Liszt Ferenc – a médium és a média

The lecture - complete with live piano inserts performed by the lecturer - will allow the audience to have some insight into the passionate life and complex personality of one of the greatest figures in the history of music. First we will talk about the many faces of Liszt and the exceptional role he played by conveying the art of great predecessors and contemporaries, such as Beethoven, Paganini, Schumann, Verdi, and Wagner. Then we touch upon his inspirations in poetry and the fine arts, and the characteristics of his late work that point towards Debussy, Ravel and Bartók. In the second half of the lecture, his great sonata in B minor will be analysed - it evokes the characters in Goethe's Faust, and can also be regarded as a self-portrait of the composer. Through a careful deciphering of musical themes and motifs, the extremes of Romanticism - the sensual and the intellectual, the physical and the spiritual - will be described, and the explanation shall also throw light upon several aspects of the private life and public roles of the composer himself.