mikrokosmos: Top 25 Favorite Composers No.7: Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 - 31 July 1886) With the R
mikrokosmos: Top 25 Favorite Composers No.7: Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 - 31 July 1886) With the Romantic era came the rise of the virtuoso performers, touring musicians throughout Europe who amazed concert goers with their incredible technique. Liszt was one of these pianist-composers whose abilities brought on cheering audiences and swooning women. Sure the young Liszt marveled at the fame of this bygone era, but as he aged and matured into a more serious composer he became less interested in technical flair for the sake of the show, instead falling in love with the dramatic, poetic, and constructive aspects of music. He used music as a stage for stories, as a canvas with detailed brushstrokes, as spiritual and introverted reflection. The trajectory of his life was wild; touring and performing and sleeping around, to composer/writer, and joining the Church as a cleric toward the end. This direction shows a man getting quieter and more inward, seeking some universal truth. My favorite pieces by him are the Sonata in b minor, the second Ballade, the bleak Funerailles, his spiraling Variations on a theme by J.S.Bach, the late piano works La Lugubre Gondola and Nuages Gris, and his giant suite, the three Years of Pilgrimage -- source link