Life of Chopin (Dover Books on Music) [Paperback]

Franz Liszt (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dover Books on Music | Publication Date: December 27, 2005

This biography of Frédéric Chopin by his friend and fellow artist, Franz Liszt, offers a highly informed assessment of the Polish composer's musical legacy. It's further enlivened by the author's personal acquaintance with Chopin's other friends, who included Sand, Balzac, Hugo, Berlioz, Delacroix, and Schumann. Liszt surveys the brilliance of several of Chopin's masterpieces.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Franz Liszt was a composer and virtuoso pianist who was born in Hungary. Some of his contemporaries praised him as perhaps the greatest pianist of all time. Liszt became well known throughout Europe for his masterful performances and important compositions. His incredible array of new innovations in keyboard technique remain unrivalled to this day. Liszt was the inventor of the symphonic poem - an elastic single movement form used by many other composers such as Richard Strauss and Saint-Saens. It is fascinating to read about Chopin through the eyes of Franz Liszt - a musical genius in his own right. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486446255
• ISBN-13: 978-0486446257
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,202,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Meet Franz Liszt!, May 19, 2009

By 

Erick "reyan_kino" (Mexico City, Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life of Chopin (Dover Books on Music) (Paperback)

This book is really not about Chopin. Liszt's writing is exagerated and more often than not, looses focus on the point he was trying to make, that is, writing about Chopin's life. There are very few significant things about Chopin here, but there is a lot to be found if the book is read from another point of view. If read as a biography it is, indeed, disapointing, but if you see it as a way of getting closer to the personality of Liszt and the circumstances of his time, it's pretty illustrating. In a way, this book shows what Romanticism is all about. So, don't expect a great biography, it's more of a private-joke for romantics, but a very interesting one.

I would recommend it only if you keep in mind that this book will tell you a lot about Franz Liszt, the educated barbarian, but very little about Chopin --or about music for that matter--.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not about Chopin, and not by Liszt, March 29, 2010

By 

Ms. N (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Life of Chopin (Paperback)

I love Chopin, and can easily get drawn into any book about his life. I tried reading this and couldn't get through it. Pages and pages of long, drawn-out descriptions of . . . what? I couldn't even follow it. I kept waiting for it to get to Chopin's life but it never seemed to. Also, Liszt's name is on it, but I don't know that he wrote much, if any, of it - it was largely written by his mistress, Princess von Sayn-Wittgenstein. If you'd like to know more about Chopin, I would recommend almost any other book. Some suggestions: Chopin in Paris by Tad Sculz, The Life and Death of Chopin by Casimir Wierzynski, Chopin by Adam Zamoyski or even the children's book Chopin by Antoni Gronowicz.

1.0 out of 5 stars What a letdown, January 24, 2012

By 

A. Simon (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Life of Chopin (Paperback)

I practically salivated at learning that Liszt had written a biography of his colleague, Chopin. Upon reading it, I was thoroughly disappointed and stopped halfway through. Essentially, the problem stems from the fact that the narrative is full of verbiage that gives almost no facts about Chopin, but engages in endless verbal diarrhea; it seems that Liszt did not actually write the bulk of the book, but some bimbo who had the reputation of loving to talk at length without actually saying anything.

Next time I will buy a real biography of Chopin.