Works concerning Franz Liszt

Waldstein: The definitive biography. Nothing more comprehensive and scholarly available in any language. Worth every second and every cent a Lisztian cares to spend on it.

Waldstein: The most comprehensive illustrated biography. Massive, rare, expensive, indispensable. The English translation is supposed to have some errors fixed, but the German original is quite good enough for me.

Waldstein: All, or nearly all, contemporary photographs of Liszt reproduced in the best possible quality.

Waldstein: Lavish visual record of Liszt's "Italian Years". Well-written text with many excerpts from contemporary sources.

Waldstein: Badly dated in terms of biography, but still relevant about the music. Excellent essays by, and for, musicians who carry Liszt in their minds, hearts and fingers.

Waldstein: A companion volume to Mr Walker's monumental biography (#1). Excellent essays on some aspects of Liszt that were necessarily glossed over in the three-volume work.

Waldstein: An absolute classic. Still the finest short introduction to Liszt's music, even after more than 60 years. Searle can be unduly dismissive about the orchestral and many of the piano works, but he is genuinely convinced of Liszt's greatness as a composer and he has many fascinating things to say.

Waldstein: Much preferrable to the Cambridge Companion edited by Kenneth Hamilton. More comprehensive, better written, better researched.

Waldstein: A first-hand account of Liszt's last week and death in Bayreuth. Neither essential read nor the revolutionary document claimed by Mr Walker, but an interesting read for the curious Lisztian. The editorial contributions are worth the price of admission.

Waldstein: Fine chapter on Liszt as a pianist by a great expert in the field.

Waldstein: Fine chapter on Liszt as one of the first modern conductors. Revolutionary at the time, still very much relevant to the present day. Liszt's career as a conductor remains one of the best-kept secrets about him.

Waldstein: Not the finest chapter in an otherwise great book. Mr Schonberg is, to say the least, ambiguous about Liszt's personality and music, but his position is interesting as an example of somebody whose genuine admiration for the music is tainted by his (largely fictional) perception of the man.

Waldstein: Some fascinating reflections on Liszt's place in the piano history by a great pianist and a fine writer.

Waldstein: One of the most often quoted first-hand sources about Liszt's famous masterclasses.

Waldstein: The definitive study of the thwarted marriage between Liszt and Carolyne. Massively documented.

Waldstein: The only substantial collection of Liszt letters in English. Marvellously edited by a man well-versed in the period, including aristocratic and ecclesiastical matters, and a genuine admirer of Liszt as a great man and great composer, no apologies.

Waldstein: Liszt bashing par excellence as far as the music is concerned, but not without perceptive, even penetrating, points about Liszt the man, all of it mightily important from a historical point of view as a contemporary (1876-86) reaction.

Waldstein : Very dated biographically, very lame musically. Charmingly sincere and warm about the man, but makes short work of the composer.

Waldstein : For the most part, impersonal and dull beyond endurance. Worth having for a very occasional footnote. Much inferior to the Companion edited by Ben Arnold.

Waldstein : The infamous character assassination that was accepted as gospel by generations of gullible music lovers (and Liszt haters under cover). Very much worth reading, if only to see what depths of iniquity can an eminent music critic sink to.

Waldstein : I haven't read this one, but Alan Walker gives it as an example for the unfortunate fashion, started in the early twentieth century and still fashionable among silly people, to extol Liszt at Wagner's expense (or, more often, vice versa).