It’s fun to debate with your friends. Who is the greatest singer, guitar player or drummer EVER?
For those of us who love the piano beyond all other instruments, there’s a pretty clear winner- a guy name Franz Liszt {1811-1886}. What did his peers say about him?
Liszt was Beatle-mania on steroids. Having experienced the mighty Liszt, a musician at an echelon above all others, the press wrote the audience was “Lisztified.”
Pianist Oscar Beringer
Words cannot describe him as a pianist. He was incomparable and unapproachable.
I saw him walking down Regent street in London one day in 1886 on his way to a concert he was playing in St James Hall. He passed a cab rank and was recognized. The cabbies took off their hats and gave three rousing cheers. The man who can evoke the enthusiasm of a London cabby, except by paying him treble his fare, is indeed unique and inimitable!
Musical World Review
We walk through this world in the midst of so many wonders that our senses become indifferent to the most amazing things: light and life, the ocean, the forest, the voice and flight of the pygmy lark, are unheeded commonplace: and it is only when some comet, some giant, some tiger-tamer, some new Niagara, some winged being… appears that our obdurate faculties are aroused into the consciousness that miracles do exist.
Of the Miracle genius is Liszt, the Polyphemus of the piano- the Aurora Borealis of musical effulgence- the Niagara of thundering harmonies! His rapidity of execution, his power, his delicacy, his Briareushanded chords, and the extraordinary volume of sound he wrests from the instrument, are each and all philosophies in their way that might well puzzle all but a philosopher to unriddle and explain.
Composer Pianist Robert Schumann
I have never found any artist except Paganini to possess in so high a degree as Liszt the power of subjecting, elevating and leading the public.
Pianist Composer Clara Schumann
Liszt played at sight what we toil over and in the end get nowhere with.
Composer Pianist Edward Grieg
Liszt sight read the manuscript for the first violin sonata. He was literally all over the piano at once without missing a note! Oh how he played! With grandeur, beauty, genius, unique comprehension. I laughed- laughed like a child.
On the newly written piano concerto, I admitted I could not yet play it. Liszt took the manuscript, went to the piano and said to the assembled guests with his characteristic smile, “Very well then, I will show you that I also cannot.” Of course he managed the task with ease- he played the cadenza, the most difficult part, the best off all- conversing with and making comments to the guests as he played.
Pianist Alexander Siloti
(Liszt student on Liszt playing LVB’s Moonlight Sonata)
Liszt began to play and I held my breath as I listened. He had only played the opening triplets, however, when I felt as if the room no longer held me, and when, after the first four bars, the G-sharp came in the right hand I was completely carried away. I now understood what Anton Rubinstein meant by calling himself a common soldier and Liszt a general, and how true this estimate was.
In the course of my life I have come across many charming personalities among musicians, but never- either before or since- have I seen anyone as impressive as Liszt. You had only to say good morning to him to know, instantly and instinctively, that there was something majestic, god-like in him- to feel that he was a great all embracing spirit. Which of us will be remembered in the same terms?
German Poet Heinrich Heine
He is a man of whimsical but noble character, unselfish and without deceit. Has there ever been a musician more generous with his time and money? Liszt, in his short years as a virtuoso let more gold slip through his fingers than poor Wagner ever saw in the whole of his lifetime. He never charged for a lesson and after retiring in 1847 earned virtually nothing. Latterly, his income was reduced to about $100 a year from the publication of his music.
Composer Hector Berlioz
(On Liszt playing the Moonlight sonata)
It was the shade of Beethoven, conjured up by the virtuoso to whose voice we were listening. We all trembled in silence, and when the last chord had sounded, no one spoke- we were in tears.
Author Hans Christian Andersen
An electric shock thrilled the hall as Liszt entered! The ladies rose. A sunbeam flashed across each face as though every eye were seeing a dear, beloved friend. I stood quite close to the artist. He is a slight young man. Long, dark hair surrounded the pale face. He bowed and seated himself at the piano. Liszt’s whole appearance and his mobility immediately indicate one of those personalities towards which one is attracted solely by their individuality.