The man who, by his demands on the piano, induced improvements in its manufacture that materially increased its sonority and made it available for the modern idea, was Franz Liszt (1811-1886).  He will always be remembered as the creator of orchestral piano-playing and of the symphonic poem.  The impetuous rhythms and unfathomable mysteries of Magyar and gipsy life surrounding him in Hungary, the land of his birth, strongly influenced the shaping of his genius.  Like the wandering children of nature who had filled the dreams of his childhood, he became a wanderer and marched a conqueror, radiant with triumphs, through the musical world.  Chopin, who shrank from concert-playing, once said to him:  “You are destined for it.  You have the force to overwhelm, control, compel the public.”

The bewitching tones of the gipsy violinist, Bihary, had fallen on his boyish ears “like drops of some fiery, volatile essence,” stimulating him to effort.  On the threshold of manhood he was inspired to apply the methods of Paganini to the piano.  All his early realistic and revolutionary ideas found vent in his pianistic achievements.  He gained marvelous fulness of chord power, great dynamic variety, and numerous unexpected solutions of the tone problem.  Many technical means of expression were invented by him, and a wholly new fingering was required for his purposes.  He taught the use of a loose wrist, absolute independence of the fingers and a new manipulation of the pedals.  To carry out his designs the third or sustaining pedal became necessary.  His highest ambition, in his own words, was “to leave to piano players the foot-prints of attained advance.”  In 1839 he ventured on the first pure piano recital ever given in the concert hall.  His series of performances in this line, covering the entire range of piano literature, in addition to his own compositions, given entirely without notes, led the public to expect playing by heart from all other artists.

As a great pianist, a composer of original conceptions, a magnetic conductor, an influential teacher, an intelligent writer on musical subjects and a devoted promoter of the interests of art, he stands out in bold relief, one of the grand figures in the history of music.  His piano paraphrases and transcriptions are poetic re-settings of tone-creations he had thoroughly assimilated and made his own.  In his original works, which Saint-Saens was perhaps the first to appreciate, students are now beginning to discover the ripe fruits of his genius.  Faithful ones among the pupils who flocked about him in classic Weimar spread wide his influence, but also much harm was done in his name by charlatans who, calling themselves Liszt pupils, cast broadcast the fallacy that piano pounding was genuine pianistic power.