Franz Liszt: A Biographer’s Journey, Part 1
Franz Liszt: A Biographer’s Journey, Part 1

Summary/Abstract: The impulse to write my three-volume biography of Franz Liszt arose from a variety of circumstances. First, there was a simple desire to do his life and work full justice. When I entered the field of Liszt scholarship, more than fifty years ago, hardly anything worthwhile existed in English. The best-known biography was Sacheverell Sitwell’s Liszt, while the most thorough book on the music itself was Humphrey Searle’s The Music of Liszt. But the first was an evangelical work, not based on original research; while the second was a slim and surprisingly dry volume containing a great many reservations about the compositions themselves. Then there was Ernest Newman’s characterassassination The Man Liszt (1934), which was reprinted after World War II and continued for many years to tarnish Liszt’s reputation in English-speaking countries. Three books do not constitute a library. Second, I had always been immensely attracted to Liszt’s magnetic personality, and in my childhood I was drawn to the legend of his piano playing as to few other topics. They say that in every biography is an autobiography trying to get out. The idea would be diverting if it were not so sobering. I have come to believe that the best biographies choose their biographers, not vice versa. The lucky biographers write their work not because they have a choice but because they have no choice at all.

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