Liszt

This book was first published in 1989 and is roughly divided into two sections; the first discusses the composer's life and second provides an in-depth analysis of his compositions. This book is extremely extensive in covering minute details concerning Liszt's nearly continuous travels. This thoroughness is at times taken to the point of being ridiculous and this book is certainly not "Liszt in a nutshell." While this is in many respects good for someone who is seeking a deep understanding Liszt's life, it becomes slightly frustrating if you are attempting to glean the major events of his life. This confusion is augmented by Watson not making value judgments about the compositions - never stating which of Liszt's pieces were more successful. The details pertaining to Liszt's travels also tended to become a confusing jumble. The book is excellent in respect to its frequently citing of significant sources such as writing by Liszt himself or by other composers and friends with whom he was in close contact. Watson does however, have the tendency to become rather tangential when these other sources are introduced, often describing, for example Robert Schumann's life or compositions, quite thoroughly, even when it pertains very little or not at all to Liszt. In a positive light, this gives the reader more than merely an insight into Liszt's life, instead giving a decent history of the Romantic period. The book also places (as reflected in the above biography) substantially more emphasis on Liszt's early life and progressively less as he aged. This is to be expected somewhat because the fascination with Liszt's virtuosity, as well as his traveling much more frequently early in his life. It is nevertheless mildly deficient in regard to extra-musical influences connected with his later pieces. Watson also does a superb job of noting, correcting, and clarifying fallacious legends printed about Liszt in other biographies, such as the one involving Beethoven mentioned previously. There are however, still some issues concerning the validity of what Watson wrote. One example is that according to Watson, Liszt murmured Tristan (Wagner's then most resent creation) just before dieing. According the Grove Dictionary, there is absolutely factual no basis for this and instead suggested that he cried "Luft, Luft" before become comatose and dieing shortly thereafter. While obviously neither can be proven, Watson's story seems much more like an embellished to add to the mystique of Liszt character. In conclusion, the book overall did an excellent job of painting the tale of the composers life. While at times the book did wander from Liszt's story or listed long sequences of names, dates, and places, which eventually became a profound blur, ultimately it must be recognized the difficult of the task Watson was faced with. Following the life Liszt is certainly not the most straightforward undertaking.

The book "Liszt" is an excellent biography of Franz Liszt, describing his life in detail and explaining historical circumstances very well. Schirmer Books, New York, published it in 1989. With about 200 pages this is a standard length biography. Furthermore, 200 additional pages explain and list his music in detail. This book is more than a biography. It contains the biography itself, describes Liszt's technique and teaching, explains the musical language, lists and describes all of his works by using excerpts from the pieces in separate chapters. Especially for person with musical knowledge this is a highly valuable book. However, even for non-musicians this book is worth to read. The author Derek Watson is a musician himself. Besides being a professional composer and pianist, he wrote biographies about Anton Bruckner and Richard Wagner. Derek Watson does a terrific job in explaining the historical circumstances and complex relationships Liszt was involved in. There are so many important historical and political occurrences necessary to mention that it is not the author's fault that sometimes the book gets confusing. There are passages so full of historical facts, that the reader has to stop and read the passage again. It is even more difficult to read if the reader has no musical or music history knowledge at all, since the author uses musical terms or names of musicians without any explanation. This especially refers to the parts of the book where he analyzes each of his works. Knowledge of the German or French language would be appropriate since many titles, descriptions or terms were left in the original language, which would be French, German or Hungarian. For somebody with musical experience, however, this is a great biography and excellent analysis of his life, oeuvre and theory. Interesting are hundreds of excerpts from letters between Liszt and friends or between people writing about Liszt. This and the incredible amount of historical detail show how much work the author put in this book. He uses excerpts from his work to explain music theory and show the unique about his harmony and technique. This biography is certainly not written for middle schoolers or German exchange students. The author uses very good English that is sometimes hard to understand. Nevertheless, people who are interested in music will like it and know the whole truth about Liszt's mysterious life. This book is highly valuable for everybody interested in music or great composers. The book is obviously written for people with musical knowledge and interest in classical music and music theory. Liszt is a classic example of a musician at that time since he experienced everything an artist is confronted with: Tremendous success or failure, dislike of the work by others, a risky lifestyle and the concern about money. This book will please people with interests in music and will be rejected by people who hate music, history and biographies.