Liszt app for iPhone and iPad

In 2011 the musical world celebrates the bicentenary of Franz Liszt (1811-1886), one of the greatest figures of Western music history. He was a multi-faceted genius: piano virtuoso, composer, conductor, music teacher, author and philanthropist. He was born in Hungary and could be considered as the first real Pan-European artist. Liszt became artist in Paris, deepened his art in Italy, as a concert pianist he traveled all over Europe, worked as court conductor in Weimar and had close ties to his homeland throughout his life. Though he did not speak the language, he considered himself Hungarian. As he famously put it: “Je suis Hongrois”.

The application gives an insight into this miraculous life by means of more then 70 historical pictures, offered partly by the Liszt Museum and Research Center Budapest. Liszt’s activity is sorted in seven chapters: 1. Youth 2. Paris 3. The Wandering Years 4. Pest 5. The Virtuoso 6. Weimar 7. Róma 8. Budapest 9. The last year. The pictures and the captions reveal Liszt the man, who was at the same time a deeply religious thinker and a worldly piano star; Liszt the virtuoso, who invented the piano recital and revolutionized concert life in Europe; Liszt the artist, who safeguarded tradition as a performer and created the music of the future as a composer. The pictures evoke the atmosphere of 19th century Paris and Budapest and they also show those persons who played a decisive role in Liszt’s life: famous figures of 19th century music, literature and politics.