April 25-July 23, 2001
The André Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments, 2nd floor
The last piano owned by famed Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt (1811-86) – known as a revolutionary figure of romantic music and the one of the great virtuoso pianists – is currently on view in The André Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through July 23. Manufactured around 1865 by the French company Erard, the grand piano was owned by Liszt during the last 15 years of his life and was used by him primarily for composing and teaching. It was lost after Liszt's death but was rediscovered in 1991 by the Italian pianist Carlo Dominici, the current owner of the instrument, with its soundboard miraculously intact. After a period of careful restoration, this historic instrument has been returned to playing order.
Leslie Howard, pianist and president of the British Liszt Society, compared the piano to other surviving Liszt instruments by saying: "The Erard piano is not comparable to the Steingraber of Weimar, the Bosendorfer or the Chickering preserved in Budapest, as alas they are no longer playable. This Erard is the only instrument of Liszt's that today can be brought back to the concert hall and used for recordings and documentaries."
Personally chosen by Liszt, the piano was kept on an upper floor of his apartment at Villa
d'Este in Tivoli, Italy, where he stayed occasionally as the guest of Cardinal Gustav Hohenlohe. He used the piano to compose – notably Les jeux d'eaux à la Villa d'Este, Angelus, and Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este – as well as to teach such pupils as Rosenthal, Sgambati, Lippi, and Albeniz, and to present concerts. Almost 20 years after Liszt's death, in 1904, the last known public concert using the piano took place when Ignace Paderewski performed at the Vatican for Pope Pius X. Subsequently the whereabouts of the instrument were unknown, and it was assumed lost.
In 1991, Carlo Dominici rediscovered the piano in a religious institution in Rome. After several years of research he was able to establish its identity through letters written by Liszt's pupils and through the composer's correspondence with Baroness Olga von Meyendorff. Further evidence of its authenticity was found when, during restoration of the instrument, beads were discovered inside; the beads proved to be those missing from Liszt's rosary, which is now on display at the Liszt Museum in Budapest. After the restoration, Georgy Orvecz, Leslie Howard, Lazar Berman, and Carlo Dominici have played the piano in concert.
The piano features a rosewood case and 85 keys. At seven feet in length, its size is comparable to a regular grand piano today. Its precise measurements are: L. 6 feet 10- 3/4 inches (210 cm); W. 4 feet 7 inches (140 cm); and H. 3 feet 1-1/2 inches (93.3 cm).
Franz Liszt debuted on the concert stage at nine and studied with Czerny and Salieri. He was known as a revolutionary figure of romantic music and was acknowledged as the greatest piano virtuoso of his time. Audiences were fascinated by his expressive interpretations and grand style of playing, which was augmented with dramatic gestures. In 1848, he began his career as a composer and became musical director to the duke of Weimar. In 1861, he moved to Rome, where under the guidance of Monsignor Gustav
Hohenlohe, he prepared for admission in the lower orders of the Catholic Church; he would be known as "Abbé Liszt" for the rest of his life. He moved into Hohenlohe's private apartments in the Vatican, where he lived for about 14 months. Liszt's ties to the clergy were further strengthened when he was made an honorary Canon of Albano in 1879. In contrast to the
exuberant, life-enhancing style of his younger years, Liszt composed darker, more contemplative music in his old age. Liszt owned several pianos during his lifetime, but Erard pianos like the one on view at the Metropolitan Museum provided him with instruments capable of the great expressivity for which he was known. Its double-escapement action, allowing rapid repetition of the same note, and its heavier action enabled Liszt to write and play special effects evoking joy, melancholy, and great power. He died on July 31, 1886.
In conjunction with the installation, the Museum presented two free concerts, on May 3 and May 6, by Carlo Dominici in The André Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments.
Franz Liszt's Grand Piano was organized by J. Kenneth Moore, the Frederick P. Rose Curator in Charge of the Department of Musical Instruments.
###
May 14, 2001
Press resources