Franz Liszt is considered the greatest pianist of his time. Born in 1811 in Raiding, Burgenland, he was trained musically by Carlo Cherny and Antonio Salieri. When he was eleven years old he performed in Vienna and this concert opened his way to the musical stages of Europe. He lived in the period of Romanticism, national awakening and the rise of the bourgeoisie. This was a time when the intimacy of the Baroque salon was giving way to the public life of the theatre and a time when the gentility, discernment and sensitivity of the bourgeoisie were being enchanted by the talent of a young virtuoso.
Liszt came to Styria from Vienna in 1846, at the invitation of Eduard Lannoy. He gave his first concert in Graz on the 14th of June, and two days later he played in the Knights' Hall of Maribor Castle. According to the local historian and publicist Rudolf Gustav Puff, the concert of the "the divine giant among pianists" was attented by many visitors from Lower Styria and from Croatia. The concert route then took him back to Graz and from there back to Vienna. He returned to Styria on the 25 of July, when he played at the traditional Anna's Ball in Rogaška Slatina. He continued his journey to Zagreb and from there, via Hungary, to Vienna again, and in September of the same year he set off for Constantinople, arriving there in 1847.
The exhibition was organised in cooperation with the Franz Liszt Memorial Museum and Research Centre in Budapest and the Burgenlad Regional Museum in Eisenstadt.
The exhibition will be on display at the Maribor Regional Museum between June 2016 and June 2019.
