Liszt gained renown in Europe during the early nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age, and in the 1840s he was considered to be the greatest pianist of all time. Liszt was also a well-known and influential composer, piano teacher and conductor. He was a benefactor to other composers, including Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin.
As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School (Neudeutsche Schule). He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form, and making radical departures in harmony. He also played an important role in popularizing a wide array of music by transcribing it for piano.
- 0:00 Étude No. 3, Un sospiro (performer Van Cliburn)
- 5:40 Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor (Performer Artur Pizarro)
- 16:20 Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D-flat major (Performer Artur Pizarro)
- 23:32 Liebesträume No. 3 in A-flat major (Performer Georges Cziffra)
- 27:53 Troisième année: Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este (Performer: Georges Cziffra)
- 35:37 Sonata in B minor (Performer: Sviatoslav Richter)
- 1:05:32 Totentanz: Paraphrase on Dies irae, S.126 (Performers: Denis Matsuev and MSO)
- 1:20:32 Piano Concerto No. 1: Allegro (Performers ?)
- 1:25:30 Piano Concerto No. 1: Quasi adagio (Performers ?)
- 1:30:01 Piano Concerto No. 2: Marziale Un Poco Allegro - Allegro Animato (Performers ?)
- 1:39:06 Les préludes (Performers ?)
- 1:55:36 Faust Symphony: III Mephistopheles (Performer: Leipzig Gewanhaus Orchestra)
