Liszt, Franz Books

Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years, 1811-1847, Vol. 1 (Franz Liszt)

Alan Walker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

10 stars for this phenomenal achievement 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is simply the standard of Liszt biography. The fact that Alan Walker researched enough to fill three volumes is an achievement enough, but you know what else makes this biography so good? It's fun to read. Without a doubt, anyone interested in Liszt will find anecdotes, insights, illuminated facts, and even musical analysis of the most colorful and exciting character in classical music: Franz Liszt.

I've read this book twice, actually, and the second time was even more enjoyable. This owes to many things: Alan Walker's superb writing style, eloquent organization (gives the pedantics many footnotes to absorb at the bottom of the page) and a fine cohesion of thoughts and ideas put into each chapter. Sometimes I can't help but enjoy the biography as I would a novel. Yet Walker does not write it like a novel and clearly sets out to chronicle Liszt's life from his youth all the way to his retiring from the concert stage. In between these pivotal times, Walker manages to debunk myths, explore Liszt's underrated music from his virtuoso days, and examine other characters who interacted with the Hungarian composer. Walker is always focused on Liszt but never detracts by discussing Clara and Robert Schumann's reactions, or Sigismond Thalberg, Chopin and even Alkan. Walker depicts their perspective of Liszt and goes on to explain why there were so many misunderstandings.

Stories of Liszt's true meeting with Beethoven, his exciting romance with Marie D'Agoult, the duel with Thalberg, his generous nature to play for charity, and so many enticing stories of his concert days all help to shed light on what a remarkable man Liszt was, and at such a young age, too. The whole book is an exquisite panorama of Liszt's character, detailed through his letters, his travels, his music, and his legacy as researched by the author. What Walker has done is set the standard for the way Liszt should be viewed in the history books. For so long, musicologists were almost feeding us false information. From the really low ones we were even getting propaganda that he was a womanizer, a cheat, some kind of vulgar pianist, and even a fraud. Walker candidly mauls those old and incorrect views into the dust; he explores and accurately dispels the myths and ignorance that so many people harbored and still harbor for him, and for that I feel thankful.

Never have I read a biography twice like this and found the second reading even more engrossing. There is never a dull moment, never a chapter that slows down. To be fair, the only chapter that was uninteresting was the prologue and biographical information of Liszt's family. Despite that, once you're absorbed into Liszt's young world with Czerny, his move to Paris, and his tours all over Europe, it's like being on a rollercoaster ride during the whole book.

Bottom line: Liszt lovers must read this book; it's the best wealth of knowledge to get on the young Franz Liszt and it is written in a way that doesn't just educate, but also entertains. Highly recommended.

Franz Liszt, Vol. 2: The Weimar Years, 1848-1861

Alan Walker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fantastic Source about a Fantastic Man. 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

I have been a great fan of Franz Liszt for quite some time, and Alan Walker brought the composer to life in his trilogy of books about the famed musician.

This volume goes into great detail about Liszt's life after he decided to end his life as a virtuoso, and become a composer. His love for Princess Carolyne became apparent in his music, and in his interactions with others.

While it is not as descriptive as I would have liked regarding Liszt's symphonic poems, my favorites among his many works, i still felt that this volume is well worth every penny I spent on it. Definitely a worthy buy for anyone interested in music and what makes up a composer.

Attention all Lisztians 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

If you are a Lisztomaniac, this is for you. It is a book that is very difficult to put down. Liszt's life reads better than a novel, and Walker's narrative flows superbly. He has investigated every biographical avenue and brings the Weimar of the 1800's to life.

On the negative side: There are copious footnotes, which often stray off the subject, whilst others belong to the main text from which they divert. As the book is meant to be a work of scholarship, the amount of opinion and speculation which peppers the book is also rather annoying. One has to be very cautious in separating Walker's own views from the first-class academic research that he has done.

Nonetheless as this book covers the most prolific period of the composer's life, you can do no better than read Walker's account to dicover just who Liszt was, his importance to musical history and the enigma of the man himself.

New Light on Liszt and His Music: Essays in Honor of Alan Walker's 65th Birthday (Franz Liszt Studies Series)

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Liszt and His World: Proceedings of the International Liszt Conference Held at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 20-23 May 1993 (Franz Liszt Studies Series)

International Liszt Conference

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Liszt and the Birth of Modern Europe: Music As a Mirror of Religious, Political, Cultural, and Aesthetic Transformations (Franz Liszt Studies Series)

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Reflections On Liszt

Alan Walker

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Liszt was first presented to Beethoven by his teacher Carl Czerny, while he was a boy of eleven. . . . At the end of the meeting, Beethoven bestowed the famous ‘kiss of consecration’ on the boy’s forehead, which Liszt thereafter regarded as a benediction on his career. In later life, he often spoke of this meeting, the memory of which was a powerful stimulus to the further study and performance of Beethoven’s music."—from Chapter Two

In a series of lively essays that tell us much not only about the phenomenon that was Franz Liszt, but also about the musical and cultural life of nineteenth-century Europe, Alan Walker muses on aspects of Liszt’s life and work that he was unable to explore in his acclaimed three-volume biography of the great composer and pianist. Topics include Liszt’s contributions to the Lied, the lifelong impact of his encounter with Beethoven, his influence on students who became famous in their own right, his accomplishments in transcribing and editing the works of other composers, and his innovative piano technique. One chapter is devoted to the Sonata in B Minor, perhaps Liszt’s single most celebrated composition.

Walker draws heavily on Liszt’s astonishingly large personal correspondence with other composers, critics, pianists, and prominent public figures. All the essays reveal Walker’s broad and deep knowledge of Liszt and Romantic music generally and, in some cases, his impatience with contemporary performance practice.

Liszt: Sonata in B Minor (Cambridge Music Handbooks)

Kenneth Hamilton

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Editorial Review:

Liszt's B minor Sonata is now regarded as his finest work for piano, and one of the pinnacles of Romantic piano music. This book, written by a pianist who has performed the Sonata extensively, includes a survey of Liszt's early attempts at sonata composition and clears away some of the persisent myths regarding program music in Liszt's output. The central chapters, built around an analysis of the B minor Sonata, discuss various interpretative approaches, while the concluding chapter treats the performance practice and performing history of the work. This is the first book to elucidate this ground-breaking piece for the general reader.

Liszt in Germany 1840-1845: A Study in Sources, Documents, and the History of Reception (Franz Liszt Studies, No 2)

Michael Saffle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Must read for concert pianists. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book completely examines the Lizstomania period in Germany. It documents 300 performances, in chronological order, with repertoire performed. Very user-friendly, it is indispensable to all concert performers interested in Liszt's early music. Much more than a reference book, it offers valuable insight into the performer and the musical climate he encouraged

The Symphonic Poems of Franz Liszt (Franz Liszt Studies Series)

Keith T. Johns, Michael Saffle

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Franz Liszt, Vol. 3: The Final Years, 1861-1886

Alan Walker

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"You can't help but keep turning the pages, wondering how it will all turn out: and Walker's accumulated readings of Liszt's music have to be taken seriously indeed."--D. Kern Holoman, New York Review of Books "A conscientious scholar passionate about his subject. Mr. Walker makes the man and his age come to life. These three volumes will be the definitive work to which all subsequent Liszt biographies will aspire." --Harold C. Schonberg, Wall Street Journal

"What distinguishes Walker from Liszt's dozens of earlier biographers is that he is equally strong on the music and the life. A formidable musicologist with a lively polemical style, he discusses the composer's works with greater understanding and clarity than any previous biographer. And whereas many have recycled the same erroneous, often damaging information, Walker has relied on his own prodigious, globe-trotting research, a project spanning twenty-five years. The result is a textured portrait of Liszt and his times without rival." --Elliot Ravetz, Time

"The prose is so lively that the reader is often swept along by the narrative. . . . This three-part work . . . is now the definitive work on Liszt in English and belongs in all music collections."--Library Journal