No nineteenth-century composer had more diverse ties to his contemporary
world than Franz Liszt (1811-1886). At various points in his life he
made his home in Vienna, Paris, Weimar, Rome, and Budapest. In his roles
as keyboard virtuoso, conductor, master teacher, and abbé, he reinvented
the concert experience, advanced a progressive agenda for symphonic and
dramatic music, rethought the possibilities of church music and the
oratorio, and transmitted the foundations of modern pianism.
The essays brought together in Franz Liszt and His World advance our
understanding of the composer with fresh perspectives and an emphasis on
historical contexts. Rainer Kleinertz examines Wagner's enthusiasm for
Liszt's symphonic poem Orpheus; Christopher Gibbs discusses Liszt's
pathbreaking Viennese concerts of 1838; Dana Gooley assesses Liszt
against the backdrop of antivirtuosity polemics; Ryan Minor investigates
two cantatas written in honor of Beethoven; Anna Celenza offers new
insights about Liszt's experience of Italy; Susan Youens shows how
Liszt's songs engage with the modernity of Heinrich Heine's poems; James
Deaville looks at how publishers sustained Liszt's popularity; and Leon
Botstein explores Liszt's role in the transformation of
nineteenth-century preoccupations regarding religion, the nation, and
art.
Franz Liszt and His World also includes key biographical and critical
documents from Liszt's lifetime, which open new windows on how Liszt was
viewed by his contemporaries and how he wished to be viewed by
posterity. Introductions to and commentaries on these documents are
provided by Peter Bloom, José Bowen, James Deaville, Allan Keiler,
Rainer Kleinertz, Ralph Locke, Rena Charnin Mueller, and Benjamin
Walton.
