Happy 200th, Franz!

Long before anyone could guess he would become one of the greats of 19th century music, Franz Liszt entered the world in a small corner of Hungary in a town called Raiding.

Liszt's roots were German on his father's side and Hungarian on his mother's. And as always in such cases, the question of which nation gets to claim him comes up. So it's no wonder that at the home where he was born, there are two plaques: one in Hungarian, placed by the Ödenburger Association of Literature and Art and one in German: "This plaque is dedicated to the German master from the German folk."

The young Franz was anything but a wunderkind, but was raised by his father, also a musician, with a good measure of ambition. The piano virtuoso needed a bit of a push.

"It's really fantastic that the father of Franz Liszt was like a second Leopold Mozart," remarked Nike Wagner, the great-great granddaughter of the composer and director of the annual Pelerinages Festival in Weimar, which is dedicated to Liszt.

"All of the frustrations that his father experienced were to be made good through his son's career," Wagner added. "But it strikes me at the same time that he made the right investment. Even though Franz was a sickly child, he fulfilled everything that his father burdened him with."

A European phenomenon

As a pianist, Franz Liszt conquered the world: along with the devilish violinist Paganini, Liszt was the first pop star in the modern sense - scandalous affairs, alcohol excesses and hysterical audiences were all part of the show.

In Weimar, Liszt dedicated himself increasingly to composition. He sought to throw the spear of his creativity far into the future, as he once put it, and that's also what he did. But his visionary music was misunderstood both by his contemporaries as well as many that came after him.

An unexplored continent

Perhaps it doesn't help Liszt's case that he was wealthy and famous - Germany prefers its geniuses poor and unknown. On the 200th anniversary of his birth, the stories are circulating once again about the ladies' man who dubbed himself Abbe Liszt and hypnotized the masses with his performances - though he died ultimately alone and unhappy.

But the music that this figure created still seems neglected. With the exception of a few "hits," like the Liebestraum, the Hungarian Rhapsodies, favorite virtuosic pieces like "La Campanella" or the theme from the symphonic poem "Les Preludes" that the Nazis misused as a jingle in war announcements, Liszt's music remains a largely unexplored continent.

That's due to a largely German criticism that Liszt's composition was ultimately superficial: all showmanship, smoke and mirrors, that doesn't stand up to the true values and achievements of the German classical tradition.

For those critics, the German tradition continued not with the cosmopolitan, boundary-blurring Liszt but in the more symphonically gifted Brahms or in Richard Wagner.

Wagner in the way?

One can also read often that it's the long shadow of Wagner that obscured Liszt's fame as a composer. When the two first met in 1840 in Paris at a reception in the adored piano virtuoso's hotel, Wagner complained of being "hopelessly bored." A conversation about music between the two ended quickly and fruitlessly, and the famous performer gave Wagner a ticket for his next piano night.

But Wagner came away from the evening, as he put it, "with no other impressions than that of numbness."

Eight years later, it was Liszt that visited Wagner in Dresden. This time, they talked about art again, but Wagner began turning their conversations increasingly toward money. Liszt was one of his preferred people to tap, and Liszt helped where he could.

In 1857, Wagner wrote an essay about Liszt's symphonic poems, in which he defended the genre Liszt created against criticism that it was "formless."

Wagner called symphonic poems a decisive step beyond the symphony that opened the gates to the music of the future by drawing literary effects from instrumental music: "Herein lies the real secret and difficulty - the solution of which could have only been discovered by an incredibly gifted master, simultaneously a consummate musician and a penetrating poet."

There's no doubt about who Wagner meant there - and, as such, who he viewed as a precursor.

Just listen

Liszt, too, promoted Wagner's work including leading the premiere of "Lohengrin" in 1850 as the court Kapellmeister in Weimar. Once word spread of Wagner's affair with Liszt's married daughter Cosima, the relationship between the two men cooled.

Liszt took the side of his daughter's husband, Hans von Bülow. In 1867, Liszt gave voice to his objections, but three years later came the reconciliation: Liszt became Wagner's father-in-law.

As a person, Wagner could get on Liszt's nerves, but his loyalty to his son-in-law's music remained steadfast throughout his life. On the other hand, though, Wagner couldn't understand the barren, forward-looking music Liszt wrote at the end of his life - he's probably not to blame for the fact that Liszt has been overlooked as a composer.

The best way to re-evaluate Liszt's work? Just listen - especially to the later piano works - and marvel.

Author: Holger Noltze / gsw
Editor: Cyrus Farivar