| Is there a way to definitively say someone is the | | | | performers." Just to show the audience what he |
| "greatest pianist ever," especially when the person in | | | | meant, he followed an orchestral version of a Berlioz |
| question lived long before recorded music? One of | | | | piece with his own solo arrangement. On a lone piano |
| the contenders for the title is a gentleman by the | | | | he made the piece more powerful than the entire |
| name of Franz Liszt. His peers were awed at his skill | | | | orchestra. |
| and proclaimed his playing to be the pinnacle of | | | | In 1933 Liszt made an impression on Countess Marie |
| instrumental prowess. European audiences bowed | | | | D'Agoult, who left her husband and children to join his |
| before him; women fawned over him; and fellow | | | | side. The couple lived in Switzerland and Italy for four |
| musicians aspired to be like him. Liszt was a master | | | | years. He still gave performances, one of which is |
| of the piano. | | | | particularly noteworthy. The pianist Sigismond |
| Born in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1811, Liszt was | | | | Thalberg had become very popular, and the two |
| exposed to music at an early age. His father was an | | | | gave a dueling piano concert. While Liszt hadn't been |
| aspiring musician who played piano, violin and guitar | | | | playing as often as Thalberg, he was more than |
| and was personally acquainted with Beethoven. As a | | | | ready to match his skill. Before a stunned audience, |
| young child, Liszt would watch his father playing | | | | each pianist transcended the ordinary confines of the |
| piano. He was interested in both sacred and gypsy | | | | instrument, both technically and emotionally. Both |
| music, which greatly influenced his later playing. | | | | were proclaimed victors by the assembled guests. |
| At age 11 he studied in Vienna and met both | | | | Though he constantly toured and composed his own |
| Schumann and Beethoven. Moving to Paris as a | | | | pieces to rapturous reviews, he wanted to be |
| teenager, he was surrounded by virtuosos. The great | | | | recognized as a composer rather than a performer. |
| violinist Paganini, who so accomplished that he was | | | | He quit touring at age 36 in order to concentrate on |
| accused of being in league with the devil, sparked | | | | his pieces. Liszt conducted orchestras and gave away |
| Liszt's imagination. If someone could perform that | | | | free piano lessons. Later in his life he took holy |
| well on the violin, he thought, why couldn't a virtuoso | | | | orders, which was a definite contrast to his earlier life |
| do the same with the piano. He quit playing concerts | | | | as a notorious playboy. He continued to compose |
| for a few years in order to devote himself to | | | | experimental piano pieces until his death in 1886. |
| practice. Having already become wildly successful as a | | | | Throughout both his concert and composing careers, |
| live performer, this move stunned the public. | | | | Liszt pushed the envelope of the piano. His work |
| After moving back into the public eye, Liszt showed | | | | stretched the definitions of both acceptability and |
| his new mastery of the instrument. He wrote that | | | | accessibility. Since his life, piano playing has never |
| "ten fingers have the power to reproduce the | | | | been the same. |
| harmonies which are created by hundreds of | | | | |