Liszt 200th birthday!

[precipitato]

liszt's 200th birthday is coming up on 22nd october, he was born 200  years ago in 1811.
he is my favourite composer, and how are you people going to celebrate! :D:D all hail the great musician who transformed piano!

[pianoplayjl]

It's his birthday today.....

[drkilroy]

Happy birthday Ferenc!

Best regards, Dr

[pbryld]

Happy birthday Ferenc!

Best regards, Dr

His first name was Franz. Calling him Ferenc is just ridiculous and annoying.

[pianoplayjl]

Who cares? to me, they both sound the same.

[daro]

His first name was Franz. Calling him Ferenc is just ridiculous and annoying.

His first name was actually Franciscus, and both "Franz" and "Ferenc" are equally ridiculous diminutives of that.

[pianoplayjl]

I never knew that!

[pbryld]

His first name was actually Franciscus, and both "Franz" and "Ferenc" are equally ridiculous diminutives of that.

No, calling him anything but Franz Liszt (and the other surnames) is ridiculous. That was the name he used himself.

[stoudemirestat]

No, calling him anything but Franz Liszt (and the other surnames) is ridiculous. That was the name he used himself.

I may be wrong, but I believe he actually preferred to be called 'Ferenc.'

[pianoplayjl]

Franz sounds good. at least I think it is better than Ferenc.

[keyboardkat]

Franz is German and Ferenc is Hungarian.  Liszt was Hungarian by nationality but he was not raised there and he could not speak Hungarian.  His name, Liszt, actually means "flour" in Hungarian.   Hungarian is not a Latin-based language and thus is very difficult for English speakers to learn.   How do I know this?   My wife speaks Hungarian.   Liszt tried to learn it as an adult and said, "This is impossible."

[pianoplayjl]

So therefore it should be appropriate to call him ferenc liszt.

[annaivanova]

I was there at Weimar at the Lisztomania as I had to give a concert myself. I had played two of Liszt's personal piano's before and really feel attached to Liszt now. It was quite a happening which in fact already had started on thursday.

It was all Liszt that week-end. The streets were full of people and as a highlight that saturday evening Kurt Masur received a reward from the German Bundespresident.
Franz Liszt's former house in Weimar (the Franz Liszt haus) is a museum now. Here stands the Bechstein that I played in April. But is was closed this time mainly because of the high number of visitors (the maximum ever!). For an impression see

 
Strange, though I played on it for 40 minutes it now again looked so distant and holy again.

[precipitato]

wow, it must have been such a mesmerizing experience! to sit on the chair, to get your fingers which had touched the great master Liszt's fingerprints there... i congratulate you to have such an experience!

all i did was by inviting friends over to my house as i played un sospiro, funerailles and dante sonata for my peers, and we shared around liszt's compositions. such a pity, at my country people no longer celebrate these forefathers of music. all the go after is those rock stars these days, what a shame to forget these people who created true music.

and nice recordings you have on youtube! i enjoyed your playing of liszt's consolations a lot! such an honour to meet someone like you then