Franz Liszt

Born: October 22, 1811, Doborján, Austria-Hungary (present-day Raiding, Austria).
Died: July 31, 1886, Bayreuth, .

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, organist, philanthropist, author, nationalist and a Franciscan tertiary. He was a renowned performer throughout Europe, noted especially for his showmanship and great skill with the piano. To this day, he is considered by some to have been the greatest pianist in history. Liszt's musical invention went into territories which were then almost unexplored, in particular as regards harmonic research, as emerges from the late piano works, which led him to anticipate fragments of harmonies from the early twentieth century. His preference for program music is testified by the numerous symphonic poems he composed. Father-in-law to Richard Wagner.