7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7obtain a divorce from her husband. They resided together
in Weimar, and this was the period of his greatest produc-
tion: the first 12 symphonic poems, A Faust Symphony (1854;
rev. 1857– 61), A Symphony to Dante’s Divina Commedia
(1855–56), the Piano Sonata in B Minor (1852–53), the Piano
Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major (1849; rev. 1853 and 1856), and
the Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major (1839; rev. 1849 –
61). (A third piano concerto, in E-flat, composed in 1839,
was not discovered until 1988.) During the period in
Weimar Liszt also composed the Totentanz for piano and
orchestra and revised the Transcendental and Paganini Études
and the first two books of the Années de pèlerinage.
The grand duke who originally appointed Liszt in
Weimar died in 1853, and his successor took little interest
in music. Liszt resigned five years later, and, though he
remained in Weimar until 1861, his position there became
more and more difficult. His son, Daniel, had died in 1859
at the age of 20. Liszt was deeply distressed and wrote the
oration for orchestra Les Morts in his son’s memory. In
May 1860 the princess had left Weimar for Rome in the
hope of having her divorce sanctioned by the pope. He
left Weimar in August of the following year, and, after
traveling to Berlin and Paris, he arrived in Rome. He
and the princess hoped to be married on his 50th birth-
day. At the last moment, however, the pope revoked his
sanction of the princess’s divorce; they both remained in
Rome in separate establishments.
Eight Years in Rome
For the next eight years Liszt lived mainly in Rome and
occupied himself more and more with religious music. He
completed the oratorios Die Legende von der heiligen
Elisabeth (1857– 62) and Christus (1855– 66) and a number of
smaller works. He hoped to create a new kind of religious