Lisztomania!

Liszt at last! We had to postpone this special evening last season, but here it is our final concert and featuring Denis Lavin as narrator and Ellis Thomas as pianist.
This Liszt project began two to three years ago when I asked Denis to consider another narration concert (following the success of the first about Chopin). Liszt is interesting in so many ways. Some of his compositions are remarkably forward-looking, while he was the instigator of a new style of musical event – the recital. Female audience members threw their gloves at him – some even tried to smoke his discarded cigar stubs!

‘You can only guess at the acclaim he received here; people spoke of nothing but wonders and miracles..‘

These are the words of Liszt’s father, Adam, who organised his first concert tours. ‘Lisztomania!’was the title of a rather wacky Ken Russell film about Liszt, starring Roger Daltry. He borrowed the word from Heinrich Heine, the German poet, who coined it to describe the effect of a Liszt performance on an audience.
Liszt was a composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist and charismatic super-star who dazzled and beguiled audiences throughout the salons and concert halls of Europe. Liszt invented the modern concert recital, devising a repertoire of pieces and playing from memory.
As a virtuoso pianist, Liszt’s performances electrified audiences with the flamboyance of his playing. He was a musical genius who possessed a deeply-felt religious temperament, giving away huge sums of money for good causes, in his words, ‘génie oblige’.
Liszt may be seen as a Don Juan figure who used his charismatic powers to dazzle and beguile, not only the women he knew, but many of the 19th century glitterati. Liszt was attracted to the Faust legend and he himself was a Faust-like character, a sort of magician – as virtuoso, composer or conductor. He was at the forefront of European romanticism, sensitive to the literary, political and social currents of the age. However, from a young age, Liszt was imbued with a deep religious faith and his music reflects his engagement with a transcendental, spiritual world.
Ellis Thomas makes a welcome return to the Club to play for tonight’s performance. He has worked closely on the recital programme which, he hopes, will explore the range of Liszt’s music. Ellis read Music at Cambridge, then went on to pursue post-graduate studies at the Royal Academy.
Denis Lavin is the Chair of Rhyl Music Club. Members may recall that he wrote and presented a programme about the life and times of Chopin and he now turns his attention to Franz Liszt. The evening explores Liszt’s career as the first piano virtuoso, his mesmerising effect on audiences and the conflicts in his personal life.

Rhyl Music Club has commissioned original music from two young Welsh composers: Gwydion Rhys and Ynyr Pritchard, who are studying at the Royal College of Music and Oxford University respectively. Their compositions use the inspiration of Liszt’s life and work to create new pieces. Here are their introductions to the compositions:

The evening promises to be a tour de force of music and words, revealing the paradoxical qualities of Franz Liszt: a generous, romantic and deeply spiritual genius.

Denis Lavin	Ellis Thomas