Birthday tribute to classical music’s ’rock star’

By Do Je-hae

"For the pianist, Franz Liszt is a touchstone," Alfred Brendel, a towering piano virtuoso and one of the most respected performers and scholars of the Hungarian composer, once said.

The Liszt bicentennial has been the most important theme in classical music this year, with many renowned festivals and concerts organized in his honor. The 19th-century composer, pianist, conductor and teacher was the first classical musician to enjoy rock star status.

His flamboyant recitals created a wave of "Lisztomania," a term coined by German poet Heinrich Heine that swept across Europe starting in the 1840s. He was considered by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his generation.

Brendel will emerge from retirement to give a special speech on Liszt at the Lucerne Festival to be held from Nov. 21 to 25. This year, the annual music festival in Switzerland is devoted to Liszt, who was born Oct. 22 in Sopron County, Hungary.

“Liszt’s music not only awakens all the possibilities that lie dormant within the piano but also demonstrates the real purpose of the instrument, namely, to be at the service of music,” Brendel said in an excerpt of the speech. “It’s not just Liszt’s etudes that are transcendental, but his entire musical aspiration.”

Major recording companies recently released some of the most respected performers of Liszt, including Brendel, Krystian Zimerman and the late Jorge Bolet (1914-1990).

In particular, Decca has re-issued a rare compilation of the composer’s major works played by the great Cuban pianist and pedagogue Bolet, who formerly served as the head of piano at the Curtis Institute.

Revolutionary pianist

Among many accomplishments, Liszt is remembered for revolutionizing the art of performance.

Before him, piano recitals did not exist. He is credited with inventing them to show off his superstar status and an inhuman technical facility. He was also the first to raise the grand piano lid and turn the open side towards the audience and play from memory.

British piano virtuous Stephen Hough introduced this in a recent National Public Radio program entitled "How Franz Liszt Became the World's First Rock Star."

"We hear about women throwing their clothes onto the stage and taking his cigar butts and placing them in their cleavage," said Hough.

"Liszt had a very dynamic personality. He was someone who seduced people ― not just in a sexual way, but in a dramatic way. He was someone who, like a great speaker, was able to capture an audience."

Innovative composer

Hough is among many pianists who have been captured by Liszt throughout their careers. His compositions are indispensable in the piano repertoire. His B-minor sonata, for example, is one of the greatest compositions ever written for solo piano.

Unlike Chopin, who composed almost solely for the instrument except one cello sonata, Liszt was more innovative and comprehensive in his approach.

He is the inventor of the "symphonic poem," a piece of music based on a dramatic play or historical event. He is also famous for his transcriptions.

Liszt explored the infinite sonic possibilities of the piano in transcribing monumental works like Beethoven's nine symphonies and Berlioz' s “Symphonie Fantastique.”

Liszt inherited spiritually from Beethoven the idea of a piano as an orchestra, not so much as just an instrument for piano music, but one that evokes and emulates a whole orchestra, according to U.S. Liszt expert and pianist Garrick Ohlsson.

His legacy as a composer has influenced many others, including Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saens, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin.