The name Franz Liszt, in an age fueled by mass media outflow and great musical accessibility, still evokes a sense of wonder in the modern musician. The digital era has often led people to view Liszt in a light that no one could have even imagined during his life in the nineteenth century. And yet, whether for good or bad, the Hungarian virtuoso continues to be relevant, against all odds, even with facing the inevitable consumer of fame and significance: time.
Although Liszt’s continued pertinence in a society that has long moved away from classical music as the primary expression of entertainment is, by all means, beneficial for the survival of an age-old art form, it is not sufficient. Undoubtedly, the media, particularly with the rise of video content creators seeking public attention, has led to Liszt’s name being directly tied to pretension and meaningless displays of technical ability. Franz Liszt’s music for the piano is indeed some of the most challenging in the repertoire, but this has led to a selfish obsession with showing off that the mature Liszt would strongly disapprove of. Consequently, it is of the highest importance that this erroneous view is corrected. Much of Liszt’s output is completely forgotten today, but in all of his work there is a logic to every note written. Even in his youth, Liszt’s virtuosic displays have a musical purpose far greater than what we are led to believe today. In this text, we hope to explain why we hold Liszt so highly, and why he really was much greater than the one-dimensional caricature he is seen as today.
The Importance of Virtuosity
The musical world is divided on the topic of virtuosity. Many believe it is necessary, but fail to understand what virtuosity is beyond wiggling your fingers quickly across the keys. Others say it is of no importance, and that musical feeling is more important. The reality is that virtuosity is not the death of musicality, but a building block of it. Technical capability is just one facet of a well-rounded virtuoso; Deep understanding of musical structure and the ability to express emotion in performance both fall under this concept.
To start, virtuosity plays a pivotal role in the development of music. The technical breakthroughs made by Liszt and other composers of the time cannot be understated. These innovations led to not just more difficult and complicated music, but also improvements in the mechanism of the piano itself. One can compare this musical innovation to athletic events: in 1902, Olympian Frederick Lane of Australia broke a world record, swimming a 200-meter freestyle in 2 minutes and 25 seconds. The current record as of 2025 for the 200-meter men’s freestyle is 1 minute and 38 seconds by Luke Hobson, an astounding 33% faster. The same trend applies to many other sports, such as track and field and golf. The dramatic improvement in world records for sports can only be explained by the innovation within training regimens, health and dieting, and even accessibility to top-level equipment, as the sport garners more attention and equipment companies acquire sufficient monetary incentive to manufacture that equipment. Humans, as a facet of their curious nature, are always attempting to go beyond the limits of what seems possible. This includes both athletic records, like Luke Hobson, and pianistic difficulties, like Franz Liszt. It is all to say that the world of music can only move forward by innovation, of which virtuosity is essential. Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, which were considered technically demanding and virtuosic at the time and still are in many ways, pushed the boundaries of what it meant to be a pianist. Liszt continued this tradition through his music, especially in works like the Transcendental Etudes and Hungarian Rhapsodies. One of Liszt’s greatest “musical descendants” was Ferruccio Busoni, who once again challenged the idea of what was possible on the keyboard with his mighty Op. 39 piano concerto. This giant piece is still considered one of the most difficult works ever written for piano and orchestra. Shortly after, Charles Ives firmly showcased the new era of American transcendentalist music with his second “Concord” Sonata, a piece written “with no regard for pianistic difficulty whatsoever,” as described by esteemed concert pianist Marc-André Hamelin.
Virtuosity however is not limited to technical ability alone. It also includes the ability to express emotion and convey musical structure through performance. Liszt of course was a master at this, often linking poetry and other art forms to his music. Almost every account of his playing describes his musical ability more than his fast fingers. This starts to reveal the true heart of virtuosity: the unrestricted capability to produce music.
Why does Liszt Matter?
Naturally, virtuosity is a crucial component of Liszt’s relevance within the piano realm. His music presents not just the obvious technical problems, but also musical ones. Many of his works have complex structures that demand careful thought and attention, while actually making the music speak and breathe is a completely different challenge. However, Liszt’s importance really lies in his breakthroughs in pianistic technique and composition.
The sheer diversity of music within Liszt’s compositional repertoire is absolutely astounding and cannot be found in any other composer. His pieces from the Années de Pèlerinage are written on a small scale but are deeply entrenched in personal experiences and connections to literature. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron for example, inspired the entire Première Année: Suisse album. Harmonies poétiques et religieuses and Glanes de Woronince are two other often-neglected sets of pieces that are essentially devoid of showiness but do not skimp on musical ideas or emotional value. Liszt’s symphonic poems are another textbook example of program music based on literary works. These pieces each last only about 10-20 minutes, yet demonstrate the full capabilities of the orchestra. They also showcase Liszt’s skilled use of thematic transformation to create a complete musical narrative that spiritually captures the source material in its entirety.
Building on his musical diversity, Liszt’s cultural diversity and background also contribute to his importance. Liszt was born in Hungary, yet spent much of his youth touring extensively across Europe. Liszt was one of the first touring virtuosos after Paganini. His concerts would arouse excitement and craze, dubbed by Heinrich Heine as “Lisztomania.” These experiences sometimes allowed Liszt to compose music based on various locations and cultures. The extensive catalog of Liszt’s music continues seemingly without an end, and the endless variety that can be found shows his incredible creativity and genius.
His Impact
Liszt was a well-known figure of the early to mid-nineteenth century, but his fame and impact endured well beyond his touring years. A notable example is Wagner, who directly worked with Liszt to lead “The New German School”, a Romantic style of music that emphasized progressiveness and German musical influences. With Liszt, Wagner would champion more modern and experimental forms of symphonic works, delving into styles that would later evolve into twentieth-century modern music. Even composers who lived beyond Liszt’s lifetime would study his style of pianism, particularly Sergei Rachmaninoff, who, in fact, could trace a direct pedagogical lineage to Franz Liszt. Liszt’s impact was felt across the entire musical community, branching even to those who held drastically differing views, such as the musically conservative Johannes Brahms. The Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni would become one of the great advocates for Liszt, highlighting the importance of his ideas during an era of widespread impressionism. Busoni would also go through his own technical-rebuilding similar to Liszt’s, which really goes to show how important Liszt’s approach to the keyboard was.
A fascinating and often neglected approach to studying Liszt lies in his social and political life. Since he was once a touring performer whose income was primarily derived from public performances, Liszt was deeply involved in the complexities of both the lower classes and high society. His status in Paris can be likened to that of a modern celebrity; the press and music review journals went wild over his music, performances, and even his scandals. A large percentage of material about Liszt lies in the the form of press reviews and writings from the time. Every story about Liszt helped widen his influence, whether it was his fundraising for a new Beethoven statue in Bonn or the controversy surrounding Liszt’s first mistress, Marie d’Agoult.
Liszt also advocated for the idea that the artist was more important than royalty. Historically, artists always served people of high social class. However, during the Romantic era, the artist-above-royalty concept was popularized alongside the belief that artists were divinely gifted. Such a concept was exacerbated by the fact that music was no longer solely for the private entertainment of high society, but rather an art form accessible to a larger part of the population. The rich no longer financially sustained the musicians; everyone did.
The rich theory and diversity within the music itself were one stepping stone for Liszt. Another stepping stone lay in the practical innovations Liszt had brought to the musical world. In particular, Liszt truly moved the piano from an accompanying instrument to a solo concert instrument. The predecessor of the piano, the harpsichord, was viewed as an instrument inferior to the more popular violin and pipe organ. In cases where the harpsichord was used as a solo instrument, it was used only for small private performances, rather than in grand concert settings. This remained true for a significant portion of time when the harpsichord evolved into the fortepiano and then the modern piano. Liszt, by pushing forward harmonies, notes, and complex rhythms, elevated the piano to a solo concert instrument, thereby increasing its popularity. Indirectly, Liszt also contributed to the development of the modern piano by endorsing the Erard model piano. This instrument differed significantly from many of its contemporaries in that it allowed for a greater dynamic range and more precise note playing through double escapement action. Liszt also helped normalize the use of the damper pedal as a means to “wetten” and bring further texture to the music.
It’s surprising to hear that many musicians are unaware that Liszt essentially invented both the piano recital as a means of performance and the masterclass as a means of musical education. The piano recital originated from Liszt’s frequent touring, during which he often played his own compositions and performed solo. The primary difference between a recital and a concert is that the former highlights the performer, and Liszt was undoubtedly the highlight of his performances. Liszt also developed the masterclass later in his life during a time when he stopped touring and performing. During this period, when he stayed as a piano educator in Weimar, Germany, Liszt pioneered the masterclass as a hands-on approach to pedagogy. Masterclasses were also designed to be efficient, tackling and correcting specific problems in a relatively short amount of time. Many accounts describe his approach to this, where his students would lay their music on a desk and the composer would pick what he wanted to hear.
Liszt the Romantic
Liszt’s symphonic poems, such as Orpheus and Prometheus, build upon the existing popular programmatic form of music. Popular in the Romantic Age, programmatic music stands as a direct contrast to absolute music, an approach to music that was popular in the Baroque era. Absolute music is the composition of music for art’s sake, while program music is always based upon some existing idea or work. In the case of most romantic musicians, that work would be one of literary value. Take, for example, Alphonse de Lamartine or Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whose Harmonies Poétiques et religieuses and Faust, respectively, would influence Liszt’s compositions of the same names. Literature isn’t the only form of art Liszt based his music upon: the Hungarian Rhapsodies were based on Hungarian folk themes, “Romancero Espagnol” (and also the “Spanish Fantasy” and “Spanish Rhapsody”) took inspiration of Iberian dances like the Jota Aragonesa and Fandango, and all versions of “Totentanz” were inspired by the fresco “The Triumph of Death” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the medieval chant “Dies Irae”. Especially in his late life, Liszt became enamoured with religion and Catholicism, and his sacred choral and organ works signify his emotional turmoil.
Liszt was an ideal romantic, and that is why he remains essential throughout the 21st century. Although one could argue that his colleagues (Chopin, Berlioz, Schumann) are equally successful in their persistence over time, it was how Liszt approached music and how he viewed life that made him unique and special.