Liszt, Franz - 1811—86—was an Hungarian-born pianist and composer. Liszt was the founder of the solo piano recital and possibly the greatest pianist of all time.

Born on October 22, 1811, in the village of Raiding, near Sopron, Liszt studied the piano first with his father, then with the Austrian pianist Carl and Antonio Salieri. Liszt traveled throughout the Old World from Lisbon to Moscow and from Dublin to Ýstanbul from 1839 to 1847. However, in 1847, he all but stopped playing in. A year later, he was the musical director at the grand ducal court at Weimar from 1848 to 1861 where he gave performances. Departing from Weimar in 1861, Liszt resided chiefly in Rome for about 10 years. There, he studied theology and became a secular cleric. After 1871, he continued to conduct, teach, and compose and to endorse the music of Wagner.

For his use of complex, chromatic chords and technique of thematic transformation (leitmotiv), Liszt is considered to be one of the 19th century's harmonic innovators. His well-known works for the piano include the Sonata in B Minor (1853), the 12 Transcendental Etudes (1851), the 20 Hungarian Rhapsodies (1846-1885), Six Paganini Etudes (1851), Concerto No. 1, in E-Flat (1849), Concerto No. 2, in A-Major (1848), and the character pieces making up the three-volume Years of Pilgrimage (1855, 1858, 1877). Liszt died in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 31, 1886, during the Wagner Festival.

“Liszt.” Encarta Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Seattle: Microsoft, 2001.

“Liszt.” Yahoo! Encyclopedia. January 2004. http://education.yahoo.com/referenc.../entry?id=11580