Great Violinists and PianistsFerris, George T. (George Titus)
History
Great Violinists and Pianists
Ferris, George T. (George Titus)
Pianists -- Biography; Violinists -- Biography
Adam Liszt and his son went to England, and spent about six months in
giving concerts in London and other cities. Franz was less than
fourteen years old, but the pale, fragile, slender boy had, in the deep
melancholy which stamped the noble outline of his face, an appearance
of maturity that belied his years. English audiences everywhere received
him with admiration, but he seemed to have lost all zest for the
intoxicating wine of public favor. A profound gloom stole over him,
and we even hear of hints at an attempt to commit suicide. Adam Liszt
attributed it to the sad English climate, which Hein-rich Heine cursed
with such unlimited bitterness, and took his boy back again to sunnier
France. But the dejection darkened and deepened, threatening even
to pass into epilepsy. It assumed the form of religious enthusiasm,
alternating with fits of remorse as of one who had committed the
unpardonable sin, and sometimes expressed itself in a species of frenzy
for the monastic life. These strange experiences alarmed the father,
and, in obedience to medical advice, he took the ailing, half-hysterical
lad to Boulogne-sur-Mer, for sea-bathing.
II.
While by the seaside Franz Liszt lost the father who had loved him
with the devotion of father and mother combined. This fresh stroke of
affliction deepened his dejection, and finally resulted in a fit of
severe illness. When he was convalescent new views of life seemed
to inspire him. He was now entirely thrown on his own resources for
support, for Adam Liszt had left his affairs so deeply involved that
there was but little left for his son and widow. A powerful nature,
turned awry by unhealthy broodings, is often rescued from its own mental
perversities by the sense of some new responsibility suddenly imposed on
it. Boy as Liszt was, the Titan in him had already shown itself in
the agonies and struggles which he had undergone, and, now that the
necessity of hard work suddenly came, the atmosphere of turmoil and
gloom began to clear under the imminent practical burden of life. He set
resolutely to work composing and giving concerts. The religious mania
under which he had rested for a while turned his thoughts to sacred
music, and most of his compositions were masses. But the very effort of
responsible toil set, as it were, a background against which he could
appoint the true place and dimensions of his art work. There was another
disturbance, however, which now stirred up his excitable mind. He fell
madly in love with a lady of high rank, and surrendered his young heart
entirely to this new passion. The unfortunate issue of this attachment,
for the lady was much older than himself, and laughed with a gentle
mockery at the infatuation of her young adorer, made Liszt intensely
unhappy and misanthropical, but it did not prevent him from steady
labor. Indeed, work became all the more welcome, as it served to
distract his mind from its amorous pains, and his fantastic musings,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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