Maybe no one in history has had greater technical skill at the piano than Franz Liszt. Liszt took his tremendous talent and an admiration for great virtuosos like Beethoven, and especially the legendary violinist Niccolo Paganini, and created a way of performing at the piano that was more theatrical and difficult to emulate than anything before.

 

Later in his life, Liszt became more and more famous as a composer, in addition to performing. As well as writing piano music, of course, Liszt invented a new kind of orchestra music called the “Symphonic Poem”. A symphonic poem is shorter than a symphony and usually tries to describe something with music. For instance, Liszt wrote symphonic poems that describe particular paintings that he admired.

 

Liszt had many friends among other musicians, and he was a great supporter of composers, like Wagner and Hector Berlioz, who were trying to create new, more modern styles of music.