A Virtuoso Visitor

Wherever he performed, Franz Liszt caused a stir. We get a vivid close-up of the dazzling pianist from the celebrated Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, who describes a visit by the 31-year-old Liszt to St. Petersburg in February 1842.

“He played Chopin’s mazurkas, nocturnes, and etudes and in a word, all brilliant and fashionable music very nicely but with awfully affected ‘elegant’ touches. In my opinion, the way he played Bach–whose Well-Tempered Clavier I know practically by heart–was less satisfying, and so was his playing of a Beethoven symphony that he had transcribed for piano.

“In Beethoven’s sonatas and in classical music as a whole, his playing wasn’t suitable, and his way of hitting the keys was choppy, as if he was hacking up cutlets. The way he played Hummel’s septet implied something approaching contempt, and I thought that Hummel had played it incomparably better and more simply. He played Beethoven’s E-flat Piano Concerto much better. When all is said and done, I can’t compare his way of playing with that of John Field, Charles Mayer, or even Sigismund Thalberg, especially when it comes to scales.

“I saw Liszt at various social gatherings. At one of them he sight-read several selections from Russlan and Ludmilla from a manuscript score of mine–pieces unfamiliar to anyone–and to everyone’s amazement he never missed a note.

“Aside from his very long hair, in society he sometimes put on a sort of dainty affectation and at other times laid on an arrogant self-confidence. Other than that, in spite of a certain condescending air, he was generally well liked, especially among artists and young people. He was completely happy to participate in our merrymaking and was by no means reluctant to carouse with us.”

Mikhail Glinka describing an 1842 St. Petersburg visit by Franz Liszt and giving the virtuoso a mixed–but generally favorable—review in his memoirs, written in 1855