It’s so nice to know Liszt was actually a human being. It is especially comforting to have read how he was commented by Czerny in the earlier chapter. He is actually ‘not that perfect’!
The benefit of an early success to an artist is an arguable topic to think about. Just as Czerny commenting Liszt, I incline more to the idea of keeping away from the public before a certain maturity is established. Some say if Mozart wasn’t touring at his young ages he could have achieve even greater. But obviously that’s not true in Liszt’s case. I believe there’s many factors deciding if a musician could finally succeed, and they just work differently to each person.
Liszt established the definition of ‘performer’ nowadays. He started recital. He is the first to perform memorized. And people is obsessed about him. See how many descriptions of ‘his eyes’, ‘his hair’, ‘his clothes’, ‘he walked’, ‘he breathe’!, ‘he kiss’...appeared in the chapter. Music wasn’t anymore the only focus of the crowd. Liszt became more than just a famous pianist. He is a star, almost God. Sadly though this is a phenomenon pretty similar to our society. Besides music, you also need to have a place in market to make you success, no better by the outlook appearance, or personality, or whatever gimmick you can give.
Surprisingly though Liszt despite being a God-like performer, he also took his teaching very sincerely. So far I think he is the guy that took well care of all aspects, e.g. composition, performance and teaching, at the same time. However that is obviously not we’re following these days. In my point of view, nowadays musician are too much being labeled under different streams of music, not much would be considered as ‘all around’ like Liszt does. Even narrowed to only considering performers, still I think we’re divided into the academe and the conservatoire stream. Maybe things changed through time and now we’re just too busy to be all-rounded, or maybe there’s not much that would have the talent that can be compared with Liszt.
It is true that nowadays people are very aware of the outward appearance of musicians. You have to present yourself well in order to get noticed. It is not just about playing anymore- pianists nowadays have websites, pictures, etc.
ReplyDeleteBut I actually do think that pianists have to be more 'all rounded' to have a successful career. You can not just make a living out of performing and have to think outside the box in our modern society.
I agree that Liszt seems to be the first musician to contribute equally in performing, teaching, and composing. Many others seemed to focus more on one than the others. While they may have done all of them, their time was not equally devoted to each.
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