Franz Liszt

Charismatic and iconic, Liszt remains a fascinating but problematic subject for biographers. Many have attempted to capture this complicated and contradictory figure, from the music critic Joseph d’Ortigue, who published the first biographical sketch in the Gazette musicale de Paris on 14 June 1835 when Liszt was not quite 24 years old, to the most recent biography written by Oliver Hilmes. This wealth of writing offers fascinating insights into his turbulent reception history. Hilmes’s biography offers a balanced portrayal of Liszt, a welcome change from those plagued by problems of censorship and mythology, or on a mission to eulogize or denigrate. A number of different ‘Liszts’ have appeared over the years. The seemingly extreme contrasts in Liszt’s life and character have long fascinated biographers, who have attempted to reconcile the flamboyant performer and famous womanizer with the deeply religious abbé, have been confounded by the cosmopolitan socialite who was also a Hungarian patriot. D’Ortigue, for example, noted the dichotomy in Liszt’s character between the spiritual and the sensual, hoping that the spiritual would win out in the end. The divisions in Liszt’s character were also highlighted by Ernest Newman in The Man Liszt: A Study of the Tragi-comedy of a Soul Divided against Itself (London, 1934). This biography represents the nadir of Liszt reception in the twentieth century: he is depicted as a superficial charlatan, lacking any real talent. Fifty years later, however, he became a saintly, selfless figure in Alan Walker’s Franz Liszt (Ithaca, NY, 1983–97). The sincere, religious, and Hungarian sides of Liszt’s character are present throughout this depiction, mediating any possible incongruences in Liszt’s ‘identities’.

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