Notable must have been her surprise when Carolyne de Saint-Cricq, a fourteen-year-old aristocrat girl, saw her piano teacher, Franz Liszt, enter the music room, barely a year older than her. The preteen, famous pianist, was returning from a tour of England, France and Switzerland. He had just lost his father, which forced him to become the provider of the short family – he and his mother – giving lessons to aristocratic girls and upper bourgeoisie ladies, in Paris in 1826.
As expected, Carolyne, the daughter of a minister of Carlos X, fell in love quickly with his young teacher, and the young teacher with her. It was love "at first lesson" but with no successful outcome. Anticipating fatal consequences, the minister ended the lessons and the music. Franz fell into depression but then managed to get away from his first – and perhaps unique – love setback. Soon, he was able to continue his successful tours throughout Europe, reaping applause everywhere. Carolyne got married, meanwhile.
Listening to Paganini
Shortly before finding true love in the person of Marie d'Agoult, the young teacher had the opportunity to attend in 1832 a concert presented by the Italian violinist Niccolo Paganini at the Paris Opera. For Franz, the experience was a first-rate one, and he decided to work intensely on his instrument with resolute determination to achieve the amazing excellence shown by the Italian devil with the violin.
Listening to Chopin
Fortunately, within a few months, Liszt went to the Pleyel Hall to listen to a colleague, another young man who was only one year older than him, a Polish, Frédérik Chopin. There he realized that the mere display of the mastery of an instrument was not enough, and that it was also possible to invent an intimate world on the keyboard of a piano. And he understood that if Paganini composed for his violin, he should aim to write for the piano.
Six Études
In the "Six Grandes Études de Paganini", from 1838, Franz Liszt fully fulfilled that purpose. In the Étude No. 3, nicknamed La Campanella, based on a theme from Paganini's Second Violin Concerto, Liszt dared to respond to the diabolic writing of the Italian with a work that, beyond mere virtuosity, constitutes an overwhelming achievement for the intrinsic value of the resulting music.
The rendition is by the Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa.
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