Raiding [Hungary] 22-X-1811-Bayreuth 31-VII-1886
Son of an official of the Prince of Esterhazy, he performed in public as a pianist at nine, soon going to Vienna, where he perfected under the guidance of Czernny and Salieri. In 1823 he still studied in Paris with Paer and Reicha, making himself known in 1824 in London as a pianist. Until 1830 he lived essentially to teaching, then resuming the activity of executor and composer who soon imposed him on the attention of the Parisian public, Viennese, Romans, and all other European cities. From 1842 to '44, he also played in Russia and Turkey, and in 1847 - after breaking the relationship that tied him to Madame d'Agault - he had a decisive meeting in Kyiv with Princess Carolyne von Sayn -Wittgenstein. In the same year, he moved with her to Poland, and from 1848 to '59, he was a chapel teacher at the Weimar court, using the new German music, of which he was considered a proponent and mentor. With him, Weimar became a living center of modern music activity, but in 1859 Liszt left the court, and in 1861, he moved to Rome without obtaining a divorce from the Sayn-Wittletein from the first husband.
During the last years of his life, he passed them between Weimar, Pest (where he had was elected in 1875 president of the Music Academy), and Rome, taking up an intense teaching activity from 1880 to 85 and producing again in memorable concerts. In Rome, he had a crisis of mysticism and obtained the title of Abbot from the Pope, but in 1869 he abandoned Roman solitude and returned to Weimar, reconciling himself with the environment of the court. In 1886 he was in Paris and London, but in Bayreuth, he was struck by intense pneumonia that briefly crawled his solid fiber.
The preludes (les préludes) symphonic poem n. 3 (1848)
Composition, in every sense among the major of Liszt, was born without a specific program, that is, it had been conceived as a pure music page to serve prelude to various choral pieces.
Only later, Liszt gave the piece a "program" suggested by a "méditation" of the French poet Lamartine. The author warns that this symphonic poem is inspired by the life of man, which is an infinite series of "preludes" with sad or joyful facts: and this reflects well the formal conception of the score, which is very accessible and consists of a series of episodes of different fused character, however, in one time. Thus there is a massive wealth of themes and episodes, now bold, now lyrically lying, now suffering from sadness: all distributed in the score with an admirable balance, which makes preludes one of its author's symphonic masterpieces.
Times happen in this order: "Andante," "cheerful but not too much stormy hall," "Pastoral Allegretto, "and" Allegro Martial animated. "
