Franz Liszt
Composer of the Week is broadcast on Radio 3 at 12pm, Monday to Friday. Programmes in May are:
3-7 May Satie
10-14 May Robert Schumann 17-21 May Fauré
24-28 May Mary Lou Williams
‘Thalberg is the first pianist in the world; Liszt the only one’. Sometimes ‘only’ is replaced by ‘unique’. Either way, when in 1837 Princess Cristina Belgiojoso-Trivulzio gave her evasive verdict on a pianistic ‘duel’, the culmination of a rivalry which had gripped Paris for 18 months, she seemed to imply something ‘other’ about the 25-year-old Franz Liszt.
Gaining a reliable picture of Liszt has become a minefield, where much isn’t what it seems
Posterity has happily bought into a superstar myth that has Liszt springing fully armed from the head of Zeus to vanquish poor Sigismond Thalberg, upholder of a virtuoso doomed to eclipse. In reality, Thalberg was the younger man by a few months, the pianistic honours were
