Today on Komposers for Kossacks, I give you the Freddie Mercury of his day, Franz Liszt!
Komposers for Kossacks is a little space where I, a humble fan of the classical genre, attempt to increase your knowledge and my own as we explore the works and lives of some of the world's greatest composers.
A disclaimer: I am not an expert on classical music or music in general. I can't play any instruments and I've had no formal training or instruction on music since we knocked together wood blocks and rhythm sticks in elementary school. Even so, I hope you'll have fun and maybe learn enough to make you want to give classical music a try.
(Crunch, crunch, smack) "Eh... who? Franz Liszt? Never heard of 'im. Wrong number." --- Bugs Bunny
Our composer this week: Franz Liszt
Franz sayz: "You cannot handle the sexy!"
Pronounced: "LIST"
Born: Oct. 22, 1811
Died: July 31, 1886
Nationality: Hungarian
Occupations: virtuoso pianist, conductor, composer, author and teacher
Influenced by: Niccolo Paganini, Ludvig Van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Hector Berloiz, Frederic Chopin
Influences: Hector Berloiz Richard Wagner, Camille Saint-Saens, Edvard Greig
Unlike our first-reviewed composer from yesterday, Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt produced well-known pieces for full orchestras as well as indidividual instruments, particularly the piano. I think of Liszt in his piano work as being the yin to Chopin's yang. Where Chopin could be brooding and dark, Liszt was energetic and powerful (and also a little dark).
Liszt came from a musical family, and met Beethoven and Schubert in his teenage years. He moved to Paris in the mid 1820s and began teaching music and composition -- also taking up smoking and drinking and keeping odd hours, all habits he would indulge throughout his life. He befriended authors and artists, including Hector Berloiz, whose music inspired Liszt with a sense of the demonic and foreboding that he would infuse his on music with.
After hearing a concert by Niccolo Paganini in 1932, Liszt resolved to master the piano the way Paganini had the violin. Taking Paganini's Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Liszt wrote six Grandes Etudes de Paganini. Take a listen at Liszt's version of La Campanella:
Reviewing a term we used yesterday, take the above performance as an example of legato -- a flawless adherence to rhythm without variance in tempo -- as opposed to the rubato we heard yesterday in performances of Chopin's pieces.
Liszt was always looking for ways to use music as a tool of expression, expanding the way musicians could play their instruments to tell a story. He is credited with the invention of the symphonic poem (or tone poem), which expanded one-movement works past the traditional overture format.
This piece, from Liszt's Les Preludes, gives you a taste of what Liszt was trying to achieve with his symphonic poems:
Liszt was continually working to expand the possibilities for what composers could write and musicians could play, but his whirlwind tours of Europe kept him busy -- while increasing his fame.
By 1842, "Lisztomania" was sweeping Europe, with the composer enthralling audiences like a modern-day rock star! Adoring fans would scramble to catch, fight over and rip up one of the composer's silk scarves or velvet gloves, which he would toss into the crowd. Critics described the musical ecstasy of his performances as "more like seances than serious musical events."
In the beginning, I compared Liszt to Freddie Mercury for his showmanship, but he was also the Bono of his time, giving freely to charitable causes. He'd made so much money by middle age that the composer gave the bulk of his cash to hospitals, schools, music centers, cathedrals and disaster relief.
Liszt's best-known orchestral works were probably his Hungarian Rhapsodies. A rhapsody is a free-flowing, emotion-packed roller coaster of music that changes tempo, mood and structure dramatically throughout the piece.
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is my favorite, and the most famous of these pieces. The soaring energy, dramatic variations and stunning crescendoes are probably one reason why many animators have used this piece in cartoons, including Bugs Bunny's Rhapsody Rabbit.
Partly thanks to his friendships with contemporaries Berloiz and Chopin, and partly because of the Romantic period's fascination with all things Medieval, Liszt's music was often infused with a taste for the dark, or even morbid. Take Liszt's Totentanz (or "Dance of Death") for one example:
Another great, probably more familiar example of Liszt's obsession with the sinister is his Mephisto Waltz, played here by Vladimir Horowitz:
Liszt's career slowed a bit upon his settling in Weimar, and he focused on writing, composing and teaching -- taking on some hundreds of students until his death. He sometimes taught free of charge, and focused on helping his students express their own individual talents, not wishing to create carbon copies of himself.
In the end, I adore Liszt's range of talent, even though his impact on music may be overshadowed by some of his contemporaries and predecessors. He clearly had passion and skill, and produced a large volume of work that still enthralls fans today. I hope you've enjoyed reading about the man and his work, and that you can continue enjoying the variety, the strength and the furious energy of his works.
Before we go, please enjoy a beautiful, sweeping piano piece, Liszt's Third Concert Etude, nicknamed "Un Sospiro" (or "a sigh").
We'll see you next time!