Who is Franz Liszt from The Great Pianists and what is their importance?

Franz Liszt was born the son of a Hungarian official in 1811 and lived until 1886. Technique, showmanship and poetry combined as one in his genius piano and music skill. Liszt was a complicated man fraught with vanity, generosity, lust and vision in conflict with art, religion and the flesh. For example, he became a priest in 1865 but had no authority to celebrate mass or hear confession. He had rooms in the Vatican but traveled to Weimar and Budapest. He stopped playing for money in 1847, but gave charity concerts, taught and was musical director of the Weimar court. Liszt was one of two great sight-readers who could perform a complicated musical score at first sight and perfectly play back a piece just heard without any manuscript. Liszt initiated "bravura" playing as a brilliant musical style that rose above technique. Franz Liszt taught from the 1820s. Listing his pupils takes many pages since his style inspired musicians all over the world.