Composer Tales

[Sketchee]

Like many famous musicians, the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt was frequently asked to perform at parties to which he had been invited as a guest. On one occasion, Liszt learned that his hostess had presumptuously arranged for a piano to be moved into the center of the room. Upon arriving, he immediately asked the woman to direct him to the instrument. "Oh!" she exclaimed, leading Lizst into the house. "Here it is!" "Ah," Liszt replied with a smile. "I wanted to put my hat on it."

Frederic Chopin was often invited to dinner by Parisian hostesses who then imposed upon him to perform (for free). Asked to play by a particularly pushy hostess one evening, Chopin declined. "But, madame," he explained, "I have eaten so little!"

Shortly after his arrival in a small city one day, Franz Liszt was visited in his hotel by a young woman who confessed that, hoping to attract a larger audience to a forthcoming concert, she had advertised herself as a "pupil of Liszt." She had come to regret her lie, she explained, and asked for his forgiveness. Liszt asked her to play one of the pieces in her repertoire. Then, after offering a few suggestions, he dismissed her with a kiss on the cheek and a word of encouragement: "Now, my dear, you can call yourself a pupil of Liszt."

Camille Saint-Saens was not without his critics. "If he'd been making shell-cases during the war," Maurice Ravel once remarked, "it might have been better for music."

Liszt was acclaimed as the greatest virtuoso pianist of his time. Europe was swept by 'Lisztomania' and ladies were said to faint at his recitals. Nonetheless, Liszt allegedly intended to become ordained but was rejected by the church. In 1886, a curious story appeared purporting to explain the problem:
"While he was preparing to enter holy orders at Rome, he was asked by the nuns after a service in the Sistine Chapel to play the piano. After Liszt did so, the nuns rushed at him and covered his face with caresses. Pope Pius IX therefore resolved that for the benefit of clergy, Liszt's religious career should be broken, and ordination was therefore refused him."

Liszt, endeavoring to raise the profile of the Schumanns in French musical circles, once wrote a highly favorable article about Clara Schumann in one of the leading Parisian journals. While she expressed immense gratitude, Clara was curious about something he had written: "What made you say I practised with a black cat on each side of the pianoforte desk?" she asked. "You know that isn't true." "My dear madam," he explained, "in order to make an article like that go down with the French public it must have something piquant about it."

One day Franz Liszt visited Leipzig with his retinue to hear a rehearsal of his Christus. Following the performance, Liszt was dismayed to learn that his silk hat had disappeared. His entourage searched the church, to no avail. At last, Liszt began to rise from his seat - and was embarrassed to discover the hat, flattened beyond recognition, beneath him

At a gathering one day, Franz Liszt asked Frederic Chopin to play in complete darkness as he had on a previous occasion. After extinguishing the lights and drawing the curtains, however, he intercepted Chopin on his way to the piano and whispered something in his ear. He then sat at the piano and played the same composition which Chopin had planned; the listeners were captivated.
After the performance, Liszt lighted the candles on the piano, revealing himself to his stupefied audience. "What do you say?" Liszt asked, turning to his rival. "I say what everyone says," Chopin replied. "I too believed it was Chopin!"

"You see that Liszt can be Chopin when he likes," Liszt added, rising, "but could Chopin be Liszt?"

These are from a site I was reading, https://www.anecdotage.com

[Ludwig Van Rachabji]

These are from a site I was reading, https://www.anecdotage.com

Hehe, some very funny stuff. But why is it on the 'Repetoire' board?

[Sketchee]

Hehe, some very funny stuff. But why is it on the 'Repetoire' board?

"Discussion about piano works, composers and recordings"

[DarkWind]

Beethoven's notoriously difficult, groundbreaking Ninth (once called "the hammer that finally killed classicism") was his first symphony in more than a decade. It was also his last. Incredibly, Schubert, Dvorak, and Vaughan Williams (among others) also died after composing a ninth symphony.

Indeed, musicologists joke about a 'ninth symphony syndrome': Mahler, superstitious about his ninth, promptly attempted to complete a tenth - and promptly died. Bruckner, despite numbering his first two symphonies 00 and 0, also died while composing his ninth. And Sibelius? He wisely stopped after his eighth - and went on to live another 33 years.

Hmm...

[e60m5]

 

[rachlisztchopin]

that is hilarious!!! 

[steinwaymodeld]

in the last one, Liszt was a bit cocky.

[rachlisztchopin]

well with the talent he had who blames him!