Visiting Franz Liszt at his home in Sugár Avenue
Upon entering Franz Liszt’s former home at the Academy of Music, visitors are immediately touched by the master’s spirit channeled through his personal belongings, instruments and different portraits hanging on the walls.
How did he live here? What were the rooms arranged like between January 1881 and April 1886, when Liszt actually lived within these walls?
We have made an attempt to reconstruct what the neighborhood and the building looked like in the 1880s, when Liszt moved in. The exhibition shows who and how prepared the service apartment for him as described in one of his letters.
We also know what his schedule looked like. His daily activity included praying, composing, teaching, tending to official duties, correspondence, caring for his students and engaging in everyday conversations with his guests and fellow professors. He often welcomed prestigious guests, organized soirées and intimate whist-parties with friends during which they often consumed a bottle of fine cognac.
We also know what his schedule looked like. His daily activity included praying, composing, teaching, tending to official duties, correspondence, caring for his students and engaging in everyday conversations with his guests and fellow professors. He often welcomed prestigious guests, organized soirées and intimate whist-parties with friends during which they often consumed a bottle of fine cognac. Instrument makers, publishers, musician friends, owners of the visiting cards left behind and people from descriptions and letters come to life in our exhibition.
We also offer a closer look at the social life of the time by taking our audience into Liszt’s own salon and the adjoining chamber hall. The memories of contemporaries, guests, and students recall some of the exceptional moments from the life of the old master l living in Budapest. These recollections allow us to look at Liszt as a teacher and as a dedicated president fighting to promote and improve the Academy. Liszt in Budapest was known as a cordial host, a composer working hard on completing some of his compositions, an abbé in deep devotion, the pianist meeting with fellow musicians for chamber music and living an overall joyful life socializing as a passionate card player with the wish to win.
Budapest, 25 August 2020
Domokos Zsuzsanna
Exhibition Album of Hungarian Composers,
1885 (Liszt Museum)
The exhibition is presented in Prezi. You can move paragraphs forward or backward by using the navigation buttons, the SPACE button or by pressing the arrow at the bottom of the screen. The mouse can be used to override the built-in skip, position any part, and the mouse scroll wheel can be used to zoom in or out on the selected document.
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Follow the links below to view the virtual exhibition:
Case 1 – Academy of Music on Sugar street
Case 2 – Furniture, Liszt's everyday life in Budapest
Case 3-4 – Compositions written in Liszt’s home at the Avenue
Case 6 – Liszt's visitors – Owners of visiting cards
Case 7 – The most important social scene: drawing-rooms
Case 9 – Liszt’s fellow professors at the Academy
Case 10 – Franz Liszt’s Hungarian students - I
Case 11 – Franz Liszt’s Hungarian students - II
Case 12 – Ferenc Liszt and the Pulszky family
Case 13 – Musical instruments and instrument makers
Case 15 – Liszt and Hungarian Opera
Case 17 – Liszt and his artist friends
Tableau – Important friends, teachers, students to Liszt who living and places in Budapest