of difficulty. Liszt was well into his thirties before he mastered the rudiments of orchestration -- works like the Piano Concerto No. 1 (1849) were orchestrated by talented students -- but made up for lost time in the production of two "literary" symphonies (Faust, 1854-1857, and Dante, 1855-1856) and a series of orchestral essays (including Les préludes, 1848-1854) that marks the genesis of the tone poem as a distinct genre.

    After a lifetime of near-constant sensation, Liszt settled down somewhat in his later years. In his final decade he joined the Catholic Church and devoted much of his creative effort to the production of sacred works. The complexion of his music darkened; the flash that had characterized his previous efforts gave way to a peculiar introspection, manifested in strikingly original, forward-looking efforts like Nuages gris (1881). Liszt died in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 31, 1886, having outlived Wagner, his son-in-law and greatest creative beneficiary. ~ Michael Rodman, All Music Guide