Franz Liszt

t-to mention only the first at hand-fluttered to Rome and ascribe to it much of their finer productivity. For Franz Liszt it

igations which are occupied with the solution of all great questions of heaven and earth. For long he was an ardent upholder of the beautiful Saint-Simonian idea of the world. Later the spiritualistic or rather vaporous thoughts of Ballanche enveloped him in their midst; now h

ny Lewald, W. Allmers, Cardinal Wiseman, Jul. Schnorr von Carolsfe

urroundings, making it as unsafe as an English highway during the glorious but rather frisky times of Jonathan Wild and his agile confrères. So, for instance, Massocia and his band kidnapped the pupils of the seminary in Albano, and when the demanded ransom was not forthcoming defiantly strung up these innocen

Holy Family was condemned because the feet of the Madonna in it were too bare; Thorwaldsen's Day and Night was offensive in its nudeness; Rap

cini, Paisiello, Cimarosa, Sacchini, Anfossi, Sarti, Righini, Paer

ed either gesture or word not provided for in the prompt-book he was sent to the galleys for five years; the carrying of weapons in places of amusement was punishable with life senten

s Marie

this circle, and the impressionable young man of twenty-three was as so much wax in the hands of this sensation-mongering woman six years his senior. Against Liszt's wishes she had followed him to Berne, and there is plenty of evidence at hand that he as

entertained by George Sand, which they forsook for Lake Como, some flying trips to Milan and eventually Venice. It happened to be the year of the Danube flood-1837-and the call for help

; but he excused his appearances on the concert platforms in t

uaintance of the principal Italian cities and really could hope for no benefiting influence from these flighty stops. But there was anot

that the Romans did what ever so many had done before them-threw wide their doors to the artist Liszt. Thus encouraged he dared give serious recitals in face of all the Roman musical flippancy. He defied public taste and cravin

lliam Tell, perfo

s of Puritani, composed and

ents, composed and p

given theme-still by

one who ventured an evening of piano compositions without fearing the disgust of an audience. F

ing it with the treasures which were being unearthed in the old cities of Etruria. The same pope also enlarged the Vatican library and took active interest in the mural decorations of these newly added ten rooms. The painters Overbeck, Corneliu

ong Rome's art treasures. Himself a music lover and a musician-he played the violin in the theatre orchestra of his native place, Montauban, at some performances of Gluck's operas-Ingres admired Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and above all Gluck, upon whom he looked as the musical successor to ?schy

nse Macabre-after Andrea Orcagna. That Liszt was susceptible to such impressions, even before, is proven by his essay Die Heilige C?celia by Raphael, written earlier than this Roman trip; but under Ingres' hints his width of vision was extended, and he began to find

m. Segnitz quotes against this attitude the one of Berlioz, whom the ruins of Rome touched slightly, as did Palestrina's chu

rst visit ordered themselves gradually, but the composite whole deflected his life's currents into the one steady and broad stream of art. Like Goethe, he might have regarded hi

of the same year he parted company with Italy-and also with the countess. The D'Agoult had romantic ideas of their union, in which the inevitable responsibilities of this sort of thing played no part. Segnitz regards the entire affair as having

Liszt's intervention, a complete reconciliation with her family was effected. Although after th

across Europe. This period was an important one for development of piano playing, placing the latter on a much higher artistic plane than it had been; in it Liszt als

omatic Galop and the pieces Sposalizio, Il Penseroso and Tre Sonetti di Petrarca, which became part of the Années de Pèlerinage (Italie). His first song, with piano accompaniment, Angiolin dal biondo crin, dates from these days. The balance of