Presented at the Grieg Conference in Rome June 7, 2004
Mária Eckhardt, Hungary
Director, Liszt Museum, Budapest
Liszt’s relations with the Scandinavian composers of his time.
Of the Scandinavian countries, Franz Liszt visited only Denmark. In July 1841 he travelled from Hamburg to Copenhagen, accompanied by the composer and organist Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805-1900), one of the most important representatives of the Danish romanticism of the time. Hartmann was held in great esteem by Grieg, as the first to pronounce the deepest thoughts, which echoed later by a whole generation of young composers of the North. While in Copenhagen (from 14 to 26 July 1841), Liszt found the Danish Court and especially King Christian VIII very musical. I quote from one of his „Bachelier” letters: „A king who loves and listens to music’ Truly, this is a rare phenomenon in our times…”
Download the whole paper here
Maria Eckhardt paper 2004