Stainer, Prout and Sir Arthur Sullivan. He played his own first piano concerto in 1881
with the Royal Philharmonic under the direction of Hans Richter, who introduced him to
Liszt the next year.
D’Albert studied with Liszt at Weimar in 1882 and performed Liszt’s piano works on 29
September 1882 and Liszt’s first piano concerto on 22 October 1882. D’Albert was one
of the most brilliant of the later pupils of Liszt, who called him the ‘second Tausig’.
Liszt wrote that he knew of ‘no more gifted as well as dazzling talent than d’Albert’.
D’Albert toured extensively as a soloist and with the celebrated violinist Sarasate, and
became famous as a conductor. He was for a time court pianist to the Grand Duke in
Weimar. Under the composer’s baton he played both Brahms piano concertos in Leipzig
in 1894 and in Vienna in 1895.
He had found Liszt’s Sonata unattractive yet ten years after Liszt’s death, that is, by 1906,
he was performing it with enthusiasm, as reported by Friedheim. He never studied it with
Liszt. In 1913 he made a Welte reproducing piano roll of the Sonata. He also issued an
edition of it.
In 1905 d’Albert gave the United States première of his own second piano concerto with
the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He succeeded Joachim as Director of the Berlin
Hochschule in 1907, and performed Liszt’s E major Polonaise at the Liszt Festival which
was held at the Liszt Academy of Music, in Budapest, from 21 to 25 October 1911. He
wrote piano music and twenty-one operas, one of which, ‘Tiefland’ is still occasionally
performed. He performed Beethoven, Brahms and Liszt and was one of the first to
perform Debussy in Germany. Reger started to write a piano concerto for d’Albert but
never finished it.
D’Albert’s pupils included Ernst von Dohnányi, Wilhelm Backhaus and Edouard Risler.
Among his marriages was one of three years, 1892-1895, to the pianist, Teresa Carreño.
They had daughters Eugènie and Hertha. He spent much of his life in Germany and
became a German citizen. He lost much of his British following when he took up the
German cause in the First World War.
‘The Collected Works of Franz Liszt’ were published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 34
volumes between 1907 and 1936. They were edited under the aegis of the Franz Liszt
Foundation by Eugen d’Albert, Ferruccio Busoni, Peter Raabe, August Stradal, José
Vianna da Motta, Bernhard Kellermann, Béla Bartók, Otto Taubmann, Philipp Wolfrum
and Bernhard Stavenhagen.
D’Albert made two Liszt discs, and several Liszt rolls. D’Albert issued a highly ‘edited’
edition of the Sonata, and an edition of the E flat major piano concerto providing Liszt’s
comments ascertained in discussions with him at Weimar in 1875. He also issued an
edition of the Hungarian Rhapsodies. In later years d’Albert concentrated on
composition rather than on his career as a concert pianist. D’Albert’s roll of the Liszt
Sonata was recorded on a Feurich grand piano and has been reproduced by Denis Condon