WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are opening 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:04.980 up a file that I have to admit I thought was 00:00:04.980 --> 00:00:06.400 going to be a pretty straightforward history 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:10.099 lesson. I saw the name Fernanda's List and my 00:00:10.099 --> 00:00:13.119 brain immediately went to classical music. You 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:16.960 know, I pictured a dusty bust on a piano, polite 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:20.739 applause, maybe a velvet smoking jacket. Which 00:00:20.739 --> 00:00:22.820 is the standard image for sure. It's what most 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:26.109 people think of. Right. But after reading through 00:00:26.109 --> 00:00:29.570 this stack of research, the biographies, the 00:00:29.570 --> 00:00:32.210 letters, the music analysis, I realized that 00:00:32.210 --> 00:00:34.609 image is completely wrong. Or at least it's a 00:00:34.609 --> 00:00:37.210 tiny piece of the story. It's maybe 10 % of the 00:00:37.210 --> 00:00:38.710 story. We aren't just talking about a composer 00:00:38.710 --> 00:00:40.869 today. We are talking about the man who practically 00:00:40.869 --> 00:00:43.950 invented the concept of the superstar. It's not 00:00:43.950 --> 00:00:46.390 an exaggeration to say he was the blueprint for 00:00:46.390 --> 00:00:48.770 the modern rock guy. I mean, before Elvis, before 00:00:48.770 --> 00:00:51.409 the Beatles, before Michael Jackson. There was 00:00:51.409 --> 00:00:53.689 Franz Liszt. The sources describe scenes that 00:00:53.689 --> 00:00:55.490 sound like they're from a stadium tour in the 00:00:55.490 --> 00:00:59.229 1960s, not Europe in the 1840s. Fainting fans, 00:00:59.450 --> 00:01:02.149 actual hysteria, people collecting his garbage 00:01:02.149 --> 00:01:05.069 as souvenirs. It's just, it's wild. It really 00:01:05.069 --> 00:01:08.310 is. But the mission for this deep dive. isn't 00:01:08.310 --> 00:01:11.049 just to gawk at the celebrity aspect, as fun 00:01:11.049 --> 00:01:13.849 as that is. No, because the fame is almost a 00:01:13.849 --> 00:01:16.750 distraction. It's the shiny object. If you look 00:01:16.750 --> 00:01:19.189 deeper, as we're going to do, you find a man 00:01:19.189 --> 00:01:22.769 living what he himself called a tripartite existence. 00:01:23.250 --> 00:01:25.670 The three lives. I found that concept fascinating. 00:01:25.769 --> 00:01:28.549 Exactly. You have the hedonistic celebrity touring 00:01:28.549 --> 00:01:30.849 the world and, you know, breaking hearts. Okay, 00:01:30.909 --> 00:01:33.450 that's life number one. Then you have this serious, 00:01:33.549 --> 00:01:36.829 almost avant -garde musical innovator who changed 00:01:36.829 --> 00:01:38.920 the very... structure of how we listen to music. 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:41.040 And then the third one, which is the twist I 00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:43.400 really didn't see coming. The religious recluse. 00:01:43.420 --> 00:01:45.680 Yeah. The man who retreats to a monastery to 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:48.420 become an abbé. It is a massive, massive narrative 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:51.260 arc. So we are going to unpack all of it. We've 00:01:51.260 --> 00:01:53.980 got the biographical data, the scandalous relationship 00:01:53.980 --> 00:01:57.239 details, the war of the romantics, and analysis 00:01:57.239 --> 00:02:00.219 of music that, frankly, was predicting the future. 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:02.680 And to understand how you get a man this complex, 00:02:03.019 --> 00:02:05.840 you have to start... where every superhero origin 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:08.080 story starts. The discovery of the power. The 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:09.879 discovery of the power. Okay, let's jump into 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:14.060 act one, the making of a prodigy. So List enters 00:02:14.060 --> 00:02:17.039 the world in 1811 in a small town called Doborzhan. 00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:20.280 Today it's in Austria, but back then it was part 00:02:20.280 --> 00:02:22.259 of the Kingdom of Hungary. And looking at his 00:02:22.259 --> 00:02:24.439 family background, it seems like the die was 00:02:24.439 --> 00:02:27.699 cast pretty early. His father, Adam List, wasn't 00:02:27.699 --> 00:02:30.729 just some random bureaucrat. Adam is a crucial 00:02:30.729 --> 00:02:33.210 figure here. He was a land steward for the Esterhazy 00:02:33.210 --> 00:02:35.689 princes. Now, if you know your music history, 00:02:35.810 --> 00:02:38.389 the name Esterhazy is huge. Right. That's Hayden's 00:02:38.389 --> 00:02:40.229 family. That's the family that employed Joseph 00:02:40.229 --> 00:02:43.150 Hayden for decades. So Adam List actually played 00:02:43.150 --> 00:02:45.569 cello in the court orchestra. He knew Hayden 00:02:45.569 --> 00:02:47.590 personally. He had seen musical greatness up 00:02:47.590 --> 00:02:50.490 close. So when his son, little Franz, crawls 00:02:50.490 --> 00:02:52.469 up to the piano at age five and starts not just 00:02:52.469 --> 00:02:54.490 plinking, but actually improvising melodies, 00:02:54.750 --> 00:02:56.550 Adam doesn't just think, oh, that's cute. No, 00:02:56.610 --> 00:02:59.759 he recognizes the spark immediately. And he becomes, 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:03.139 well, let's say intense is a good word. The sources 00:03:03.139 --> 00:03:05.780 say Adam diligently encouraged his progress, 00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:08.479 which is a very polite way of saying he drilled 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:11.120 the kid relentlessly. And it pays off. By age 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:13.599 nine, Franz is giving his first public concert. 00:03:13.819 --> 00:03:17.580 And it goes incredibly well. So well, in fact, 00:03:17.639 --> 00:03:20.539 that a group of wealthy Hungarian sponsors steps 00:03:20.539 --> 00:03:23.099 in. They basically create a scholarship fund 00:03:23.099 --> 00:03:26.240 to finance his education in Vienna. So this is 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:28.900 the first big pivot. The family packs up and 00:03:28.900 --> 00:03:31.800 moves to the capital of music. And Adam, through 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:35.159 sheer will, manages to land him a teacher who 00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:38.360 is basically piano royalty, Carl Czerny. Now, 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:40.479 for anyone listening who took piano lessons as 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:42.900 a child, the name Czerny might trigger a little 00:03:42.900 --> 00:03:46.080 bit of PTSD. Oh, the finger exercises. Thousands 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:49.039 of them. Exactly. But we have to remember, Czerny 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:51.419 wasn't just a writer of exercise books. He was 00:03:51.419 --> 00:03:53.759 a student of Beethoven. He was the real deal. 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:56.800 The direct lineage. But the funny thing is, the 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:59.379 notes say Czerny initially didn't want to teach 00:03:59.379 --> 00:04:01.620 him. Right, he was overworked. He hated teaching 00:04:01.620 --> 00:04:03.840 children. He called them infant prodigies with 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:06.949 a bit of a... sneer. But Adam List begged him 00:04:06.949 --> 00:04:09.169 just to listen to the boy play for a few minutes. 00:04:09.590 --> 00:04:12.210 So Fran sits down, plays a few bars, and Cherni 00:04:12.210 --> 00:04:15.169 is just floored. What did he say? He later wrote 00:04:15.169 --> 00:04:17.430 that it was like nature herself had formed a 00:04:17.430 --> 00:04:19.569 pianist. He was so impressed he ended up teaching 00:04:19.569 --> 00:04:21.949 List for free for the next year and a half. That's 00:04:21.949 --> 00:04:24.329 the ultimate endorsement right there. But there's 00:04:24.329 --> 00:04:25.850 an even bigger endorsement that pops up in the 00:04:25.850 --> 00:04:29.470 legends, right? The Beethoven kiss. Ah, yes. 00:04:29.810 --> 00:04:31.870 Yeah? This is one of the most famous stories 00:04:31.870 --> 00:04:34.990 in all of classical music lore. It's such a cinematic 00:04:34.990 --> 00:04:37.350 moment. It feels like it has to be true. The 00:04:37.350 --> 00:04:41.889 story goes that in 1823, Liszt gives his farewell 00:04:41.889 --> 00:04:44.810 concert in Vienna. He's 12 years old. And the 00:04:44.810 --> 00:04:47.589 great Ludwig van Beethoven himself, old and deaf, 00:04:47.769 --> 00:04:51.250 walks onto the stage, grabs the boy, and kisses 00:04:51.250 --> 00:04:53.230 him on the forehead. The passing of the torch. 00:04:53.449 --> 00:04:55.670 It is. The old king anointing the new prince. 00:04:56.559 --> 00:04:59.199 But I have to be the buzzkill historian here. 00:04:59.279 --> 00:05:02.339 Oh, no, it didn't happen. The evidence is very 00:05:02.339 --> 00:05:05.860 shaky. Beethoven was profoundly deaf by 1823. 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:08.439 He rarely, if ever, attended public concerts. 00:05:08.699 --> 00:05:10.639 Most modern scholars are pretty sure this is 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:12.860 apocryphal. A good story that got repeated. But 00:05:12.860 --> 00:05:14.779 the fact that people believed it for so long 00:05:14.779 --> 00:05:16.740 tells you everything you need to know. Liszt 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:19.379 was seen as the heir apparent. You'd carry that 00:05:19.379 --> 00:05:21.899 weight. So the heir apparent heads to Paris. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:24.639 The family moves there so he can attend the famous 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:27.000 Conservatoire de Paris. And this is where they 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:28.899 hit a wall that just feels incredibly unfair. 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:32.319 It was pure bureaucratic nonsense. The director 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:35.220 at the time, a composer named Luigi Cherubini, 00:05:35.420 --> 00:05:39.079 refused to let Liszt enroll. Not because he wasn't 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:41.199 talented. No, no. He was probably more talented 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:43.480 than the teachers. It was because he was a foreigner. 00:05:43.779 --> 00:05:46.519 The rules stated the conservatoire was for French 00:05:46.519 --> 00:05:50.290 citizens only. Imagine being the guy who rejected 00:05:50.290 --> 00:05:53.490 Franz Liszt because of his passport. Oof. Not 00:05:53.490 --> 00:05:55.709 a great look in retrospect. But this rejection 00:05:55.709 --> 00:05:58.850 seems to just fuel him. He studies privately. 00:05:58.990 --> 00:06:01.610 He writes a whole opera by age 14, Don Sanch. 00:06:01.790 --> 00:06:03.769 He's touring England, playing for King George 00:06:03.769 --> 00:06:07.110 IV. He is on the absolute fast -tracked glory. 00:06:07.449 --> 00:06:09.810 Until the floor just falls out from under him. 00:06:09.910 --> 00:06:13.709 In 1827, Adam Liszt dies suddenly of typhoid 00:06:13.709 --> 00:06:16.689 fever. And Franz is only 15 years old. 15. I 00:06:16.689 --> 00:06:18.350 want to pause on this because this feels like 00:06:18.350 --> 00:06:20.329 the moment where the child prodigy narrative 00:06:20.329 --> 00:06:23.930 just crashes and burns. He's 15. His father was 00:06:23.930 --> 00:06:26.389 his manager, his teacher, his mentor, his entire 00:06:26.389 --> 00:06:28.350 support sister. His whole world. And now he's 00:06:28.350 --> 00:06:30.149 alone in Paris and he has to support his mother. 00:06:30.329 --> 00:06:33.589 It was a brutal, brutal transition. The glamour 00:06:33.589 --> 00:06:37.339 was gone. Overnight, he had to work. The sources 00:06:37.339 --> 00:06:39.560 describe him just walking all over Paris, giving 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:41.800 piano lessons from early morning until late at 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:44.620 night. He was completely exhausted. And this 00:06:44.620 --> 00:06:47.600 is where some of the rock star habits start to 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:50.220 form, isn't it? It is. He started smoking heavily, 00:06:50.339 --> 00:06:52.459 started drinking. He fell into a deep depression 00:06:52.459 --> 00:06:54.920 and had a crisis of faith. He actually considered 00:06:54.920 --> 00:06:57.160 becoming a priest right then and there. Wow. 00:06:57.360 --> 00:06:59.660 For a few years, he stopped touring. He was just 00:06:59.660 --> 00:07:03.220 drifting. He was reading voraciously. hanging 00:07:03.220 --> 00:07:05.379 out with intellectuals like Victor Hugo and George 00:07:05.379 --> 00:07:08.279 Sand. But musically, it was kind of stagnant. 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:10.600 He needed a jumpstart. And according to the timeline, 00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:13.939 that jumpstart arrived in 1832. But it wasn't 00:07:13.939 --> 00:07:15.980 a pianist who inspired him. No, which is the 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:18.180 fascinating part. It was a violinist. Niccolo 00:07:18.180 --> 00:07:20.459 Paganini. The devil's violinist. Just the best 00:07:20.459 --> 00:07:22.800 nickname ever. Paganini came to Paris and gave 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:26.079 a concert that basically terrified people. He 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:28.560 played with such speed, such violence, and such 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:31.100 technical perfection that people legitimately 00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:33.740 whispered that he had sold his soul to Satan 00:07:33.740 --> 00:07:36.240 for his abilities. And List is in the audience 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:39.160 for this. And List has an epiphany, a life -changing 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:42.399 moment. He realizes that the piano is capable 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:45.279 of that same level of sorcery. He looks at what 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:47.439 Paganini is doing, the showmanship, the impossible 00:07:47.439 --> 00:07:51.680 leaps, the drama, and he says to himself, I will 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:54.620 be the Paganini of the piano. So this isn't just 00:07:54.620 --> 00:07:57.220 about practicing a few more scales. This is a 00:07:57.220 --> 00:08:00.899 complete reconstruction of his entire It was 00:08:00.899 --> 00:08:03.019 obsessive. He basically locked himself away. 00:08:03.180 --> 00:08:07.600 He practiced for 10, 12, sometimes up to 14 hours 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:09.980 a day. 14 hours? I mean, that's not practice. 00:08:10.019 --> 00:08:12.379 That's physical torture. He was drilling things 00:08:12.379 --> 00:08:14.699 no one else was doing. Double octaves, rapid 00:08:14.699 --> 00:08:17.300 -fire repeated notes, massive stretches for the 00:08:17.300 --> 00:08:20.259 hand. He wasn't just learning songs. He was expanding 00:08:20.259 --> 00:08:22.639 the very mechanics of what the human body could 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:24.680 do on a keyboard. So he goes into this crucible. 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:27.300 And he emerges from it, not just as a great pianist, 00:08:27.300 --> 00:08:30.060 but as a monster. This sets the stage perfectly 00:08:30.060 --> 00:08:34.039 for act two, the virtuoso in Listomania, because 00:08:34.039 --> 00:08:35.559 when he comes back to the public scene, he's 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:37.980 ready for a fight. And he finds a rival almost 00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:41.019 immediately. Every great champion needs a foil. 00:08:41.559 --> 00:08:45.240 For List, that foil was Sigismund Thalberg. The 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:47.419 descriptions of this rivalry are just hilarious. 00:08:47.580 --> 00:08:50.320 It's like a refined 19th century version of a 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:53.500 rat beef. It really was. Thalberg was the reigning 00:08:53.500 --> 00:08:56.679 darling of the Paris salons. He was handsome. 00:08:57.379 --> 00:08:59.360 aristocratically aloof and he played with this 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.399 beautiful singing tone the gimmick was that he 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:05.240 never moved a muscle in his face he was the epitome 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:08.379 of cool control and list is the complete opposite 00:09:08.379 --> 00:09:11.240 he's sweat and passion and hair flying everywhere 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:14.139 and list being young and you know full of himself 00:09:14.139 --> 00:09:17.120 wrote an article publicly trashing thalberg's 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:19.990 music calling it Impotent and monotonous. Shots 00:09:19.990 --> 00:09:22.470 fired. Big time. So the public, of course, demanded 00:09:22.470 --> 00:09:24.629 a showdown. It was billed as the Ivory Duel. 00:09:24.730 --> 00:09:26.509 Do you love that name? It happened at the salon 00:09:26.509 --> 00:09:30.250 of the Princess Belgio Shoso in 1837. Ostensibly, 00:09:30.250 --> 00:09:31.870 it was a charity event for Italian refugees, 00:09:32.149 --> 00:09:34.230 but everyone in that room knew it was a title 00:09:34.230 --> 00:09:37.490 fight. So they both play. Falberg plays his Fantasia 00:09:37.490 --> 00:09:40.129 on themes from Rossini. Liszt plays his Niobe 00:09:40.129 --> 00:09:42.149 fantasy. The tension in that room must have been 00:09:42.149 --> 00:09:44.429 suffocating. And then the princess has to deliver 00:09:44.429 --> 00:09:46.710 the verdict. Her verdict is absolutely legendary. 00:09:47.340 --> 00:09:50.139 She stands up and says, Thalberg is the first 00:09:50.139 --> 00:09:52.960 pianist in the world. Okay, so that sounds like 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:55.899 a clear loss for Liszt, a public takedown. But 00:09:55.899 --> 00:09:58.299 then she continued. She let that sink in, and 00:09:58.299 --> 00:10:00.779 then she said, Thalberg is the first pianist 00:10:00.779 --> 00:10:04.700 in the world, but Liszt is unique. Ooh, that 00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:07.820 is such a masterful diplomatic sidestep. But 00:10:07.820 --> 00:10:10.659 it was the truth. Thalberg was perfect, but he 00:10:10.659 --> 00:10:13.539 was terrestrial. Liszt was something else entirely. 00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:17.750 And after that duel, Thalberg's star slowly faded 00:10:17.750 --> 00:10:20.490 and Liszt just exploded into the stratosphere. 00:10:20.669 --> 00:10:22.529 This is what launches the period that becomes 00:10:22.529 --> 00:10:24.889 known as Lisztomania. And we should be clear, 00:10:24.950 --> 00:10:27.529 we use that word lightly now. But it was coined 00:10:27.529 --> 00:10:29.909 by the poet Heinrich Hein as a genuine medical 00:10:29.909 --> 00:10:32.210 diagnosis. He wasn't being poetic, he was being 00:10:32.210 --> 00:10:33.889 literal. He was actually kind of horrified by 00:10:33.889 --> 00:10:36.190 it. It wasn't just applause, it was mass hysteria. 00:10:36.330 --> 00:10:39.169 When Liszt played, women would literally faint. 00:10:39.289 --> 00:10:41.269 They would fight each other to get close to the 00:10:41.269 --> 00:10:43.549 stage. I was reading about the souvenirs. It 00:10:43.549 --> 00:10:45.659 wasn't just asking for an autograph. Oh, not 00:10:45.659 --> 00:10:48.100 even close. If Liszt left a pair of velvet gloves 00:10:48.100 --> 00:10:50.840 on the piano after a concert, the audience would 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:54.100 rush the stage and rip them to shreds so everyone 00:10:54.100 --> 00:10:56.600 could have a little scrap of fabric. That's insane. 00:10:57.159 --> 00:10:59.320 They collected his cigar stubs and wore them 00:10:59.320 --> 00:11:01.940 in lockets around their necks. Wait, cigar stubs? 00:11:02.039 --> 00:11:04.899 In a locket? Yeah. That is... That's a new level 00:11:04.899 --> 00:11:07.259 of dedication. There are documented reports of 00:11:07.259 --> 00:11:10.059 women keeping his used coffee dregs in glass 00:11:10.059 --> 00:11:12.840 vials. There was a level of obsession that was 00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:15.940 completely new. So you have to ask, why? I mean, 00:11:15.940 --> 00:11:18.960 was he just handsome? The portraits show he was 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:21.200 very striking. Long hair, sharp features. He 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:23.539 was, no doubt. But it's the performance style. 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:27.059 Before Liszt, pianists... played with their backs 00:11:27.059 --> 00:11:29.559 to the audience or facing them directly over 00:11:29.559 --> 00:11:31.259 the piano. You couldn't really see their hands 00:11:31.259 --> 00:11:33.399 or face. Liszt was the one who turned the piano 00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:36.039 sideways, creating the profile position that 00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:38.019 is standard for every concert pianist today. 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:40.720 He wanted them to see his face. He's thinking 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:43.600 about the optics. He wanted them to see the suffering, 00:11:43.720 --> 00:11:46.539 the ecstasy, the sweat. He made the music visual. 00:11:46.909 --> 00:11:49.809 He understood instinctively that an audience 00:11:49.809 --> 00:11:52.330 listens with their eyes just as much as their 00:11:52.330 --> 00:11:55.149 ears. He also completely changed the format of 00:11:55.149 --> 00:11:57.129 the concert itself. Before him, you didn't go 00:11:57.129 --> 00:11:59.429 to a piano recital. No, that word didn't even 00:11:59.429 --> 00:12:01.950 exist in that context. A concert was a variety 00:12:01.950 --> 00:12:04.190 show. You'd have an orchestra, then a singer, 00:12:04.289 --> 00:12:07.929 maybe a poet, a violinist, and then a pianist 00:12:07.929 --> 00:12:10.269 might play one or two pieces. A real grab bag. 00:12:10.450 --> 00:12:12.610 Right. And Liszt decided that wasn't enough. 00:12:12.870 --> 00:12:16.409 In 1839, he wrote a now famous letter where he 00:12:16.409 --> 00:12:19.649 just declared, Le concert. C 'est moi. The concert 00:12:19.649 --> 00:12:22.289 is me. The sheer arrogance of it. And it was 00:12:22.289 --> 00:12:24.730 arrogant, but he backed it up. He was the first 00:12:24.730 --> 00:12:26.629 person to walk out on stage completely alone 00:12:26.629 --> 00:12:29.009 with no orchestra, no other acts, and play for 00:12:29.009 --> 00:12:31.710 two hours straight. And from memory, too, which 00:12:31.710 --> 00:12:33.970 was not standard at the time. Not at all. It 00:12:33.970 --> 00:12:35.870 was high wire acrobatics with no safety net. 00:12:36.460 --> 00:12:39.440 And the audiences just ate it up. He toured Europe 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:42.740 relentlessly. Russia, Turkey, Ireland, Portugal. 00:12:42.860 --> 00:12:45.299 He played over a thousand concerts in eight years. 00:12:45.399 --> 00:12:47.519 He was the most famous man in Europe, bar none. 00:12:47.799 --> 00:12:50.460 But, and here is the nuance that I think makes 00:12:50.460 --> 00:12:52.279 him so much more interesting. He wasn't just 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:54.759 hoarding the cash like some kind of diva. The 00:12:54.759 --> 00:12:57.440 research really emphasizes his charity. That's 00:12:57.440 --> 00:13:00.200 a crucial counterpoint to his ego. He made a 00:13:00.200 --> 00:13:03.419 fortune, an absolute fortune, but he gave massive 00:13:03.419 --> 00:13:06.100 amounts of it away. Like what? When the Great 00:13:06.100 --> 00:13:09.440 Fire of Hamburg in 1842 left thousands homeless, 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:12.320 Liszt immediately rushed there to play a series 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:15.220 of charity concerts. He donated huge sums to 00:13:15.220 --> 00:13:17.320 the completion of the Cologne Cathedral. He set 00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:19.779 up pension funds for struggling musicians. He 00:13:19.779 --> 00:13:22.080 really established a precedent that the artist 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:24.860 has a moral duty to society. So he's burning 00:13:24.860 --> 00:13:27.240 the candle at both ends. He's touring. He's composing. 00:13:27.259 --> 00:13:29.360 He's giving away money. He's dodging screaming 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:31.799 fans. It sounds completely unsustainable. It 00:13:31.799 --> 00:13:35.419 was. And then, abruptly... In 1847, he stops. 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.840 He just quits. Quits. Cold turkey. But he's 35 00:13:38.840 --> 00:13:41.600 years old. He is at the absolute zenith of his 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:44.360 fame. That's like Mick Jagger retiring in 1975. 00:13:44.620 --> 00:13:46.919 Why on earth would he walk away from that? He 00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:49.500 was tired of the circus. He felt that being a 00:13:49.500 --> 00:13:53.460 traveling virtuoso was, in his own words, a mountebank's 00:13:53.460 --> 00:13:56.519 trade, like being a carnival act. He wanted to 00:13:56.519 --> 00:13:59.279 be taken seriously as a composer. He wanted to 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:01.539 create art that would last longer than the applause 00:14:01.539 --> 00:14:04.200 of one night. So he accepts a job in a small, 00:14:04.220 --> 00:14:07.139 quiet German court called Weimar. And this kicks 00:14:07.139 --> 00:14:09.639 off Act III, the Weimar years and the infamous 00:14:09.639 --> 00:14:12.059 War of the Romantics. This is the intellectual 00:14:12.059 --> 00:14:14.620 heart of his life. He becomes the Kapelmeister, 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:16.960 the official music director in Weimar. Yeah. 00:14:17.019 --> 00:14:19.379 And he basically turns this sleepy little town 00:14:19.379 --> 00:14:21.740 into the European center of the avant -garde. 00:14:21.860 --> 00:14:24.100 He gathers a posse. He does. Becomes known as 00:14:24.100 --> 00:14:26.620 the New German School. And this group included 00:14:26.620 --> 00:14:29.299 some heavy hitters like Hector. berlioz and most 00:14:29.299 --> 00:14:31.759 famously a young controversial composer named 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:34.419 richard wagner and they were united by a specific 00:14:34.419 --> 00:14:37.559 philosophy about what music should be a philosophy 00:14:37.559 --> 00:14:40.899 that caused a war A literal war of words and 00:14:40.899 --> 00:14:43.940 ink that raged for decades. On one side, you 00:14:43.940 --> 00:14:46.320 had the conservatives, led by Johannes Brahms, 00:14:46.379 --> 00:14:48.940 and the powerful critic Edward Hanslick. They 00:14:48.940 --> 00:14:50.720 believed in what they called absolute music. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.360 Which means what exactly? Music for music's sake. 00:14:53.539 --> 00:14:56.720 Pretty much. The idea that music shouldn't be 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.480 about anything. A symphony shouldn't tell a story. 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:01.580 It shouldn't represent a painting or a poem. 00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:03.940 It should just be pure sound, form, structure, 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:07.019 harmony. It's abstract art. Okay, so that's Team 00:15:07.019 --> 00:15:10.340 Brahms. And Liszt's side. Liszt and the New German 00:15:10.340 --> 00:15:13.480 School were champions of program music. They 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:15.539 believed music should be explicitly linked to 00:15:15.539 --> 00:15:18.080 literature, poetry, and painting. It absolutely 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:20.539 should tell a narrative. So it's like, is music 00:15:20.539 --> 00:15:23.179 a beautiful, abstract pattern, or is it a painting 00:15:23.179 --> 00:15:25.500 of a story? That's a perfect way to put it. And 00:15:25.500 --> 00:15:27.899 to prove his point, Liszt invents a brand new 00:15:27.899 --> 00:15:31.330 genre, the symphonic poem. Right. This is a huge 00:15:31.330 --> 00:15:34.110 innovation. It is. A symphonic poem is a piece 00:15:34.110 --> 00:15:36.809 for orchestra, usually in one long, continuous 00:15:36.809 --> 00:15:39.610 movement that is driven entirely by an extra 00:15:39.610 --> 00:15:43.289 musical idea. So Liszt writes Le Prelude, based 00:15:43.289 --> 00:15:46.429 on a poem by Lamartine. He writes Mazepa. based 00:15:46.429 --> 00:15:48.610 on a Victor Hugo poem about a Ukrainian hero 00:15:48.610 --> 00:15:50.730 being strapped to a wild horse. He's literally 00:15:50.730 --> 00:15:53.350 painting with sound. Exactly. And the conservatives 00:15:53.350 --> 00:15:56.409 absolutely hated it. They thought it was formless, 00:15:56.549 --> 00:15:59.350 self -indulgent, and that it was destroying the 00:15:59.350 --> 00:16:01.769 purity of the classical tradition established 00:16:01.769 --> 00:16:04.929 by Beethoven and Mozart. This war of the romantics 00:16:04.929 --> 00:16:07.009 got nasty, right? Oh, it was brutal. They were 00:16:07.009 --> 00:16:09.230 savaging each other in newspapers and journals 00:16:09.230 --> 00:16:12.169 for decades. It was the major artistic fault 00:16:12.169 --> 00:16:14.309 line of the 19th century. But while he's fighting 00:16:14.309 --> 00:16:18.000 this big artistic war, His personal life is arguably 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:20.559 even more dramatic. We can't talk about List 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:22.240 without talking about the women in his life. 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:26.779 List's love life was, well, complicated is an 00:16:26.779 --> 00:16:29.179 understatement. His first major partner was Marie 00:16:29.179 --> 00:16:32.059 de Gaulle. A countess. A countess, yes. And she 00:16:32.059 --> 00:16:35.100 was married with children. She basically abandoned 00:16:35.100 --> 00:16:37.299 her husband and family to run away with List. 00:16:37.500 --> 00:16:39.320 That's scandal number one. They lived together 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:41.120 for years, traveling through Switzerland and 00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:43.759 Italy. Those travels directly inspired one of 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:46.820 his most famous piano cycles, Anne de Pelerinache, 00:16:46.980 --> 00:16:49.340 Years of Pilgrimage. And they had three children 00:16:49.340 --> 00:16:52.860 together. They did. Blandine, Kosuma, and Daniel. 00:16:53.460 --> 00:16:55.899 But the relationship was incredibly volatile, 00:16:56.039 --> 00:16:58.440 and they eventually had a very bitter split. 00:16:58.759 --> 00:17:01.740 And then, in 1847, right around the time he decides 00:17:01.740 --> 00:17:04.779 to retire from touring, he meets Princess Caroline. 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:08.420 Princess Caroline Zuzane Wittgenstein. A Polish 00:17:08.420 --> 00:17:12.319 noblewoman? Immensely wealthy. Very, very intellectual. 00:17:12.700 --> 00:17:15.339 Also married. Also very married. I'm sensing 00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:18.539 a pattern here. He liked powerful, intelligent 00:17:18.539 --> 00:17:21.480 women who were technically unavailable. He certainly 00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:24.730 did. But Carolyn was different. She wasn't just 00:17:24.730 --> 00:17:27.789 a lover, she became his manager, his muse, his 00:17:27.789 --> 00:17:30.029 intellectual equal. She was the one who really 00:17:30.029 --> 00:17:32.250 convinced him to stop touring and focus on composing. 00:17:32.470 --> 00:17:35.069 She moved to Weimar to be with him, setting up 00:17:35.069 --> 00:17:37.450 a home called the Villa Altenburg, which became 00:17:37.450 --> 00:17:39.470 the headquarters of the new German school. But 00:17:39.470 --> 00:17:41.630 they couldn't get married. Not while her husband 00:17:41.630 --> 00:17:43.690 was alive. This was the Catholic Church. There 00:17:43.690 --> 00:17:46.210 was no divorce. So they spent over a decade and 00:17:46.210 --> 00:17:48.009 a fortune trying to get her marriage annulled 00:17:48.009 --> 00:17:49.970 by the Vatican. They pulled every string. They 00:17:49.970 --> 00:17:51.750 paid every lawyer. And finally, it looks like 00:17:51.750 --> 00:17:54.069 they've done it. Finally, in 1861, it looks like 00:17:54.069 --> 00:17:57.130 they have succeeded. The Pope himself gives the 00:17:57.130 --> 00:17:59.210 green light. They plan the wedding for Liszt's 00:17:59.210 --> 00:18:02.589 50th birthday in a church in Rome. The stage 00:18:02.589 --> 00:18:05.329 is set for the happy ending. And then... And 00:18:05.329 --> 00:18:08.450 then, the day before the wedding, literally hours 00:18:08.450 --> 00:18:11.150 before they are to be married, a messenger from 00:18:11.150 --> 00:18:13.980 the Vatican arrives. Don't tell me. The annulment 00:18:13.980 --> 00:18:16.759 is halted. The permission is withdrawn. What 00:18:16.759 --> 00:18:19.839 happened? How? It turns out Caroline's estranged 00:18:19.839 --> 00:18:22.319 husband's family and even the Tsar of Russia 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:25.640 were pulling strings behind the scenes. They 00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:27.720 were terrified that if she married Liszt, her 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:30.099 massive fortune would leave their control and 00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:33.079 go to this Hungarian musician. So they used their 00:18:33.079 --> 00:18:35.720 political power to block it at the last possible 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:37.359 second. That is just absolutely heartbreaking 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:40.079 to get that close. It broke them. The wedding 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:42.500 never happened. Caroline became a religious recluse, 00:18:42.599 --> 00:18:44.940 and List's life took another sharp, dark turn. 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:48.099 This leads us right into Act IV, tragedy, the 00:18:48.099 --> 00:18:50.839 church, and teaching. The 1860s seemed to be 00:18:50.839 --> 00:18:53.359 just a cascade of one piece of bad news after 00:18:53.359 --> 00:18:55.819 another for him. He called it his decade of sadness. 00:18:56.180 --> 00:18:59.319 And it really was. In 1859, his son Daniel died 00:18:59.319 --> 00:19:02.279 of tuberculosis at age 20. Then just a few years 00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:05.279 later, in 1862, his daughter Blandine died in 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:08.140 childbirth. She was only 26. So he's lost two 00:19:08.140 --> 00:19:10.910 of his three children. The love of his life is 00:19:10.910 --> 00:19:13.390 legally barred from marrying him. He's feeling 00:19:13.390 --> 00:19:15.829 isolated in the music world because of the war. 00:19:16.049 --> 00:19:19.950 He felt completely and utterly alone. So what 00:19:19.950 --> 00:19:22.130 does the former rock star, the great hedonist, 00:19:22.130 --> 00:19:25.309 do? He retreats. He retreats. He moves into a 00:19:25.309 --> 00:19:28.210 monastery in Rome, the Madonna del Rosario. And 00:19:28.210 --> 00:19:31.390 in 1865, he shocks the entire world by taking 00:19:31.390 --> 00:19:33.470 minor orders in the Catholic Church. He becomes 00:19:33.470 --> 00:19:36.549 a monk. Well, not a full priest. He couldn't 00:19:36.549 --> 00:19:39.009 say mass or hear confession. But he became an 00:19:39.009 --> 00:19:41.119 abbé. He had to shave his head in the tonsure 00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:44.119 style. He wore the black cassock. He lived in 00:19:44.119 --> 00:19:47.059 a Spartan cell with just a hard bed, a crucifix, 00:19:47.059 --> 00:19:49.839 and a piano. That image is just wild to me. The 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:52.160 guy who had women fighting over his silk handkerchiefs 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:54.680 is now known as Abbe List, living in a monastery 00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:57.240 and writing choral music. And he wrote some beautiful, 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:00.220 profound religious works in this period, pieces 00:20:00.220 --> 00:20:02.900 like his Oratorio Christus and the very stark 00:20:02.900 --> 00:20:05.680 Viacrucis. But he didn't just stop being List. 00:20:05.900 --> 00:20:08.490 This is where that tripartite existence he talked 00:20:08.490 --> 00:20:10.490 about really solidifies. He divides his year. 00:20:10.589 --> 00:20:13.170 He divides his year into three parts. He would 00:20:13.170 --> 00:20:15.990 spend part of the year in Rome living his monastic 00:20:15.990 --> 00:20:19.599 life. Then he'd go to Weimar. to teach and advise 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:22.000 the court. And then he'd go to Budapest, where 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:24.460 he was a national hero and helped found their 00:20:24.460 --> 00:20:26.940 Academy of Music. The source notes say he was 00:20:26.940 --> 00:20:29.619 traveling something like 4 ,000 miles a year 00:20:29.619 --> 00:20:32.059 in his old age. I mean, that's grueling even 00:20:32.059 --> 00:20:34.920 today, let alone in the 1870s on steam trains 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:37.799 and carriages. He was restless. Yeah. But he 00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:40.640 dedicated a huge part of this later life to teaching. 00:20:41.069 --> 00:20:42.950 And this is another major innovation we have 00:20:42.950 --> 00:20:45.470 to credit him for. He basically invented the 00:20:45.470 --> 00:20:47.869 master class. So how is his teaching different 00:20:47.869 --> 00:20:50.690 from a normal lesson? Before Liszt, piano lessons 00:20:50.690 --> 00:20:53.269 were almost always one -on -one, a very private 00:20:53.269 --> 00:20:56.250 affair. Liszt held group lessons. A student would 00:20:56.250 --> 00:20:57.690 get up and play a piece in front of everyone 00:20:57.690 --> 00:21:00.250 else, a room full of their highly talented peers. 00:21:00.509 --> 00:21:02.210 And Liszt would critique them while the others 00:21:02.210 --> 00:21:04.109 watched and learned. So it was a performance 00:21:04.109 --> 00:21:06.309 and a lesson rolled into one. High pressure. 00:21:06.589 --> 00:21:09.599 Very high pressure. And his teaching style was 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:11.240 fascinating. He didn't care about your technique. 00:21:11.480 --> 00:21:13.160 He assumed if you were in his class, you could 00:21:13.160 --> 00:21:15.579 already play the notes. He famously told the 00:21:15.579 --> 00:21:18.380 students, wash your dirty linen at home. Meaning, 00:21:18.539 --> 00:21:21.200 do your boring skills and exercises before you 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:23.519 come to me. Right. Don't waste my time with that. 00:21:23.619 --> 00:21:26.140 He focused entirely on interpretation. on the 00:21:26.140 --> 00:21:28.680 poetry, the soul of the music. There's a funny 00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:30.519 quote where a student was banging on the keys 00:21:30.519 --> 00:21:33.119 too hard and Liz stopped him and said, do not 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:36.259 chop beefsteak for us. He wanted art, not just 00:21:36.259 --> 00:21:39.519 noise. He wanted poetry. But here is the absolute 00:21:39.519 --> 00:21:41.460 kicker, and this really speaks to the transformation 00:21:41.460 --> 00:21:44.420 in his character. Yeah. He never charged a single 00:21:44.420 --> 00:21:47.359 penny for these lessons. What? For decades. For 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:49.220 the last 20 years of his life, he taught hundreds 00:21:49.220 --> 00:21:51.299 of students, the next generation of Europe's 00:21:51.299 --> 00:21:55.450 greatest virtuosos, completely for free. He believed 00:21:55.450 --> 00:21:57.589 that since God had given him the gift of music, 00:21:57.809 --> 00:22:00.190 he had a moral duty to give it back to others. 00:22:00.450 --> 00:22:04.190 That is such a stark, unbelievable contrast to 00:22:04.190 --> 00:22:07.470 le concert, c 'est moi. It creates this fascination 00:22:07.470 --> 00:22:10.089 duality, doesn't it? The ego and the servant. 00:22:10.309 --> 00:22:13.369 He was somehow simultaneously both. So let's 00:22:13.369 --> 00:22:16.230 move to Act V, his musical legacy and a glimpse 00:22:16.230 --> 00:22:18.809 into the future. Because while he's traveling 00:22:18.809 --> 00:22:20.630 and teaching for free, he's still composing. 00:22:21.210 --> 00:22:23.829 And the music he writes in his final years, the 00:22:23.829 --> 00:22:27.130 old age works, is, for lack of a better word, 00:22:27.309 --> 00:22:30.009 bizarre. Bizarre is exactly the right word. If 00:22:30.009 --> 00:22:32.049 you listen to his early stuff, the Hungarian 00:22:32.049 --> 00:22:34.410 Rhapsodies, for example, it's flashy, romantic, 00:22:34.630 --> 00:22:38.509 full of catchy melodies. But his late work, pieces 00:22:38.509 --> 00:22:42.089 like Nuige's Gris, which means gray clouds, or 00:22:42.089 --> 00:22:45.180 the Bagatelle's Sans Tonalité. It sounds like 00:22:45.180 --> 00:22:47.740 it was written in the 1950s, not the 1880s. How 00:22:47.740 --> 00:22:50.140 so? For the non -musicians listening, what was 00:22:50.140 --> 00:22:52.380 he doing that was so strange? He was systematically 00:22:52.380 --> 00:22:54.960 dismantling the rules of music. He abandoned 00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:57.460 traditional keys. He was using harsh dissonance, 00:22:57.539 --> 00:22:59.980 strange chords like the tritone, which used to 00:22:59.980 --> 00:23:02.299 be called the devil in music, and harmonies that 00:23:02.299 --> 00:23:04.440 just hang in the air and never resolve. Why is 00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:06.480 never resolving such a big deal? Think of a simple 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:08.680 song like Happy Birthday. At the end, on the 00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:10.619 last note, it feels finished. You've arrived 00:23:10.619 --> 00:23:13.799 home, musically. That's tonality. Liszt, in these 00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:15.579 late pieces, took away the home. The music just 00:23:15.579 --> 00:23:17.880 floats in this anxious, gray, uncertain space. 00:23:17.940 --> 00:23:20.700 It's unsettling. So he saw the cliff edge of 00:23:20.700 --> 00:23:22.940 romantic music, where everything was big and 00:23:22.940 --> 00:23:25.500 heroic and emotional, and he just jumped off 00:23:25.500 --> 00:23:28.059 into the void. He completely predicted the breakdown 00:23:28.059 --> 00:23:30.519 of tonality that would define 20th century music. 00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:33.440 He was anticipating impressionism, like Debussy, 00:23:33.660 --> 00:23:37.119 and even atonality, like Schoenberg, by decades. 00:23:37.380 --> 00:23:39.920 He famously told one of his students, the time 00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:42.200 for such things has not yet come. I can wait. 00:23:42.680 --> 00:23:44.819 He knew. It's incredible. We also need to touch 00:23:44.819 --> 00:23:47.220 on his relationships with other composers because 00:23:47.220 --> 00:23:49.480 he was like the Kevin Bacon of the 19th century. 00:23:49.619 --> 00:23:52.279 He knew absolutely everyone. And he was, for 00:23:52.279 --> 00:23:55.099 the most part, incredibly generous. He championed 00:23:55.099 --> 00:23:58.079 Berlioz when no one else would. He transcribed 00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:00.420 all nine of Beethoven's symphonies for piano 00:24:00.420 --> 00:24:02.539 so people in small towns without an orchestra 00:24:02.539 --> 00:24:05.119 could hear them. But his relationship with Richard 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:07.900 Wagner is the most complex and dramatic. Here 00:24:07.900 --> 00:24:11.319 we go. The soap opera part again. List. was Wagner's 00:24:11.319 --> 00:24:13.839 greatest champion. He helped Wagner when Wagner 00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:15.720 was a political refugee and nobody would touch 00:24:15.720 --> 00:24:18.519 him. He gave him money. He conducted the premieres 00:24:18.519 --> 00:24:20.720 of his operas in Weimar when no one else would. 00:24:20.960 --> 00:24:24.359 He was his cheerleader, his banker, his promoter. 00:24:24.440 --> 00:24:27.839 And how did Wagner repay this incredible loyalty? 00:24:28.420 --> 00:24:31.839 By having an affair with Liszt's daughter, Cosima. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:33.480 Who was already married at the time. She was 00:24:33.480 --> 00:24:36.140 married to Hans von Bülow, who wasn't just anybody. 00:24:36.910 --> 00:24:39.710 He was Liszt's favorite student and a brilliant 00:24:39.710 --> 00:24:42.170 conductor in his own right. It was an absolute 00:24:42.170 --> 00:24:45.250 mess, a complete betrayal. How did Liszt handle 00:24:45.250 --> 00:24:47.029 that? I mean, that would destroy most families. 00:24:47.349 --> 00:24:50.650 It caused a massive rift. Liszt and Wagner didn't 00:24:50.650 --> 00:24:53.529 speak for years. Imagine the pain your best friend 00:24:53.529 --> 00:24:55.769 runs off with your daughter, destroying your 00:24:55.769 --> 00:24:59.849 favorite student's life in the process. But eventually... 00:24:59.960 --> 00:25:01.740 The pull of the music and the fact that Kosima 00:25:01.740 --> 00:25:03.440 had children with Wagner, his grandchildren, 00:25:03.720 --> 00:25:05.519 brought them back together. A reconciliation. 00:25:06.079 --> 00:25:09.660 A tense one, but yes. And in a poetic, almost 00:25:09.660 --> 00:25:12.799 tragic twist of fate, Liszt actually died in 00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:15.460 Bayreuth. Bayreuth is the town where Wagner built 00:25:15.460 --> 00:25:18.380 his massive custom opera house, right? The temple 00:25:18.380 --> 00:25:20.700 to his own music. Exactly. Liszt died there in 00:25:20.700 --> 00:25:23.900 1886 during the annual Wagner Festival. He passed 00:25:23.900 --> 00:25:25.980 away essentially in the shadow of the man he 00:25:25.980 --> 00:25:28.200 had helped make famous, the man who had also 00:25:28.200 --> 00:25:31.299 caused him so much pain. Wow. That's a complicated 00:25:31.299 --> 00:25:34.359 end. It is. But by that time, I think Liszt was 00:25:34.359 --> 00:25:37.799 beyond caring about worldly fame or slights. 00:25:37.900 --> 00:25:41.440 He had lived enough for 10 lifetimes. So let's 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:43.299 try and bring all of this together. We started 00:25:43.299 --> 00:25:45.599 by calling him a rock star, but clearly rock 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:48.539 star is too small a label for this man. He is 00:25:48.539 --> 00:25:50.940 the Brudge. That's how I see him. He was supposedly 00:25:50.940 --> 00:25:53.440 kissed by Beethoven, representing the classical 00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:56.160 past. And he wrote music that sounded like the 00:25:56.160 --> 00:25:58.640 atonal modernists representing the 20th century 00:25:58.640 --> 00:26:02.180 future. He contains the entire 19th century within 00:26:02.180 --> 00:26:04.660 his own life and work. And he completely transformed 00:26:04.660 --> 00:26:07.799 the piano. He took it from being a polite parlor 00:26:07.799 --> 00:26:09.940 instrument into a powerhouse that could rival 00:26:09.940 --> 00:26:12.339 an entire orchestra. He changed how we listen 00:26:12.339 --> 00:26:14.900 to music. He changed how we sit at a concert. 00:26:15.079 --> 00:26:17.079 He changed how we think about the role of the 00:26:17.079 --> 00:26:19.720 artist in society, from celebrity to servant. 00:26:19.900 --> 00:26:21.940 It's just incredible to think about that journey. 00:26:22.569 --> 00:26:24.710 From the boy practicing 14 hours a day to be 00:26:24.710 --> 00:26:27.430 like Paganini, to the superstar dodging fans, 00:26:27.849 --> 00:26:31.029 to the old abbé in a robe teaching for free. 00:26:31.269 --> 00:26:33.369 It's a life of constant radical reinvention. 00:26:33.470 --> 00:26:36.049 He never settled. Just when the world thought 00:26:36.049 --> 00:26:38.190 they had him figured out, he would change into 00:26:38.190 --> 00:26:40.869 someone else. Okay, so here's a final thought 00:26:40.869 --> 00:26:43.809 for you to chew on as we close out. We talked 00:26:43.809 --> 00:26:47.289 about his famous, unbelievably arrogant, quote, 00:26:47.869 --> 00:26:51.059 Le concert c 'est moi. The concert is me. It's 00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:54.420 the ultimate statement of ego. The peak of his 00:26:54.420 --> 00:26:57.299 celebrity phase. Right. But he ended his life 00:26:57.299 --> 00:26:59.759 living in a monastery cell, serving the church, 00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:02.079 and teaching the next generation of artists for 00:27:02.079 --> 00:27:05.480 zero profit. It raises the question, which was 00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:08.539 the real Liss? Was the humility of his old age 00:27:08.539 --> 00:27:11.019 a genuine penance for the arrogance of his youth? 00:27:11.180 --> 00:27:14.900 Or was the performance of the humble abbé just 00:27:14.900 --> 00:27:17.500 another role he was playing, the ultimate act 00:27:17.500 --> 00:27:20.410 of a lifelong showman? That is something to mull 00:27:20.410 --> 00:27:22.829 over. Was the monk just the final costume change? 00:27:23.109 --> 00:27:25.170 Or was it the man who was trying to be all along? 00:27:25.329 --> 00:27:27.730 We'll never truly know. And that mystery, I think, 00:27:27.730 --> 00:27:29.750 is part of his legend. Thanks for diving deep 00:27:29.750 --> 00:27:31.490 with us today. If you enjoyed this, maybe go 00:27:31.490 --> 00:27:33.509 listen to Nuez's, it's only about two minutes 00:27:33.509 --> 00:27:35.589 long, and see if you can hear the 20th century 00:27:35.589 --> 00:27:37.549 hiding inside it. We'll catch you on the next 00:27:37.549 --> 00:27:38.029 deep dive.