Book contents
- Liszt in Context
- Composers in Context
- Liszt in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations and Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part I People and Places
- Part II Society, Thought and Culture
- Chapter 10 The ‘War’ of the Romantics
- Chapter 11 Visual Art and Artists
- Chapter 12 Literature and Literary Heroes
- Chapter 13 Liszt, Women and Salon Culture
- Chapter 14 Liszt as a Writer
- Chapter 15 Patronage
- Chapter 16 Liszt and the Networks of Revolution
- Chapter 17 Liszt’s National Identity
- Chapter 18 Liszt and Religion
- Part III Performance and Composition
- Part IV Reception and Legacy
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 18 - Liszt and Religion
from Part II - Society, Thought and Culture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 September 2021
- Liszt in Context
- Composers in Context
- Liszt in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations and Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part I People and Places
- Part II Society, Thought and Culture
- Chapter 10 The ‘War’ of the Romantics
- Chapter 11 Visual Art and Artists
- Chapter 12 Literature and Literary Heroes
- Chapter 13 Liszt, Women and Salon Culture
- Chapter 14 Liszt as a Writer
- Chapter 15 Patronage
- Chapter 16 Liszt and the Networks of Revolution
- Chapter 17 Liszt’s National Identity
- Chapter 18 Liszt and Religion
- Part III Performance and Composition
- Part IV Reception and Legacy
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
One of the most controversial and multifaceted aspects of Liszt’s life and career concerns his involvement with religion and the Catholic Church. The young Liszt maintained a distinctively secular profile as a flamboyant piano virtuoso of Mephistophelean powers and a restless Don Juan, replete with all the indulgences afforded a musical icon of his time. In his forties and fifties, however, his close relationship with the Catholic Church intensified; after a residency in the Vatican, he received minor orders and subsequently was known as Abbé Liszt. Audiences and critics remained suspicious: How sincere could his attitude toward religion be when he had led such a flamboyant and unconventional life? During his ‘years of pilgrimage’ he retained a long and public relationship with Marie d’Agoult, a woman he never married; he had had three illegitimate children; and after their breakup, he met and carried on an equally public relationship with Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein. The fact that he decided to become an Abbé only after the thwarted nuptials to Sayn-Wittgenstein in Rome, continues to fuel mistrust of his motives.
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- Liszt in Context , pp. 163 - 172Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021