I played the first movement of his C major piano concerto nr. Suddenly my courage rose: 'May I play one of your pieces?' I asked with audacity. 'Well - I'll be blowed' he whispered, 'such a little devil'. He approached me and stroked me several times over my head with affection. Beethoven's deep glowing eyes rested upon me - but suddenly a light smile flew over his otherwise serious face. 'Can you transpose this fugue', Beethoven asked.įortunately I could. I chose the C minor fugue from Wohltemperiertes Klavier. When I had finished Beethoven asked if I could play a fugue by Bach. First I played a small piece of Ferdinand Ries another pupil of Beethoven. For a moment he looked at us with a serious face, said a couple of quick words to Czerny but turned silent as my dear teacher signaled to me to go to the piano. Beethoven was sitting by the window at a long narrow table working. I was somewhat embarrassed - but Czerny kindly encouraged me. It was one morning about ten o'clock when we entered the two small rooms of the Schwarzspanierhaus, where Beethoven lived.

Finally though he was persuaded by my indefatigable teacher Czerny and said: 'Then for God's sake - bring the little rascal'. But Beethoven had aversions against prodigies and for a long time refused to hear me. He had long before told him about me and had asked him to hear me play. 'I was about eleven years old', he began 'when my highly esteemed teacher Czerny introduced me to Beethoven. 'The most memorable time I experienced with Liszt was when he told me of his meeting with Beethoven. A more reasonable account of the Beethoven kiss event is reported in the reminiscences of the pianist Ilka Horovitz-Barnay: In Aphe gave a concert and it is often said that the 53-year-old Beethoven gave him a kiss for his marvellous playing, although this is unlikely to be true as Beethoven was deaf by this time. However, a few of Chopin's early works were dedicated to Liszt, his friend at that time. He and Frédéric Chopin were friends early in life, but later, due to fierce competition for better compositions, turned into rivals and enemies. Antonio Salieri taught him the technique of composition and fostered young Liszt´s common musical taste. His father had wanted him to be taught by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837), but Hummel's fees were too high. In Vienna he was educated in the technical domain by Carl Czerny. In one letter to his mother Liszt begins in faltering Hungarian, apologises and continues in French (his preferred language). As a result, Liszt never fully learned Hungarian his later letters and diaries show that he came to regret this deeply. Local aristocrats noticed his talent and paid him a scholarship, so that he went with his family to Vienna, and later to Paris. He got his first lessons from his father, Ádám Liszt, who worked at the court of count Esterházy, at six. Liszt displayed incredible talent at a young age, easily sight-reading multiple staves at once. His parents were his Hungarian father Ádám Liszt and Austrian-born mother Anna Liszt, née Lagen. The Hungarian variant Ferenc is often used, though never by Liszt himself. His baptism records are in Latin and lists his first name as Franciscus. Since the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, the city is now Raiding, Austria. Liszt was born in the village of Doborján, near Sopron, Hungary, in what was then the Austrian Empire.

Franz liszt famous works