Franz Liszt
Biography
Franz Liszt, the most celebrated pianist of the nineteenth century, made Weimar the musical capital of the decades after Goethe. He came as Hofkapellmeister in 1848, gave the town the world premiere of Wagner's Lohengrin, wrote the symphonic poems, the Faust and Dante symphonies and the B minor sonata at the Altenburg, and after Rome and the minor orders came back every summer from 1869 to 1886 to teach the pianists of Europe in the court gardener's house at the edge of the park. That house is the Liszt-Haus, with his music room and his Bechstein grand.
From Raiding to Paris, 1811–1847
He was born on 22 October 1811 in Raiding near Ödenburg, in what is now the Austrian Burgenland. The family moved to Vienna in 1822, where the boy studied the piano with Carl Czerny and composition with Antonio Salieri, and then to Paris. The virtuoso years that followed carried him across Europe; after his contest with Sigismond Thalberg in 1837 nobody disputed that he was the first pianist of the age. In 1847 he met Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein in Kiev; he became her champion and brought her under the protection of the Weimar grand duchess Maria Pawlowna.
Hofkapellmeister at the Altenburg, 1848–1861
Grand Duke Carl Friedrich had signed the decree naming the virtuoso Dr Franz Liszt Kapellmeister in Weimar on 2 November 1842; the German chapter of his life began when he settled there in 1848 with Carolyne at the Villa Altenburg on the Jenaer Straße. He used the court theatre for work bigger houses would not risk: Wagner's Tannhäuser in 1849, and in 1850 the world premiere of Lohengrin, entrusted to him by its composer, a wanted man after the Dresden uprising — it was from Weimar that Wagner's operas reached the German stage. At the end of 1858 a hissed premiere, Peter Cornelius's Der Barbier von Bagdad, gave him the occasion to give up the post; he stayed on at the Altenburg until 1861.
What he composed while he conducted, 1849–1858
The premieres he gave other composers were half of it; the other half was his own. From 1849 to 1858 he wrote the symphonic poems in rapid succession — single-movement orchestral works of a new kind, most of them carrying a literary programme — and worked the same principle into two piano concertos and the Sonata in B minor of 1853. Two full symphonies came out of the same years, one on the Faust material and one on Dante's Divine Comedy, finished in 1857, and among the choral works the Graner Messe.
The conservatory he argued for, 1835–1872
Liszt had written down the idea of progressive schools of music as early as 1835, and between 1849 and 1853 he pressed for such a conservatory in Weimar. It came to nothing in his lifetime; the idea was realised only in 1872, when Carl Müllerhartung founded here what the Hochschule calls the first orchestra school in Germany — which is why the music college in Weimar carries Liszt's name today, for a school he wanted and never ran.
Rome and the Abbé, 1861–1869
He reached Rome on 20 October 1861, intending to marry Carolyne on his birthday. In 1865 he took the minor orders of the priesthood — he had joined the Franciscan order as a lay member a decade earlier — and was Abbé Liszt from then on, a composer of church music in a cassock who still drew every eye in a room.
The summers at the gardener's house, 1869–1886
In 1869 Grand Duke Carl Alexander invited him back, and from then until his death Liszt spent the summer months in the former court gardener's house at the edge of the park, from 1874 dividing his year between Weimar, Rome and Budapest. He taught there without payment — an international circle of pupils, mostly men and a few women, as many as forty in a season — in groups, which was new then and is the ancestor of the modern master class, and held musical evenings in the house. He died of pneumonia in Bayreuth on 31 July 1886. A year later Carl Alexander opened the composer's floor as a memorial: the music room and the study with the original Bechstein grand, and the bedroom, as the Liszt-Haus shows them today.
Questions visitors ask
- When did Liszt live in Weimar?
- Twice. From 1848 to 1861 as Hofkapellmeister, at the Villa Altenburg on the Jenaer Straße with Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein; and every summer from 1869 until his death in 1886, in the former court gardener's house at the edge of the Park an der Ilm.
- What did Liszt compose in Weimar?
- The symphonic poems of 1849 to 1858, two piano concertos, the Sonata in B minor of 1853, the Faust symphony and the Dante symphony of 1857, and the Graner Messe among the choral works — the core of his orchestral output.
- Which premieres did Liszt conduct in Weimar?
- Wagner's Tannhäuser in 1849 and, in 1850, the world premiere of Lohengrin, which Wagner — wanted by the police after the Dresden uprising — had entrusted to him; and at the end of 1858 Peter Cornelius's Der Barbier von Bagdad, whose hostile reception gave Liszt the occasion to resign.
- Why did Liszt leave Weimar?
- He gave up the post of Hofkapellmeister at the end of 1858, after the Barbier von Bagdad premiere was hissed, stayed at the Altenburg until 1861 and then went to Rome, where he took the minor orders in 1865. Grand Duke Carl Alexander brought him back for the summers from 1869.
- Can I visit the Liszt-Haus?
- Yes. The former court gardener's house at the entrance to the park shows the floor Liszt lived on — the music room and the study with his original Bechstein grand, and the bedroom — as a memorial opened by Carl Alexander in 1887, a year after his death. It is open every day except Tuesday.
- Where did Liszt die?
- In Bayreuth, of pneumonia, on 31 July 1886, during the Wagner festival.
Notable Works & Achievements
Hungarian Rhapsodies
Faust Symphony
Années de pèlerinage
Transcendental Études
Piano Sonata in B minor
La campanella
Symphonic poems
Connected Places in Weimar
Theaterplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
As Hofkapellmeister he conducted here when it was the Hoftheater — including the world premiere of Wagner's "Lohengrin" in 1850.
Marienstraße 17, 99423 Weimar
He lived here through the summers from 1869 until his death in 1886, teaching an international crowd of pianists in these rooms.
Jenaer Straße 3, 99425 Weimar
His Weimar home from 1848, through the whole of his time as Hofkapellmeister — the productive address, not the memorial one.
Historical Context
The central figure of the decades after Goethe: called to the court by Maria Pawlowna, Hofkapellmeister from 1848, and brought back by Carl Alexander in 1869.
Goethe died in 1832, and Weimar had to work out what a town does after its golden age. It decided to keep going, and the answer took eighty-six years — the era the Klassik Stiftung Weimar calls the Silver Age. Music replaced literature as the thing Weimar was for, two royal patrons paid for it, and the schools they founded outlived the monarchy that funded them.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1811
1886
Hungarian
Stay and eat nearby
Where to stay
Goetheplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
Named by the house among the figures who stayed here — Liszt's Weimar decades are the hotel's own century.
On stage
On stage
Konzert
His First Piano Concerto is the centre of the programme — the work this city heard before any other, in 1855, with the composer playing it.
Konzert
His Hungaria opens a programme built around him, in his own Weimar.
Oper
As Kapellmeister here he conducted the world premiere of Lohengrin in 1850 — the premiere the house still counts as its own.
Events
Events
Daily at 10:00 and 14:00, about two hours
His Weimar house is on the way through the park.
One Saturday night in May, 18:00 to midnight
The Liszt house, the rooms he kept in Weimar, is on the route and closes early.
Historical figures
Historical figures
1818–1901 • grand duke • patron
He brought Liszt back to Weimar in 1869, and opened the composer's rooms as a memorial in 1887, the year after his death.
1783–1853 • hereditary prince • grand duke
He signed the decree of 2 November 1842 that named Liszt Kapellmeister in Weimar.
1819–1887 • princess • writer
They shared the Villa Altenburg together from 1848 until 1861.
1786–1859 • grand duchess • patron
She called him to the Weimar court — the decision the whole musical century in this town rests on.
1824–1874 • composer • poet
Liszt championed his work against resistance, conducted the premiere of an opera dedicated to him, and gave up his Weimar offices after that evening.
1813–1883 • composer • conductor
Liszt staged his Tannhäuser in 1849 and conducted the world premiere of his Lohengrin on 28 August 1850, while Wagner was in exile and could not come.
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
A small ducal theatre gave the first performance of an opera whose composer could not attend, because the police were looking for him.
He conducted the premiere; it is the evening his Weimar decade is remembered for.
An organised hissing campaign wrecked a premiere, and Weimar lost Liszt as a result.
He conducted the premiere of a work dedicated to him, and gave up his Weimar offices after the evening collapsed into organised hissing.
Liszt wanted a conservatory in Weimar and never got one; the school opened nineteen years after his attempt collapsed.
The school realises the idea he had written down in 1835 and failed to establish between 1849 and 1853 — which is why it carries his name today.
Stages and venues
Theaterplatz 2, 99423 Weimar
The city names him, with Goethe and Schiller, among the history you feel when the curtain goes up here.
Platz der Demokratie 2 | 3, 99423 Weimar
The school carries his name; the idea of founding it in Weimar was his.
Jakobstraße 10, 99423 Weimar
He was one of the guests of the Kirms-Krackow-Haus, the building the cabaret plays in.
Around Weimar
Northeast
He held organ conferences at the church in Denstedt, a village of this municipality, on the organ that still carries his name.