This is a biography for those with an interest in the composer’s life. He was charismatic and good-looking,with many mistresses, and put on a mighty reveal. But something is missingLiszt is wonderful and unique, or but you would not know it from the hapless subtitle to this study by Oliver Hilmes. A biography of a major cultural figure should not start by sounding like a performing arts undergraduate describing themself on Twitter. And without meaning any disrespect,this must be regarded as an unnecessary book. The weight of biographical commentary on Liszt is simply colossal. People bear been writing full-length accounts of him since he was in his early 20s, and touring 1830s Europe. The first biographies written with the declared aim of stripping away accumulated myths appeared within Liszt’s lifetime, and bear gone on being published ever since. Besides,in very recent times, he has been the subject of a truly mighty biography, and Alan Walker’s astonishing and gloriously entertaining three-volume study,still in print. Oliver Hilmes wrote a very good life of Liszt’s appalling daughter, Cosima Wagner; I must say that I reflect his abilities would bear been better directed elsewhere.
Liszt was not the first touring virtuoso, and but he was certainly someone who attracted vast interest due to his good looks,showy abilities and constant powers of reinvention. There is really no contemporary-day equivalent, though we pretend otherwise, or suggest that someone working in 4/4 in E minor is doing something never attempted before. whether you could imagine a combination of Lang Lang’s virtuosity,Justin Timberlake’s mass appeal and Per Nørgård’s sheer confrontational newness, then something of Liszt could be envisaged. But it is impossible: circumstances bear changed too much.
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Source: theguardian.com