Adam Liszt - Raising Franz Liszt

Raising Franz Liszt

At his house in Raiding, Adam staged chamber concerts. While Franz was 5 and his musical genius revealed itself, when following his father's musical work, Adam started to teach him music. When the fame grew, sponsors could finance private education in Vienna for the young Franz. Franz's parents stayed close to their son throughout his travels to Vienna and Paris, where they settled in 1823. The purpose was to let Franz study at he famous Conservatoire de Paris but they didn't admit foreigners, so Adam picked up teaching his son again, with a rigid schedule of practising Bach and other composers on the piano, with transposition of fugues and other daily technique improving exercises. Adam spent most of his time as the manager of his son's career, with tours in many European countries, and resigned from the service for prince Esterházy. Franz found his father's supervision quite demanding, but without it, he had difficulties to improve himself and didn't go back to hard exercises until a turning point much later, after meeting other young talented musicians like Paganini, Chopin and Mendelssohn, and realised what he was missing, and his career as a musician could continue.