Biographies of musicians

Life of Liszt

Liszts Childish CharacteristicsThe Home at RaidingThe Father and his Musical AbilitiesHis Ambition for his SonSelections from his DiaryYoung Liszts First AppearancesPeculiarities of his PlayingThe GypsiesThe Influence of their Life and Music upon himPaganini and BiharyGenerosity of Counts Amadee and SzaparyHis Studies with CzernyOld Artists AstonishedPlays before BeethovenThe great Master kisses the BoyThe Journey to ParisCherubinis ChurlishnessLiszts immense SuccessOvations and TriumphsA great Favorite among the LadiesFrench and German Tributes. Behold a young virtuoso, seemingly dropped from the clouds, who arouses the greatest astonishment. The performances of this boy border on the miraculous, and one is tempted to doubt their physical possibility when he hears the young giant thunder forth Hummels difficult compositions, says a Vienna account of this boy, scarce eleven years of age. Only a year afterward, we see Paris[12] wild with amazement over a phenomenon never beheld before. Like that of young Mozart at Naples, the piano was turned round so that they could see what they did not believe to be possible, thereby revealing the genial and manly characteristics of the young artist, which afterward became the delight of the world, like his playing. His eyes gleam with animation, mischievousness and joy. He is not led to the piano, he rushes up to it. They applaud and he looks surprised. They applaud afresh and he rubs his hands, it is said, and then are pointed out the national quality, the inspired fury, the unmistakable originality, and at another time the proud, manly expression, which gained for him the appellation of the Hungarian Wonder-Child. We shall further notice the indications of these peculiarities, particularly as they are given in a longer biographical notice, which, in its main features, seems to have been taken from his own communication that appeared about the year 1830, in one of the first of Parisian musical journals, the Revue et Gazette Musicale, which collapsed a few years ago. Franz Liszt was born October 22, 1811, at[13] Raiding, near Oedenburg. The comet year appeared to his parents a good omen of his future. The father, belonging to a not very wealthy family of the old nobility, was, in his prime, accountant at Eisenstadt with that Prince Nicholas Esterhazy for whom Joseph Haydn was Capellmeister. As he enjoyed the personal acquaintance of the honored master of the quartet, mostly at card-playing, which he practiced as a recreation in the midst of his always severe labor, he was brought into a sphere which was peculiarly musical in its character, and which furnished his own nature with the richest food, for father Liszt was on terms of personal friendship also with that best scholar of Mozarts, the distinguished pianist, Hummel, born at Presburg in 1778, who officiated many years as the Princes Capellmeister at Eisenstadt and Esterhaz. No one esteemed him more highly as a pianist. His playing had made an indelible impression upon him. He was also musical himself in a high degree, playing nearly every instrument, particularly the piano and violoncello, and was only restrained by the displeasure of his family relatives from perfecting himself as a[14] thorough musician. So much the more his dreams and hopes of artistic power were transferred to his eldest son, whose rare talent had manifested itself early. Thy destiny is fixed. Thou wilt realize that art ideal which fascinated my youth in vain. In thee will I grow young again and transmit myself, he often said to him. He was so strongly impressed with all the signs of promise in the boy that he devoted a diary to him in which he entered his notes with the most minute and solicitous punctiliousness of a tender father. Here is a leaf from the recollections of that childhood: ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 68522
Author: Nohl, Ludwig
Release Date: Jul 14, 2022
Format: eBook
Language: English
Publisher: A. C. McClurg & Company,1880
Publication Date: 1880
Publisher Country: United States

Contributors

Translator: Upton, George P. (George Putnam), 1834-1919