Composer of the Month 10/2011: Franz Liszt   (selected by Peter van Dessel / Belgium)

Austria 29.1.2011 Franz Liszt was born on 22 October 1811 in Raiding, Hungary. He was trained in piano playing by his father and the Italian composer Antonio Salieri. In the mid-1820s he was hailed in Paris as a piano virtuoso. After attending a concert by Paganini, he set himself the goal of reaching the same level of virtuoso technique for the piano. Liszt performed numerous concert tours throughout Europe. From 1848 he worked as Kapellmeister for the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar. In 1861 he moved to Rome where he studied theology and received minor orders. From 1871 he regularly visited Weimar and Budapest, where he conducted, taught, composed and supported the work of Richard Wagner. Besides his reputation as a piano virtuoso Franz Liszt was one of the most prolific composers of the 19th Century. He has composed in many different styles and genres and was a pioneer of "programmatic music". With his major works as the "Hungarian Rhapsody" or the "Faust Symphony" is he attributed to the "New German School". Franz Liszt died on 31 July 1886 at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. In October 2011, we celebrate his 200th Birthday. The video shows the Hungarian pianist Zoltán Kocsis playing "Csárdás Macabre" composed by Franz Liszt. More composer can be found in the members only section