Did Franz Liszt practice for more than ten hours a day?

[cuberdrift]

In the Internet I found two sites claiming that he practiced twelve, fourteen, or sixteen hours a day.

https://www.quora.com/I-practice-my-piano-for-15-hours-every-day-Is-this-good-enough-or-should-I-practice-more

Franz Liszt claimed he spent 12–16 hours a day practicing his craft....(d)id Franz Liszt only practice the piano 12 hours a day? Absolutely not....(y)ou see, rather than sitting and practicing the piano for 15 hours a day, he would practice for three hours, spend up to 7 hours a day composing, and many hours teaching. He also spent a lot of time reading books, taking long walks, and appreciating art.

https://piano4life.com/C_Liszt.htm

Liszt at this time also studied piano for eighteen months under Carl Czerny - Beethoven's esteemed former pupil and the leading piano teacher in Europe. Liszt learned quickly. He had a grueling practice regime, sometimes practicing up to 14 hours daily. Franz Liszt was a man driven to break the bounds of all who had come before.

Can anyone cite sources for these claims? I want to know if they are true.

[lostinidlewonder]

Anyone who has tried to study over 10 hours a day over a long period will realize there is a problem in doing that. Yes you can get through a lot of work but there are diminishing returns as learning efficiency decreases over these long sessions as well as mental/emotional/physical challenges. What is more important is developing practice craft rather than just extend your study time. Minutes of study with a master level of practice craft literally could be worth hours or even days worth of work from lesser practitioners. So saying "wow Liszt was so awesome he did 14 hours a day practice!" is quite unhelpful information really in terms of what one should do with their own studies.

[pianoworthy]

You know I would be more skeptical about this, but years ago Valentina Lisitsa did a live stream of her practice, and she practiced on webcam for 14 hours with breaks. I think some people have a special brain that allows them to focus for superhuman lengths of time. The average person would get nothing out of practicing that long, but I've seen it happen with my very own eyes.

[themeandvariation]

PW - you should try it... (give it at least month, for proper testing period) and then get back to us w your findings....

[g_s_223]

In his (relative) youth, when he was very inspired by Paganini, he is certainly believed to have put in a massive amount of technical work. Once that was banked, so to speak, maintaining a reasonable technique would have required much less practice.