Between 18, they lived mostly in Switzerland and Italy, which led to a further expansion of Liszt’s intellectual horizons. She became his great love and the mother of his three children. Liszt, who enjoyed great popularity in aristocratic salons and public concert halls alike, met Countess Marie d’Agoult, née Flavigny (1805–76) in 1833. His friendship with Chopin was also a major influence: he considered Chopin, along with Schumann, whom he came to know later, as the most important composers for the piano of his day. He was inspired to perfect his piano technique by the virtuosity of Paganini’s playing of the violin his explorations of programme music were encouraged by Berlioz’s S y m p h o n i e f a n t a s t i q u e. His horizon was broadened by his contacts with the intellectual currents of the time (the utopian social philosophy of Saint-Simon and the liberal Catholicism of Lamennais), as well as by his friendships with major artists and writers such as Hugo, Lamartine, Dumas, Sand, Balzac, Heine and Delacroix. His transformation into a mature artist came by dint of a great deal of hard practice and extensive reading. French remained the language in which he preferred to express himself all his life. The Paris years had a lasting effect on him: it was here that the boy, constantly active as a composer and pianist, traversed the emotional crises of adolescence and matured into a young man. With his concerts in Pest in May 1823, Franz Liszt took his leave from his compatriots for many years. When he was twelve, his father decided to take him to Paris, taking great financial risks to ensure his son’s further education. For a year and a half, he studied in Vienna under Carl Czerny, a former student of Beethoven’s, and Antonio Salieri, Mozart’s one-time rival. By the age of nine, the boy had appeared in Sopron and Pozsony (Pressburg/ Bratislava). His father, Adam Liszt, was an intendant of the Prince Esterházy estates and a gifted musician who did everything to facilitate the child prodigy’s progress.

He was born 200 years ago to German-speaking parents in a small village in Sopron county in Hungary that is now part of the Austrian Burgenland.

Franz list concert