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Jill: Mr. Liszt, I don't mean to be rude, but why are you in quarantine. I mean, I don't get it.

Liszt: Jill, this is not a rude question and I appreciate having you and your friends asking me questions. O.K., I am in quarantine because at this point in history (1847), Constantinople is still a "closed" country. In other words, it is extremely difficult to be able to travel to this exciting city, and one must deal with the official red tape and immigration rules that govern traveling here.

Jill: Cool, I guess my next question is how you came to give some concerts here in the first place.

Liszt: The Sultan, Abdul-Medjid Khan, was given a modern education by his dad, the Sultan Mahmoud II. Abdul-Medjid Khan had pretty much gotten involved in Western culture himself, especially with the help of his prime minister, Mustafa Resis Pasa. Mr. Pasa really was pushing for Europeanization of Turkey and worked long and hard to arrange this portion of my World Tour to include Constantinople. By, the way, the Sultan himself LOVES Italian opera. In fact, my first concert at the Tchiraghan Palace included my own paraphrases on the Andante from Lucia de Lammermoor which, as you probably know, was composed by Donizetti. Then I did my famous paraphrase on the "Overture" from Guillaume (William) Tell, composed by Rossini, and my "Fantasy" on themes from Norma by Bellini. I really think the Sultan enjoyed these a lot; he really listened carefully, and seemed to really be interested - unlike a few other monarchs that I have played for. But that story can wait until later. After my concerts, the Sultan gave me the diamond studded Order of Nichan-Iftikhar, and also a box just covered with precious jewels.

I also performed at the Russian Embassy while I was in Constantinople. If we have the time, I would like to tell you of an interesting story that happened while I was performing in Constantinople.

Jill: Awesome! Tell me more, dude

Liszt: While I was in Constantinople, another pianist, Listmann, was there giving some recitals. Anyway, this gentleman (I am being very polite by calling him this) decided to drop the last syllable of his name and capitalize on the fact that the names Liszt and List sound alike. But for those who didn't know better, we weren't the same person. Anyway, this scoundrel "doubled" for me and did receive a gift from the sultan that was intended for me. Listmann did apologize to me for his attempted "con job", but I never did receive the gift that the Sultan had originally intended for me. Another interesting story concerns that lovely piano that the Erard company from Paris supplied for me during my tour of Constantinople. First, let me say that the piano was magnificent and, compared to many of the poor excuses for a piano that I was expected to perform on in other cities, this was a piano. Anyway, after my recitals in Turkey were finished, this piano was sold to a young man who wanted it as a present for his fiancée. I really thought that was wonderful.

George: It sounds like you were treated quite well by the Sultan, and others, and we have heard stories about the audiences in Europe serenading you at your hotel after you finished a concert, and generally treating you as a star. Things sure have changed since the time of Mozart.

Liszt: I am sure that you all know of the treatment that Mozart, Haydn, and even one of my heroes, Beethoven, received during their lives. Mozart and Haydn were treated like dirt! They were nothing more than servants to the Kings and Queens and even the clergy of the time. They received absolutely no respect from these people, although as composers, these gentlemen were KINGS of music. They were expected to enter and leave the palaces through the back doors only and had to tolerate so much bad treatment at the hands of the Monarchies of their time. I was quite determined that this was not going to happened to me; artists should be treated with great respect and admiration from ALL people, no matter what their social status. Lucky for me that one of my heroes, Beethoven, did start to break down these ridiculous barriers and horrible treatment that artists received. That genius forced the Viennese aristocracy to treat him as an equal. However, I feel that they never recognized that he was more than an equal. That he was in many aspects, quite superior to them, because of his huge talent and because he was so "divinely"gifted.

George: O.K. so now I think I understand why you wore some of the get-ups you wore on stage. Some of them were kind of gross, I heard. And a lot of critics in Paris were having a cow when they heard about the stuff you were wearing on stage.

Liszt: I guess a lot of people probably had a cow about how I dressed on stage, but it was all for a reason. When I came on stage wearing all the medals that had been given to me by tons of monarchs throughout Europe, including the Hungarian sword of honor, I was showing the world that the times were changing. I was going to raise the status of musicians, artists, composers everywhere from that of being servants treated like dirt to being treated like musical royalty. I have as many titles and medals as a great number of the nobility that I played before. And I was not going to be treated like an uneducated, untalented dog. I feel that the public and the aristocracy need to start to learn how to treat those of us involved in the arts. So, wearing all my medals, etc., was a strong positive visual statement and I can only hope that my concerts were perceived in the same way.

George: I heard that you really shot it back to some of these kings and queens. Tell me what you did.

Liszt: O.K., one more story about this, then let's change the subject, please. I was giving a recital, when the Tsar Nicholas I of Russia arrived late and then had the nerve to start talking while I was playing. Well, I just stopped playing and sat at the piano looking down at the keyboard. When the Tsar asked why I had stopped, I told him that "Music herself should be silent when Nicholas speaks." I think he got the message. A few other princesses and others tried pulling this same stuff, but to be honest, I had no qualms at all about stopping a performance, or walking out if I was treated badly.

George: Some people probably thought you were getting an attitude.

Gene: Ease up George, like Mr. Liszt said, he wants to get off this subject. But I gotta say, I think Mr. Liszt had guts to do what he did, and that we in 1996 owe a lot to him. So, knock it off, George.

Janice: Could I ask you some stuff about when you were a kid? Were you into piano all the time? Didn't you ever get tired of piano?

They say that my first signs of loving music happened when I was six years old. Dad was playing the Piano Concerto by Ries in c sharp minor. I do recall really liking it a lot, so much so that I was singing the theme of the concerto when I was goofing around doing kid stuff outside. I guess I pretty much had the theme correctly down and my parents were pretty excited about it. Dad was my first piano teacher; not only did he teach me the basics of piano, but he also strongly stressed playing from memory, the ability to sight-read and how to improvise. It was these skills that really got me going as a child prodigy.

As far as having kids to bud around with, my family did become close friends with the Hirschler family. In fact, when I first heard their daughter, Fanni, play their new piano, I was quite taken with the sound. So much so, that their family gave the piano to us. Our families remained close friends for years.

Another wonderful childhood memory that I have is of seeing and listening to the wandering Gypsies and their wonderful music. It was phenomenal to witness first hand their beautiful music. What really got to me was that most of it was improvised on the impulse of the moment. It also struck me that these people for the most part could not read music notation, yet, their music was superb, and had survived through the years. I must admit that when I start working on my Hungarian Rhapsodies, I have their music and the mental image of their playing right in front of me when I compose. I can remember their music like it was heard just 10 minutes ago.

Janice: Who did you take lessons from? Do you have brothers and sisters, and did they play too? Besides Beethoven, who were your heroes? Wow, I think I need to quit asking so much at one time!

Liszt: My dad was Adam Liszt, born on December 16, 1776. His main love in life was music. He played the cello in Prince Esterhazy's summer orchestra under the baton of Haydn, then met Hummel (who was Haydn's successor and in charge of music at the Esterhazy palaces in Hungary). Hummel influenced Dad a lot, so much so that Dad was really motivated to get his piano skills going and got to the point of being good enough to play the concertos that Hummel wrote. Dad was also, then, able to teach those same concertos to me when I was a kid. My dad also was cellist in the Prince's orchestra when Beethoven himself came to conduct a performance of his C-Major Mass. That was an occasion.

Then, something got the Prince rather annoyed with Dad, and Dad was sent be the head sheep-herder in Raiding. Ugh! There were no cultural activities to speak of going on there at all. What a tragedy! Dad met my mom Anna Lager there in 1810; they were married on January 11, 1811. I was born on October 22, 1811. I have no brothers or sisters.

To counteract the isolation from the Court, Dad organized his own musical evenings, where he and other friends would do chamber music. Dad was not only a decent cellist, but he could also play the violin and had an O.K. bass voice. Once in a while, a visitor would drop in on us from Eisenstadt and the level of playing would get even better. Plus, Dad knew and kept in touch with all the orchestra guys from Eisenstadt, and Hummel's successor, Kapellmeister Fuchs. So I was surrounded with music from day one.

Dad knew the keyboard music of Bach, Mozart, Hummel and early Beethoven. When I was a kid, I most definitely wanted to be like Beethoven. In fact, Dad knew this music so well that when I was a kid I was able to successfully perform their music in concerts.

About 1819, Dad started to have ideas about getting us out of Hungary and to Vienna, the city of Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn and Mozart. The reason he wanted me there I think was because at that time it was THE music capital of the world. Dad wanted me to study with Carl Czerny and his old buddy, Hummel was also there. Dad worked hard on finagling a transfer from Prince Esterhazy to be able to move to Vienna. It didn't work until the Prince heard me play and then the Prince decided to contribute money towards my education and gave Dad a year's leave of absence. Well, that got messed up, but we finally did get to Vienna. Whew!!!

To help finance our move to Vienna, Dad started having me give concerts which were paid for through private subscription. I was nine years old when I gave my first concert. I played the Ries Concerto in E-flat Major and then improvised a fantasy on popular melodies. The audience loved it. Oh, I forgot to mention that this concert was arranged by Baron von Braun, who was a blind flute player and had me perform after he did his portion of the concert.

After the success of that concert, Dad arranged for me to give a totally solo concert on November 26. I wore a braided Hungarian costume, which was pretty cool to do, since I was performing at Pressburg, the ancient capital of Hungary. We lucked out. Many Hungarian noblemen came out of the woodwork and established a fund so that I could study in Vienna.

No, I haven't forgotten about my Mom, she gave up her dowry money so that I could study in Vienna and had all the confidence in the world in my musical abilities.

In 1822 we moved to Vienna. Dad did not waste a moment to getting in touch with Czerny so that I could start my studies with him straight away. Boy, did I learn from that remarkable man. He worked wonders on my technique. Let's face it - I didn't have a strong technique until I started my studies with him. He insisted on the correct fingerings for scales, on playing them in strict rhythm and with total 'finger-equalization', in other words, all 10 fingers being equally strong. He worked a lot on my tone production. He also forced me to learn everything quickly, really reinforcing my strong sight-reading skills. Czerny was a tough teacher but he gave me the exact background that I needed. If it were not for his instruction, I would not be able to play or compose the music that I am doing these days. The dear man, on top of all the knowledge that he gave me, never charged me anything for his lessons. I will be forever grateful to this wonderful man and don't think I can ever repay all that he gave to me.

In July, 1822, I also started my composition lessons with Salieri; yup, you got it right. The Salieri, who was haunted for years by the false rumor that he had poisoned Mozart. Dad chose Salieri as my composition teacher because, first and foremost, the man was a great teacher, and his name had a lot of clout and authority in the Court. I was very fortunate also, because, this great gentleman also taught me for free. He never charged us anything for lessons. To get to our composition lessons, Dad and I had to walk to Salieri's house three times a week. To be honest, it was a long hike, and I used to show up for lessons totally beat. When Salieri found out about this, he wrote to Prince Esterhazy to get some help with finding and underwriting housing in Vienna itself that would be closer to both my Master teachers. The help came, and then we were able to move so close to my teachers that I was able to have lessons with them everyday. Never did these gracious teachers charge me anything for these lessons. And again, I can never fully repay them for all their kindness and generosity. I will be forever most humbly grateful to those most noble of gentlemen.

I did not give another public concert until 1822, although Dad had me play in specially arranged private performances of the Austrian aristocracy. Czerny put me through 10 months of rigorous training before he allowed me to be presented to the Viennese public and critics. On December 1, 1822 I shared the bill with Caroline Unger, an Austro-Hungarian singer, and Leo Lubin, a violinist. I played the Hummel Concerto in a minor and did a free fantasy after that.

Unfortunately, things were not going so well financially for my family, so I had to give more public concerts to help out my family. To be honest, our bad financial situation was one of the motivating forces behind Czerny's and Salieri's generosity. Dad decided that it was time for me to start touring, to start helping our family more. It was very difficult to say goodbye to Czerny after only 14 months of lessons with him. Besides my Dad, he was the only piano teacher I ever had and I owe so much to him.

Emma: That is intense. Wow, what was it like to basically be a kid traveling around the world performing? Did you miss being a kid?

Liszt: First, it was not a glamorous life. Dad had to do basically all the arranging of these tours and the potential of losing a ton of money was as real as that of making lots of money. And yes, there were times when they had to shag me off the street where I was playing with kids I had met, so I could prepare for a concert.

Jasmine: Mr. Liszt, did anyone else inspire you as a composer or pianist?

Liszt: Yes, in April 1832, I heard the violinist Paganini perform at a benefit concert for victims of the cholera plague that was sweeping the city. Hearing that artist perform was my "artistic flash" or my artistic awakening. Not only could Paganini play better than other violinists, he was able to play the violin as well as it could be played. Think about it, it was a tremendously different concept. At that point, I decided to become the "Paganini of the Piano." I decided to practice 4-5 hours of exercises daily. The sounds that Paganini produced were always on my mind. My aim was to create a new kind of repertoire and technique for the piano which had never been done before; to transfer to the piano the sounds of Paganini's tremolos, leaps, glissandi, spiccato effects, bell-like harmonics. I radically changed my style of playing and my approach to the piano.

One thing I did not care for with Mr. Paganini, though, was his ego. Ugh!!! He was very self-serving. I feel that the talents that we are given should be able to have some sort of benefit or some sort of positive influence on humanity. Because I have been given my special gifts, I feel obligated to somehow put these gifts to use to serve my fellow man. I will gladly give concerts to help victims of floods and other natural disasters.

Nadine: O.K. guys, I am gonna switch topics now, so no griping about it. I was noticing that your concerts evolved from being joint affairs to being totally solo concerts. How did that happen? I mean, I look at copies of your programs and they look like programs that we go to now when we go to a piano recital. And who was the brilliant person who invented the memorization rule for solo piano recitals? Man, memorizing is a huge drag!

Liszt: Well, Nadine, you're looking at the culprit. I found it easier to memorize and perform than to read and perform. And I don't mean just my own music. I believed that audiences should know the entire piano repertoire from Bach to Chopin (and my own music), solo music and concertos also. I also liked putting the piano on the stage so that the lid opened up to the audience. That way the sound could fill the auditoriums.

I have my teachers to thank for their insistence on memorization of repertoire. Some critics found a lot to complain about in my solo recitals, but I wanted to make music more and more accessible to the general public to help the public appreciate our art.

George: Well, Mr. Liszt, thanks for your time for talking to us today. I learned a lot and appreciate all that you did for those of us studying piano. I also wanted to say that I learned a lot from how you still respect and love your teachers, even though you are famous now on your own.

Liszt: Thank you George, for listening to my stories. And without the love and care my teachers had shown me, I would have never achieved the fame and success that I am now enjoying. Keep that in mind, will you - especially when your teachers are giving from their hearts.

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