Life of Franz Liszt - Early Life

Early Life

Every attempt to describe Liszt's development during his childhood and early youth has met with the difficulties of terribly sparse information. It had been Adam Liszt's own dream to become a musician. He played piano, violin, cello, and guitar, was in the services of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy and knew Joseph Haydn, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Ludwig van Beethoven personally. Franz Liszt, as a mature artist, frequently said himself that the most important musical impressions of his childhood had been the playing of Gypsy artists. However, the actual repertoire that he studied as a boy at the piano was different. According to Adam Liszt's letter to Prince Esterházy of April 13, 1820, he had bought 1,100 "Bogen", i.e. 8,800 pages, of music of the best masters. During the previous 22 months, his son already had worked through the complete works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Clementi, Hummel, Cramer, and further composers besides.

In October 1820, at the old casino of Ödenburg, he took part in a concert of the violinist (alleged) Baron von Praun, who was a child prodigy himself. In the second part of the concert, Liszt played a concerto in E flat major by Ferdinand Ries with much success and an improvisation of his own.Ferenc Liszt p. 81. Playing a concerto usually meant playing only the first movement. In November 1820 Adam Liszt took up an even better opportunity to present his son's playing to the public. In Pressburg, the Diet met for the first time after a break of 13 years. On November 26, at Count Michael Esterházy's palace in Pressburg, Liszt performed for an audience of aristocrats and members of the society. A group of magnates undertook to pay Liszt an annual sum of 600 Austro-Hungarian Gulden for six years so that he could study abroad.

In Vienna, Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been Beethoven's student. Czerny, according to his "Lebenserinnerungen" (Memoires), was struck by the boy's talent but found that the boy had no knowledge of proper fingerings and that his playing style was very chaotic. Since July 1822, Liszt was also studying composition with Antonio Salieri. According to Salieri's letter to Prince Esterházy of August 25, 1822, he had until then introduced his pupil to some elements of music theory. Earnest lessons in composition were to follow later. As the child prodigy's admirers soon began idolizing him as a new Mozart or Beethoven, Salieri had his work cut out for him. Allusions to this problem can be found in Schilling's Franz Liszt.

Very soon Liszt was heard in private circles. His public debut in Vienna was on December 1, 1822, at a concert at the Landständischer Saal. Liszt played Hummel's Concerto in A minor as well as an improvisation on an air from Rossini's opera Zelmira and the Allegretto of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. On April 13, 1823, he gave a famous concert at the Kleiner Redoutensaal. This time he played Hummel's Concerto in B minor, variations by Moscheles, and an own improvisation. According to legend, he impressed Beethoven, although deaf, to such an extent that he congratulated Liszt on the stage, kissing him on the forehead and giving him enthusiastic praise. According to Schilling's account, authorized by Liszt, during the concert the boy had had the impression that Beethoven was looking at him from a distance but did not address him, let alone kiss him.

In spring 1823, when the one year's leave of absence came to an end, Adam Liszt asked Prince Esterházy in vain for two more years. Adam Liszt therefore took his leave of the Prince's services. At the end of April 1823, the family for the last time returned to Hungary. At the end of May 1823, the family returned to Vienna.