On This Day!

[Joy]

July 31, 1886 -- Death in Bayreuth of pianist and prolific composer Franz Liszt, age 74.

Been listening to his transcriptions of Beethoven's 9th Symphony recently. Absolutely wonderful!

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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Peter]

Goodness a lot of deaths in July! Poor old Liszt though had a ghastly last week which wasn't much helped by the attitude of his daughter Cosima who seemed to regard him as an irritating distraction from the festival.

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'Man know thyself'

[Joy]

Again I must ask what did Liszt die from and why was his daughter so unfeeling?

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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Peter]

Originally posted by Joy:
Again I must ask what did Liszt die from and why was his daughter so unfeeling?

I think it was pneumonia. The strained relationship between father and daughter went back many years and had its roots in Liszt's tangled love life - he had left Cosima's mother Marie d'Agoult for Princess Carolyne Von Sayn-Wittgenstein many years earlier when she was still a child. On the day of Liszt's funeral the Bayreuth festival continued (just a mile away!) with Cosima carrying out her administrative duties and the concluding festival banquet proceeded without a mention of Liszt.

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'Man know thyself'

[Joy]

Thanks!!

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'Truth and beauty joined'