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Before there was Beatlemania
Before the Beatles and Beatlemania, approximately 100 years earlier there was “Lisztomania”; Franz Liszt, the greatest virtuoso musician to equal or eclipse Beethoven. He was a musical sensation that swept the world, not unlike the Beatles. Liszt by himself popularized classical music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and other classical composers for the new generations. He revolutionized the craft of solo musicians of today from the great jazz to rock artists, creating music schools. He defined improvisation. He was a master at transcribing great music of the legends, for example Beethoven’s 5th symphony, to piano for his own interpretation and performance like covers today, as well as composing many of his own iconic masterpieces like Liebestraum, La Campanella, Hungarian Rhapsody #2 and many others. He was the rock star of the 19th century predating the rock and roll pop culture music scene of screaming fans and hysteria of the mid 20th century (60s).
Franz Liszt was the greatest piano virtuoso the world has ever known. He literally redefined what 10 fingers were capable of, producing one scintillating sleight-of-hand keyboard effect after another. Such was the sheer force of his musical personality that adoring women collapsed swooning following just a single touch of the ivories.
Something of the impact Liszt had on onlookers can be gathered from the celebrated Romantic poet Heinrich Heine, who coined the term “Lisztomania”: “When he sits at the piano and, having repeatedly pushed his hair back over his brow, begins to improvise, then he often rages all too madly upon the ivory keys and lets loose a deluge of heaven-storming ideas, with here and there a few sweet-smelling flowers to shed fragrance upon the whole. One feels both blessedness and anxiety – but rather more anxiety!”
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12 Replies
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This is very interesting, Jung. I never pictured people swooning over classical music.
Given that Liszt died in 1886, nine years after the invention of the phonograph, I was wondering if any portions of his later concerts were recorded. It turns out that the first recording of piano music is from an 1888 performance by British composer Arthur Sullivan.
After hearing it, Sullivan recorded a spoken message for Thomas Edison in which he said that he was “astonished at the wonderful power you have developed, and terrified at the thought that so much hideous and bad music may be put on record forever.”
Rather prescient, wasn’t he?
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This is one of Liszt’s greatest piano works, and my favorite. Love the graphics effect. Would be a dream to be able to play like this.
It’s energy and impact is not unlike some rock songs of the Beatles, Hendricks and Led Zeppelin.
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David, I read that some of Beethoven’s recitals when he was at his best form incited some “swooning” too, especially when he played his piano Sonata no 8, but it was really Liszt who was the great virtuoso pianist that had young ladies fainting at his concerts. I believe there are some recordings done by Liszt in his later years, I recall coming across some on Youtube. I will look for it. It’s quite amazing that the kind of passion and impact on the audience that Elvis, Beatles, and great rock stars of today had, did in fact happen with classical music with Liszt. Because of his transcriptions of many of the great classical pieces to piano that he performed, he popularized classical music for the future. Some documentaries mention the Beatles returned the western classical structure and melody back into modern music. Liszt and the Beatles in someway are not that different the way they bridged classical music form into the future.
Now some say Liszt was Beethoven’s equal on the piano, and some say Liszt was better. The jury is out on who was greater on the piano, but it would have been wonderful if Beethoven’s playing could have been recorded for comparison to Liszt and modern great pianists, but I guess we will never know first hand by ear. As a musician, I would put Liszt in the same esteemed league as Hendricks and Clapton.
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….part 2 continuation
And so Bugs Bunny popularizes Liszt for a whole new generation of kids for the 20th century! ?
When I hear this piece, I honestly revert back to the cartoon and the experience when I first heard it as a little kid.
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Interestingly in the Wikipedia article “Beatlemania” they compare Liszt to the Beatles.
During the 1840s, fans of Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt showed a level of fanaticism similar to that of the Beatles. Poet Heinrich Heine coined “Lisztomania” to describe this.[3] Once it became an international phenomenon in 1964, Beatlemania surpassed in intensity and reach any previous examples of fan worship, including those afforded Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
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I vaguely recall seeing these Bugs Bunny bits back in the day, Jung. I had no idea that it was Liszt, of course. The animators were very clever in the way they created visuals to go with the music.
There was a Saturday Night Live sketch a long time ago which was a commercial for a compilation album called something like “Classical Music You Know From Cartoons”. It featured the standard format of playing clips from the compositions as the titles scrolled up the screen, but it included parenthetical subtitles such as “Kill the Wabbit”.
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David, I always liked that Elmer Fudd character trying to hunt down Bugs Bunny. They were so funny. I think there were some Sylvester and Tweety cartoons utilizing classical music too. There were certainly a lot of great music cartoons utilized I remember over the years. Charlie Brown, Mickey Mouse, Merry Melodies cartoon series and many more. That compilation of music from cartoons sound interesting. Will have to search youtube if I can find it.
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I couldn’t find that SNL sketch, Jung, but if you search on “classical music in cartoons” on YouTube you can find plenty of compilations.
It’s not classical music, but this has been my favorite music-related cartoon since I was a little kid:
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/one-froggy-evening-1955-with-michigan-j-frog
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I just noticed a glitch at the three-minute mark of that cartoon where a couple of seconds are missing. Fortunately I managed to track down a patch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfrJzkpzCyg
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Yes, the singing frog episode, one of my all time fave BB episodes, along with Vigaro one, and then there’s the one where BB dresses up like a gal bunny, , a spoof of the Hatfield, McCoys feud, and calls out a square dance to Hatfield n McCoy spoofs….I remember the piano one too, but as you know I have no clue about Classical stuff, just not my thing…but I did enjoy BB playing piano?????????
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I haven’t seen that Frog cartoon David, although I think I’ve seen the frog character before in another cartoon. It is an epic for a cartoon and well done. Thanks for sharing it.
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