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People In Music History
Liszt, Ferencz [Germanized as Franz] (1811-1886) Hungarian pianist and
composer. As child prodigy pianist, visited France and Britain. Lived with the
Countess d'Agoult 1833-1844; one of their children (Cosima) later becoming
Wagner's wife. From 1848 lived with the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, whose
eventual effort to secure a divorce from her husband failed; Liszt separated
from her in 1861, never married, and in 1865 took minor orders in the Roman
Catholic Church and was referred to as "the Abbe Liszt." He revisited London in
1886. He consistently aided new composers from Berlioz to Grieg, and made
Weimer a highly important center when he was court musical director there, 1848
-1859. His piano works include a sonata (pioneering one-movement form), also
Dante Sonata, 20 Hungarian Rhapsodies, Mazeppa (also for orchestra), and other
pieces with allusive titles; and many operatic paraphrases, transcriptions of
other composers' work, etc. Arranged Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy in a version
for piano and orchestra. Also composed The Preludes, Orpheus, Hamlet, Dante
Symphony, Faust Symphony, Episodes from Lenau's Faust, etc., for orchestra; 4
Mephisto Waltzes; Malediction for piano and orchestra; Via Crucis and other
church works; more than 70 songs in French, German, Italian, Hungarian, and
English (Tennyson's "Go not, happy day"); and much else. Was a bold harmonic
innovator, especially in late years. His "Hungarian" music is chiefly of a
gypsy, not an authentically peasant, character.