Franz Liszt Museum, Budapest Historic House
Liszt's Antique Pianos, Sheet Music Archive and Memorabilia
Sep 22, 2009
“Everybody mentions it talking to me and would like to see and hear it. One of my friends... calls it the Coliseum of pianos”, wrote Liszt in 1868 referring to his Chickering piano given to him as a gift by Chickering himself, the 19th-century award-winning U.S. piano maker. “The most perfect, most sonorous and agreeable to the touch among those made in the Austrian Empire and beyond”, Liszt wrote of the Bosendorfer piano in 1872.
175 catalogued items – pianos, books, sheet music, letters, photos, paintings, furniture, personal items and memorabilia – are on display in the Franz Liszt Museum in Budapest within the setting of Liszt’s reconstructed apartment. The Museum holds several more Liszt-related items in store, including a sheet music archive.
The Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum is open to the public and the whole collection is open to researchers to view and consult. The Liszt Research Centre based in this historic house coordinates Liszt research in Hungary and abroad.
Franz Liszt’s Antique Pianos
In the Hungarian virtuoso’s reconstructed apartment in Budapest, Hungary, stand three antique pianos, which comprise three of the most important items of the Franz Liszt Museum collection:
- A Chickering concert grand piano with English action, a range of 7 1/3 octaves, straight strung with two pedals. Cast-iron frame and polished palisander case with carved ornamentation. It was given to Liszt in 1867. Length 254 cm.
- A Chickering concert grand piano, English action, range of 7 1/3 octaves, overstrung with three pedals. Cast-iron frame and with dark-lacquered palisander case. Given to Liszt in 1880. Length 260 cm.
- A Bösendorfer piano, baby grand with Viennese action, range of 7 octaves, straight strung, with two pedals. Mahogany plated case. Made probably in 1873. Length 187 cm. The Bösendorfer piano was Liszt’s favourite instrument and he used to play it in his old age.
Other antique pianos or musical instruments include: a table-shaped glass piano by Bachmann; Liszt’s Cabinet Organ, or Harmonium by Mason & Hamlin, Boston, made in 1876; a Pianino-Harmonium; an Orgue Piano, 1866; and Liszt’s travelling dummy keyboard (“Stummerli”) which he carried everywhere in his travels and practised on it in hotels for hours.
Liszt Sheet Music Archive and Books in the Museum Collection
The Liszt Museum holds a large collection of books consisting of 278 titles and 311 volumes. Of these 48 bear notes by Liszt. In her “Liszt’s Estate” of 2009, Mária Eckhardt records 2,509 titles of Liszt sheet music. On display are music sheets in deluxe binding. Many titles of the Liszt sheet music archive contain inscriptions by Liszt and dedications to him.
Researchers can also consult the photos, sculptures, manuscripts, books, music sheets and several personal belongings of Liszt in storage.
Liszt’s Apartment and Memorabilia in Budapest Historic House
In the Franz Liszt Museum the arrangement of the rooms is true to Liszt’s historic house. The reconstruction is based on contemporary writings, eyewitness descriptions, memoirs and Liszt’s correspondence. One of the striking original items that are on display is Liszt’s Composing Desk made of walnut with a middle drawer featuring a small pull-out piano with a three-octave keyboard. It was made and donated to Liszt by Ludwig Bosendorfer, ca. 1877.
Interesting memorabilia on display in this Budapest historic house include Liszt's shirt and handkerchief, cigar case, batons, writing equipment, cutlery, replicas of his hands, death mask, and locks of his hair that are reminding of the era of Lisztomania.
Museum Address: 35 Vorosmarty utca, H-1064 Budapest
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat. 9-5; Sundays, holidays and 1-23 Aug. Closed.
Sources
Catalogue of the Permanent Exhbition, Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum, Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Budapest and the articles of Mária Eckhardt, Dezso Legány and János Kárpati published in Museum’s website.
Photos are courtesy of the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum, with thanks to Museum staff, Dániel Mezei for his help.
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