e most important of them at least, were produced in
the first forty years of his life, and testify to enormous energy and
capacity for work, as they came into being during his active period as
a virtuoso. In addition to his musical works, Liszt has shown
distinguished talent in letters, and his articles and pamphlets, notably
the monographs on Robert Franz, Chopin, and the Music of the Gypsies,
indicate that, had he not chosen to devote himself to music, he might
have made himself an enviable name in literature.

Perhaps no better characterization of Liszt could be made than to call
him the musical Victor Hugo of his age. In both these great men we find
the same restless and burning imagination, a quickness of sensibility
easily aroused to vehemence, a continual reaching forward toward the new
and untried and impatience of the old, the same great versatility, the
same unequaled command of all the resources of their respective crafts,
and, until within the last twenty years, the same ceaseless fecundity.
Of Liszt as a player it is not necessary to speak further. Suffice it
that he is acknowledged to have been, while pursuing the path of the
virtuoso, not only great, but the greatest in the records of art, with
the possible exception of Paganini. To the possession of a technique
which united all the best qualities of other players, carrying each
a step further, he added a powerful and passionate imagination which
illuminated the work before him. Wagner wrote of him: "He who has had
frequent opportunities, particularly in a friendly circle, of hearing
Liszt play, for instance, Beethoven, must have understood that this
was not mere reproduction, but production. The actual point of division
between these two things is not so easily determined as most people
believe, but so much I have ascertained without a doubt, that, in order
to reproduce Beethoven, one must produce with him." It was this quality
which made Liszt such a vital interpreter of other composers, as well as
such a brilliant performer of his own works. As a composer for the piano
Franz Liszt has been accused of sacrificing substantial charm of motive
for the creation of the most gigantic technical difficulties, designed
for the display of his own skill. This charge is best answered by a
study of his transcriptions of songs and symphonies, which, difficult in
an extreme degree, are yet rich in no less excess with musical thought
and fullness of musical color. He tr