7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7Symphonie fantastique for the piano in 1833. In March 1831
he heard Niccolò Paganini play for the first time. He again
became interested in virtuoso technique and resolved to
transfer some of Paganini’s fantastic violin effects to the
piano, writing a fantasia on his La campanella. At this time
he also met Frédéric Chopin, whose poetical style of music
exerted a profound influence on Liszt.
Years with Marie d’Agoult
In 1834 Liszt emerged as a mature composer with the solo
piano piece Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, based on a
collection of poems by Lamartine, and the set of three
Apparitions. The lyrical style of these works is in marked
contrast to his youthful compositions, which reflected
the style of his teacher Czerny. In the same year, he met the
novelist George Sand and also Marie de Flavigny, countess
d’Agoult, with whom he began an affair. In 1835 she left her
husband and family to join Liszt in Switzerland; their first
daughter, Blandine, was born in Geneva on December 18.
Liszt and Madame d’Agoult lived together for four years,
mainly in Switzerland and Italy, though Liszt made occa-
sional visits to Paris. He also taught at the newly founded
Geneva Conservatory and published a series of essays, On
the Position of Artists, in which he endeavoured to raise the
status of the artist in society.
Liszt commemorated his years with Madame d’Agoult
in the first two books of solo piano pieces collectively
named Années de pèlerinage (1837–54; Years of Pilgrimage),
which are poetical evocations of Swiss and Italian scenes.
He also wrote the first mature version of the Transcendental
Études (1838, 1851); these are works for solo piano based on
his youthful Étude en 48 exercices, but here transformed
into pieces of terrifying virtuosity. He transcribed for
the piano six of Paganini’s pieces—five studies and La