Theophil Franz Xaver Scharwenka (6 January 1850 – 8 December 1924) was a German pianist , composer and teacher of Polish descent. He was the brother of Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka (1847–1917), who was also a composer and teacher of music.
80-555: Scharwenka was born in 1850 in Samter , Prussia (Polish: Szamotuły ; until 1793 and since 1919 part of Poland ). His paternal ancestors originally came from Prague , then moved to Frankfurt on the Oder in 1696 - probably for reasons of faith - and settled thereafter in Samter. His father, August Wilhelm, was a gifted master-builder but decidedly did not have an ear for music. His mother, née Golisch,
160-543: A Beethoven Monument in Bonn were in danger of collapse for lack of funds and pledged his support, raising funds through concerts. The countess returned to Paris with the children, while Liszt gave six concerts in Vienna, then toured Hungary. Liszt would later spend holidays with Marie and their children on the island of Nonnenwerth on the Rhine in the summers of 1841 and 1843. In May 1844,
240-667: A New York branch of his Scharwenka Music School. In 1893 the Berlin Scharwenka Conservatory was united with the Klindworth Conservatory, and in 1898 he returned there as Director, from New York. In 1914, with W. Petzet, he opened a School of Music with a piano teachers' seminary attached. Among pianists who received some instruction from him were José Vianna da Motta , Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl and Selmar Janson . See: List of music students by teacher: R to S#Xaver Scharwenka . His Methodik des Klavierspiels
320-586: A German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists . Lamennais dissuaded Liszt from becoming a monk or priest. Urhan was an early champion of Schubert, inspiring Liszt's own lifelong love of Schubert's songs . Much of Urhan's emotive music which moved beyond the Classical paradigm, such as Elle et moi, La Salvation angélique and Les Regrets , may have helped to develop Liszt's taste and style. During this period Liszt came into contact with many of
400-459: A boy under Selmar Janson , who had studied it directly with the composer. When Leinsdorf asked Wild to record the concerto, he was able to say "I've been waiting by the phone for forty years for someone to ask me to play this". The fourth concerto, in F minor, Op. 82 (1908), was premiered on 18 October 1908 in the Beethovensaal, Berlin, with Scharwenka's student Martha Siebold as the soloist and
480-410: A breast growth which developed shortly after giving birth to a son she named in memory of Daniel. In letters to friends, Liszt announced that he would retreat to a solitary living. He moved to the monastery Madonna del Rosario , just outside Rome, where on 20 June 1863 he took up quarters in a small, spartan apartment. He had a piano in his cell, and he continued to compose. He had already joined
560-418: A concert pianist from an early age, and received lessons from esteemed musicians Carl Czerny and Antonio Salieri . He gained further renown for his performances during tours of Europe in the 1830s and 1840s, developing a reputation for technical brilliance as well as physical attractiveness. In a phenomenon dubbed " Lisztomania ", he rose to a degree of stardom and popularity among the public not experienced by
640-401: A day, and in 1838 published the six Études d'exécution transcendante d'après Paganini (later revised as Grandes études de Paganini ), aiming to represent Paganini's virtuosity on the keyboard. The process of Liszt completely redeveloping his technique is often described as a direct result of attending Paganini's concert, but it is likely that he had already begun this work previously, during
720-613: A deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound." On 13 January 1886, while Claude Debussy was staying at the Villa Medici in Rome, Liszt met him there with Paul Vidal and Ernest Hébert , director of the French Academy. Liszt played " Au bord d'une source " from Années de pèlerinage , as well as his arrangement of Schubert's Ave Maria for the musicians. Debussy in later years described Liszt's pedalling as "like
800-517: A fever, cough and delirium. He died during the festival, near midnight on 31 July 1886, at the age of 74—officially as a result of pneumonia , which he had contracted prior to arriving in Bayreuth, although the true cause of death may have been a heart attack . He was buried on 3 August 1886, in the municipal cemetery of Bayreuth [ de ] , according to Cosima's wishes; despite controversy over this as his final resting place, Liszt's body
880-437: A form of breathing." Liszt travelled to Bayreuth in the summer of 1886. This was in order to support his daughter Cosima, who was running the festival but struggling to generate sufficient interest. The festival was dedicated to the works of her husband Richard Wagner, and had opened ten years previously; Wagner had died in 1883. Already frail, in his final week of life Liszt's health deteriorated further, as he experienced
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#1732863225990960-475: A keen amateur musician, he played the piano, cello, guitar and flute, and knew Haydn and Hummel personally. A renowned child prodigy , Franz began to improvise at the piano from before the age of five, and his father diligently encouraged his progress. Franz also found exposure to music through attending Mass, as well as travelling Romani bands that toured the Hungarian countryside. His first public concert
1040-551: A mental institution in Endenich . Clara asked for Liszt's help that year in finding a performance venue in order to earn an income. Liszt arranged an all-Schumann concert with Clara as the star performer and published an extremely positive review, but Clara did not express any gratitude. In a posthumous edition of Robert's works, Clara changed the dedication of the Fantasie from Liszt to herself. After Liszt's death, she wrote in her diary "He
1120-599: A particular movement or set of unified principles. What commonalities the composers had were around the development of programmatic music , harmonic experimentation, wide-ranging modulation and formal innovations such as the use of leitmotifs and thematic transformation . The disagreements between the two factions is often described as the " War of the Romantics ". The "war" was largely carried out through articles, essays and reviews. Each side claimed Beethoven as its predecessor. A number of festivals were arranged to showcase
1200-559: A performance of the Piano Trio No. 1 being held in his honour in the Schumanns' home. Liszt arrived two hours late with Wagner (who had not been invited), derided the piece, and spoke ill of the recently deceased Mendelssohn . This upset the Schumanns, and Robert physically assaulted Liszt. The relationship between Liszt and the couple remained frosty. Liszt dedicated his 1854 piano sonata to Robert, who had by that point been committed to
1280-517: A piece Liszt had written at the age of 11 – his Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli (S. 147) – appeared in Part II of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein as his first published composition. This volume, commissioned by Anton Diabelli , includes 50 variations on his waltz by 50 different composers ( Part I being taken up by Beethoven's 33 variations on the same theme, which are now separately better known simply as his Diabelli Variations ). Liszt
1360-558: A series of highly successful concerts debuting on 8 March 1824. Paer was involved in the Parisian theatrical and operatic scene, and through his connections Liszt staged his only opera, Don Sanche , which premiered shortly before his fourteenth birthday. The premiere was warmly received, but the opera only ran for four performances, and is now obscure. Accompanied by his father, Liszt toured France and England, where he played for King George IV . Adam Liszt died suddenly of typhoid fever in
1440-442: A serious composer. Very shortly after Chopin's death in 1849, Liszt had a monument erected in his memory and began to write a biography. Chopin's relatives and friends found the timing of this insensitive, and many declined to help with Liszt's enquiries. Scholars disagree on the extent to which Chopin and Liszt influenced each others' compositions. Charles Rosen identifies similarities between Chopin's Étude Op. 10, No. 9 and
1520-550: Is Sparta Szamotuły . It competes in the lower leagues. Szamotuły is twinned with: Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period . With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most prolific and influential composers of his era, and his piano works continue to be widely performed and recorded. Liszt achieved success as
1600-786: Is admired. His playing is also preserved on Welte-Mignon and Hupfeld piano rolls , including the Chopin A-flat Waltz, Op 42, and the F minor Fantaisie (Op. 49), his performance of which was famous. Some of his Hupfeld rolls were also converted for the American Ampico reproducing piano . Scharwenka's own compositions include an opera ( Mataswintha ), a symphony , four piano concertos , chamber music (all with piano part) and numerous piano pieces; his piano idiom somewhat resembles Schumann and Rachmaninoff . The four piano concertos are substantial works. The first, in B-flat minor, Op. 32,
1680-654: Is estimated that he travelled at least 4,000 miles a year during this period in his life – an exceptional figure given his advancing age and the rigors of road and rail in the 1870s. Liszt's time in Budapest was the result of efforts from the Hungarian government in attracting him to work there. The plan of the foundation of the Royal Academy of Music was agreed upon by the Hungarian Parliament in 1873, and in March 1875 Liszt
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#17328632259901760-437: Is fitting to say with the poet ' et adhuc sub judice lis est ". Belgiojoso declined to declare a winner, famously concluding that "Thalberg is the first pianist in the world – Liszt is unique." The biographer Alan Walker , however, believes that "Liszt received the ovation of the evening and all doubts about his supremacy were dispelled. As for Thalberg, his humiliation was complete. He virtually disappeared from
1840-641: The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Foster was voted Record of the Year by the British music magazine Gramophone in 1996. His Symphony in C minor, Op. 60, received its CD premiere in 2004. Szamotu%C5%82y Szamotuły [ʂamɔˈtuwɨ] ( German : Samter , Yiddish : Zamter ) is a town in western Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship , about 35 kilometres (22 miles) northwest of
1920-659: The Hungarian Rhapsodies , Années de pèlerinage , Transcendental Études , " La campanella ", and the Piano Sonata in B minor . Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt (née Maria Anna Lager) and Adam Liszt on 22 October 1811, in the village of Doborján ( German : Raiding ) in Sopron County , in the Kingdom of Hungary , Austrian Empire . Liszt's father was a land steward in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy ;
2000-486: The Salle Pleyel on 26 February 1832, which he admired greatly, and by mid-1833 the two had become close friends. They performed together a number of times, often for charity, and since Chopin only performed in public about 12 times, these events comprise a large proportion of his total appearances. Their relationship cooled in the early 1840s, and several reasons have been suggested for this, including that Marie d'Agoult
2080-496: The Third Order of Saint Francis previously, on 23 June 1857. On 25 April 1865 he received the tonsure at the hands of Cardinal Hohenlohe, who had previously worked against Carolyne's efforts to secure an annulment; the two men became close friends. On 31 July 1865 Liszt received the four minor orders of porter , lector , exorcist and acolyte . After this ordination he was often called " Abbé Liszt". On 14 August 1879, he
2160-521: The 1870s, who definitively moved on from the School and the Neue Zeitschrift . After a visit to Rome and an audience with Pope Pius IX in 1860, Carolyne finally secured an annulment. It was planned that she and Liszt would marry in Rome, on 22 October 1861, Liszt's 50th birthday. Liszt arrived in Rome on 21 October, but a Vatican official had arrived the previous day in order to stop the marriage. This
2240-684: The Leipzig Musicians Pension Fund. After the Great Fire of Hamburg in May 1842, he gave concerts in aid of those left homeless. During a tour of Ukraine in 1847, Liszt played in Kiev , where he met the Polish Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein . For some time he had been considering retiring from the life of a travelling virtuoso to concentrate on composition, and at this point he made
2320-882: The Poznań County in the Poznań Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown . During the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland , which started World War II in September 1939, the town was invaded and then occupied by Germany . On September 12, 1939, the German Einsatzgruppe VI entered the town to commit various atrocities against Poles as part of the Intelligenzaktion . The Germans carried out mass arrests of local Poles under
2400-619: The Singakademie in 1869. He taught at the academy until entering military service in 1873. Upon his discharge in 1874, Scharwenka began touring as a concert pianist. Praised for the beauty of his tone, he became a renowned interpreter of the music of Frédéric Chopin . In 1881 Scharwenka organized a successful annual series of chamber and solo concerts at the Singakademie in conjunction with Gustav Holländer and Heinrich Grünfeld. That October he founded his own music school in Berlin. In 1886, he conducted
2480-537: The accomplished music director of the Viennese court who had previously taught Beethoven and Schubert . Like Czerny, Salieri was highly impressed by Liszt's improvisation and sight-reading abilities. Liszt's public debut in Vienna on 1 December 1822 was a great success. He was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and met Beethoven and Schubert . To build on his son's success, Adam Liszt decided to take
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2560-460: The centre of Poznań . It is the seat of Szamotuły County and of the smaller administrative district Gmina Szamotuły . The population was 19,090 in 2011. Szamotuły was probably founded in the 11th century, and was first mentioned in documents in 1231. Duke Przemysł I of Greater Poland established local fairs before 1257. Szamotuły was granted town rights in 1383 or earlier. It was a private town of Polish nobility , administratively located in
2640-449: The composer himself conducting. Scharwenka's works were neglected for some years after his death; however, his "Polish Dance No. 1" in E-flat minor, Op. 3, No. 1, remained popular. Since the mid-1990s, however, interest in his music has been rekindled, and recordings of most of his works are now commercially available. The recording of his Fourth Piano Concerto played by Stephen Hough with
2720-553: The compositional process, rather than a final task to undertake after the music had already been written. Berlioz joined Liszt and Wagner as a figurehead of the New German School , but an unwilling one, as he was unconvinced by Wagner's ideas about the " music of the future ". Chopin and Liszt first met in the early 1830s, both moving in the same circles of artists residing in Paris. Liszt attended Chopin's first Paris performance at
2800-439: The concept of the symphonic poem , innovations in thematic transformation and Impressionism in music , and the invention of the masterclass as a method of teaching performance. In a radical departure from his earlier compositional styles, many of Liszt's later works also feature experiments in atonality , foreshadowing developments in 20th-century classical music . Today he is best known for his original piano works, such as
2880-597: The concert platform after this date." After his separation from Marie, Liszt continued to tour Europe. His concerts in Berlin in the winter of 1841–1842 marked the start of a period of immense public enthusiasm and popularity for his performances, dubbed " Lisztomania " by Heinrich Heine in 1844. In a fashion that has been described as similar to "the mass hysteria associated with revivalist meetings or 20th-century rock stars", women fought over his cigar stubs and coffee dregs, and his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves, which they ripped to shreds as souvenirs. This atmosphere
2960-471: The concert stage, was based mainly on his accomplishments during this time. Adding to his reputation was that Liszt gave away much of the proceeds of his work to charity and humanitarian causes. He donated large sums to the building fund of Cologne Cathedral and St. Stephen's Basilica in Pest , and made private donations to public services such as hospitals and schools, as well as charitable organizations such as
3040-611: The couple finally separated. Swiss pianist Sigismond Thalberg moved to Paris in 1835 after several successful years of touring. His concerts there were extremely well received, and Liszt, at the time living in Geneva, received news of them from his friends in Paris. In the autumn of 1836 Liszt published an unfavourable review of several of Thalberg's compositions in the Gazette musicale , calling them "boring" and "mediocre". A published exchange of views ensued between Liszt and Thalberg's supporter,
3120-671: The court Intendant for prior approval. This did not cause large problems until the appointment of Franz von Dingelstedt in 1857, who reduced the number of music productions, rejected Liszt's choices of repertoire, and even organised a demonstration against Liszt's 1858 premiere of Der Barbier von Bagdad . Faced with this opposition, Liszt resigned in 1858. At first, after arriving in Weimar, Princess Carolyne lived apart from Liszt, in order to avoid suspicions of impropriety. She wished eventually to marry Liszt, but since her husband, Russian military officer Prince Nicholas von Sayn-Wittgenstein,
3200-523: The critic François-Joseph Fétis . Liszt heard Thalberg perform for the first time at the Paris Conservatoire in February 1837, and to settle the disagreement the two pianists each arranged a performance for the public to compare them the following month. Liszt performed his own Grande fantaisie sur des motifs de Niobe and Weber's Konzertstück in F minor . This was considered to be inconclusive, so
3280-472: The daughter of Charles X 's minister of commerce, Pierre de Saint-Cricq . Her father, however, insisted that the affair be broken off. Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and introspection. He stopped playing the piano and giving lessons, and developed an intense interest in religion, having many conversations with Abbé de Lamennais and Chrétien Urhan ,
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3360-555: The day before the premiere of the Symphonie fantastique . Berlioz's music made a strong impression on Liszt, and the two quickly became friends. Liszt also befriended Frédéric Chopin around this time. After attending a concert featuring Niccolò Paganini in April 1832, Liszt resolved to become as great a virtuoso on the piano as Paganini was on the violin. He dramatically increased his practice, sometimes practising for up to fourteen hours
3440-501: The decision to take up a court position in Weimar . Having known Liszt for only a few weeks, Carolyne resolved to join him there. After a tour of Turkey and Russia that summer, Liszt gave the final paid concert of his career at Elizabetgrad in September, then spent the winter with the princess at her estate in Woronińce. By retiring from the concert platform at the age of 35, while still at
3520-459: The early version of Liszt's Transcendental Étude No. 10 , but Alan Walker argues that no such connection exists. Stylistic similarities between other studies, Chopin's Nocturnes and Liszt's Consolations , and even an influence on the ornamentation and fingering of Liszt's works, have been proposed. In 1837 Liszt wrote a positive review of Robert Schumann 's Impromptus and piano sonatas no. 1 and no. 3 . The two began to correspond, and
3600-502: The fact that they did not live physically close together would have been another barrier. On the topic, Liszt commented to Chopin's biographer Frederick Niecks that Marie d'Agoult and George Sand had frequently disagreed, and the musicians had felt obliged to side with their respective partners. Alex Szilasi suggests that Chopin took offence at an equivocal 1841 review by Liszt, and was perhaps jealous of Liszt's popularity, while Liszt in turn may have been jealous of Chopin's reputation as
3680-462: The family to Paris, the centre of the artistic world. At Liszt's final Viennese concert on 13 April 1823, Beethoven was reputed to have walked onstage and kissed Liszt on the forehead, to signify a kind of artistic christening. There is debate, however, on the extent to which this story is apocryphal. The family briefly returned to Hungary, and Liszt played a concert in traditional Hungarian dress, in order to emphasise his roots, in May 1823. In 1824
3760-483: The first in a series of orchestral concerts devoted to the music of Hector Berlioz , Franz Liszt and Ludwig van Beethoven while continuing to tour extensively and play his works in collaboration with other artists such as the conductor Hans Richter and the violinist Joseph Joachim . This triple role as pianist, composer and educator would occupy Scharwenka for the rest of his career. In 1891, Scharwenka made his first tour of America . Deciding to emigrate, he opened
3840-462: The following three years, and again in 1841 and 1844. In Weimar the two composers revised Benvenuto Cellini , and Liszt organised a "Berlioz Week", which included Roméo et Juliette and part of La damnation de Faust , later dedicated to Liszt (in return, Liszt dedicated his Faust Symphony to Berlioz). The orchestration of Berlioz had an influence on Liszt, especially with regards to his symphonic poems. Berlioz saw orchestration as part of
3920-589: The following year he met Schumann's fiancée Clara Wieck , to whom he dedicated the early version of Grandes études de Paganini . Schumann in turn dedicated Fantasie in C to Liszt. The two met for the first time in Dresden in 1840. Schumann resigned as editor of the music journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1844, ten years after founding it. The journal was taken over the following year by Franz Brendel , who used it to publicise and support Liszt's New German School, to Schumann's chagrin. In 1848 Liszt attended
4000-528: The height of his powers, Liszt succeeded in keeping the legend of his playing untarnished. In July 1848 Liszt settled in Weimar, where he had been appointed the honorary title of " Kapellmeister Extraordinaire" six years previously. He acted as the official court kapellmeister at the expense of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia until 1859, jointly with Hippolyte André Jean Baptiste Chélard until his retirement in 1852. During this period Liszt acted as conductor at court concerts and on special occasions at
4080-466: The idea of regular lessons. Being so impressed by the initial audition, however, Czerny taught Liszt regularly, free of charge, for the next eighteen months, at which point he felt he had nothing more to teach. Liszt remained grateful to his former teacher, later dedicating to him the Transcendental Études on their 1830 republication. Liszt also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri ,
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#17328632259904160-660: The institution was renamed in honour of Liszt. Liszt fell down a flight of stairs at the Hofgärtnerei in July 1881, and remained bedridden for several weeks after this accident. He had been in good health up to that point, but a number of ailments subsequently manifested, such as a cataract in the left eye, dental issues and fatigue. Since around 1877 he had become increasingly plagued by feelings of desolation, despair and preoccupation with death—feelings that he expressed in his works from this period . As he told Lina Ramann , "I carry
4240-508: The leading authors and artists of his day, including Victor Hugo , Alphonse de Lamartine , George Sand and Alfred de Vigny . He composed practically nothing in the years between his father's death and the July Revolution of 1830 , which inspired him to sketch a symphony based on the events of the "three glorious days" (this piece was left unfinished, and later reworked as Héroïde funèbre ). Liszt met Hector Berlioz on 4 December 1830,
4320-560: The music of the New German School, notably in Leipzig in 1859 and Weimar in 1861. The Allgemeine Deutsche Musikverein , intrinsically linked to the School, was founded at this time, with Liszt becoming its honorary president in 1873. However, as most of Liszt's work from the 1860s and 1870s received little attention, and Brendel and Berlioz died in the late 1860s, the focus of the progressive movement in music moved to Bayreuth with Wagner in
4400-612: The next four years, Liszt and the countess lived together. In 1835 and 1836 they travelled around Switzerland, and from August 1837 until November 1839 they toured Italy. It was these travels that later inspired the composer to write his cycle of piano collections entitled Années de pèlerinage ( Years of Pilgrimage ). Their daughter, Cosima , was born in Como on 24 December 1837, and their son Daniel on 9 May 1839 in Rome . That autumn relations between them became strained. Liszt heard that plans for
4480-540: The period 1828–1832. In 1833, Liszt began a relationship with the Countess Marie d'Agoult , who was married to a French cavalry officer but living independently. In order to escape scandal they moved to Geneva in 1835; their daughter Blandine was born there on 18 December. Liszt taught at the newly founded Geneva Conservatoire and contributed essays for L'Artiste and the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris . For
4560-637: The pre-war monument of Polish insurgents of the Greater Poland Uprising . In 1945 the German occupation ended and the town was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet -installed communist regime, which remained in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. In June 1945, the Home Army carried out a successful attack on a communist prison and liberated captured resistance members. The local football club
4640-523: The pretext of "gathering, plotting, mistreating the Volksdeutsche and anti-German activity". Arrested Poles from the town and county were imprisoned in a newly established Nazi prison, and then hundreds were massacred in the nearby Bytyń , Kobylniki and Mędzisko forests between October 1939 and January 1940. On October 12–13 and December 13, 1939, the Germans also carried out public executions of Poles in
4720-412: The prince would receive some of Carolyne's estates. However, this arrangement was struck down in 1851 by the consistory court of Zhytomyr . Throughout the decade the couple would continue to negotiate through the complex situation. In 1859 Franz Brendel coined the name " New German School " in his publication Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , to refer to the musicians associated with Liszt while he
4800-530: The summer of 1827, and for the next eight years Liszt continued to live in Paris with his mother. He gave up touring, and in order to earn money, he gave lessons on piano and composition, often from early morning until late at night. His students were scattered across the city and he had to cover long distances. Because of this, he kept uncertain hours and also took up smoking and drinking, habits he would continue throughout his life. During this period Liszt fell in love with one of his pupils, Caroline de Saint-Cricq,
4880-432: The theatre, arranged several festivals celebrating the work of Berlioz and Wagner, and produced the premiere of Lohengrin . He gave lessons to a number of pianists, including the great virtuoso Hans von Bülow , who married Liszt's daughter Cosima in 1857 (she would later marry Wagner). Liszt's work during this period made Weimar a nexus for modern music. As kapellmeister Liszt was required to submit every programme to
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#17328632259904960-634: The town. In December 1939, the Germans carried out first expulsions of Polish intelligentsia and owners of shops and workshops, which were then handed over to German colonists as part of the Lebensraum policy. Further expulsions of Poles were carried out in 1940–1941 and 1944. Despite such circumstances, the Polish resistance movement was active in the town, and structures of the Polish Underground State were organized. The Germans also destroyed
5040-519: The two agreed to perform at the same concert for comparison on 31 March, at the salon of the Princess of Belgiojoso , in aid of Italian refugees. Thalberg opened with his Fantasia on Rossini's "Moses" , then Liszt performed his Niobe fantasy. The result of this "duel" is disputed. Critic Jules Janin 's report in Journal des débats asserted that there was no clear winner: "Two victors and no vanquished; it
5120-440: The virtuosos who preceded him. During this period and into his later life, Liszt was a friend, musical promoter and benefactor to many composers of his time, including Hector Berlioz , Frédéric Chopin , Robert Schumann , Clara Schumann and Richard Wagner , among others. Liszt coined the terms " transcription " and "paraphrase", and would perform arrangements of his contemporaries' music to popularise it. Alongside Wagner, Liszt
5200-713: Was a result of the machinations of Cardinal Hohenlohe , who wanted to protect a complex inheritance agreement brokered by Tsar Alexander II . Carolyne subsequently gave up all attempts to marry Liszt, even after her husband's death in 1864; she became a recluse, working for the rest of her life on a long work critical of the Catholic Church. The 1860s were a period of great sadness in Liszt's private life. On 13 December 1859, he lost his 20-year-old son Daniel to an unknown illness. On 11 September 1862 his 26-year-old daughter Blandine also died, having contracted sepsis after surgery on
5280-636: Was added and, two years later, the Gradual. Grand Duke Charles Alexander had been attempting to arrange Liszt's return to Weimar ever since he had left, and in January 1869 Liszt agreed to a residency to give masterclasses in piano playing. He was based in the Hofgärtnerei (court gardener's house), where he taught for the next seventeen years. From 1872 until the end of his life, Liszt made regular journeys between Rome, Weimar and Budapest, continuing what he called his vie trifurquée (" tripartite existence"). It
5360-421: Was an eminent keyboard virtuoso but a dangerous example for the young. ... As a composer he was terrible." Wagner first met Liszt in Paris in 1841, while living in poverty after fleeing Riga to escape creditors. Liszt was at this point a famous pianist, whereas Wagner was unknown; unlike Wagner, Liszt did not remember the meeting. In 1844 Liszt attended a performance of Wagner's first major success,
5440-480: Was an ethnic Pole from a family of some means, who was musically inclined and early on instilled in her children a love of music. Although he began learning to play the piano by ear when he was 3, Scharwenka did not start formal music studies until he was 15, when his family moved to Berlin and he enrolled at the Akademie der Tonkunst. Under Theodor Kullak , his pianistic skills developed rapidly, and he made his debut at
5520-467: Was completed in 1874 and premiered the following year. It was originally written as a solo piano fantasy, but Scharwenka was dissatisfied, and reworked it with orchestra into this form. Franz Liszt accepted the dedication and performed it in Berlin. Its first recording was made in 1968 with Earl Wild and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf . Wild had learned the concerto as
5600-455: Was fuelled in great part by the artist's mesmeric personality and stage presence: he was regarded as handsome, and Heine wrote of his showmanship during concerts: "How powerful, how shattering was his mere physical appearance". It is estimated that Liszt appeared in public well over one thousand times during this eight-year period. Moreover, his great fame as a pianist, which he would continue to enjoy long after he had officially retired from
5680-495: Was in Sopron in 1820 at the age of nine; its success led to further appearances in Pressburg and for Prince Nikolaus' court in Eisenstadt . The publicity led to a group of wealthy sponsors offering to finance Franz's musical education in Vienna. There, Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny , who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. Czerny, already extremely busy, had only begrudgingly agreed to hear Liszt play, and had initially refused to entertain
5760-429: Was in Weimar. The most prominent members other than Liszt were Wagner and Berlioz (although Wagner rejected the label), and the group also included Peter Cornelius , Hans von Bülow and Joachim Raff . The School was a loose confederation of progressive composers, mainly grouped together as a challenge to supposed conservatives such as Mendelssohn and Brahms , and so the term is considered to be of limited use in describing
5840-400: Was infatuated with Chopin, or Liszt with George Sand , or that Liszt used Chopin's home for a rendezvous with Marie Pleyel , the wife of Chopin's friend Camille . The two musicians had very different personalities, with Liszt being extroverted and outgoing while Chopin was more introverted and reflective, so it is possible that the two never had an extremely close friendship to begin with, and
5920-519: Was made an honorary canon of Albano . In 1867 Liszt was commissioned to write a piece for the coronation ceremony of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth of Bavaria , and he travelled to Budapest to conduct it. The Hungarian Coronation Mass was performed on 8 June 1867, at the coronation ceremony in the Matthias Church by Buda Castle in a six-section form. After the first performance, the Offertory
6000-482: Was never moved. Berlioz and Liszt first met on 4 December 1830, the day before the premiere of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique . The two quickly became very close friends, exchanging intimate letters on their respective love lives, which also reveal that Liszt was aware of Berlioz's fixation on suicide. Liszt acted as a witness at Berlioz's wedding to Harriet Smithson in 1833, despite cautioning Berlioz against it, and they worked together at several concerts over
6080-450: Was nominated its president. The academy was officially opened on 14 November 1875 with Liszt's colleague Ferenc Erkel as director and Kornél Ábrányi and Robert Volkmann on the staff. Liszt himself only arrived to deliver lessons in March 1876. From 1881 when in Budapest he would stay in an apartment in the Academy, where he taught pupils in much the same way as he did in Weimar. In 1925
6160-544: Was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School , a progressive group of composers involved in the " War of the Romantics " who developed ideas of programmatic music and harmonic experimentation. Liszt taught piano performance to hundreds of students throughout his life, many of whom went on to become notable performers. He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work that influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated 20th-century ideas and trends. Among Liszt's musical contributions were
6240-524: Was published in Leipzig in 1907. Sometime in the very early 1900s he conducted Felix Mendelssohn 's G minor Concerto , at which the composer and pianist Marthe Servine made her debut. Scharwenka made several recordings for Columbia Records in 1910 and 1913, including works of his own, as well as pieces by Chopin, Mendelssohn, Weber and Liszt: his account of Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op. posth. 66)
6320-575: Was still alive, she had to convince the Roman Catholic authorities that her marriage to him had been invalid. Her appeal to the Archbishop of St Petersburg for an annulment , lodged before leaving Russia, was ultimately unsuccessful, and the couple abandoned pretence and began to live together in the autumn of 1848. Nicholas was aware that the couple's marriage had effectively ended, and Carolyne and Nicholas reached an agreement to annul in 1850 whereby
6400-580: Was the youngest contributor to the project, described in it as "a boy of eleven years old"; Czerny was also a participant. Having made significant sums from his concerts, Liszt and his family moved to Paris in 1823, with the hope of his attending the Conservatoire de Paris . The director Luigi Cherubini refused his entry, however, as the Conservatoire did not accept foreigners. Nevertheless, Liszt studied under Anton Reicha and Ferdinando Paer , and gave
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