7 Franz Liszt 7music that would be more direct and moving than the
rather sentimental style popular at the time.
In 1862 his daughter Blandine died at the age of 26.
Liszt wrote his variations on a theme from the J.S. Bach
cantata Weinen, Klagen (Weeping, Mourning) ending with the
chorale Was Gott tut das ist wohlgetan (What God Does Is Well
Done), which must have been inspired by this event. The
princess’s husband died in 1864, but there was no more
talk of marriage, and in 1865 Liszt took the four minor
orders of the Roman Catholic church, though he never
became a priest. In 1867 he wrote the Hungarian Coronation
Mass for the coronation of the emperor Francis Joseph I of
Austria as king of Hungary.
Last Years
In 1869 Liszt was invited to return to Weimar by the grand
duke to give master classes in piano playing, and two years
later he was asked to do the same in Budapest. From then
until the end of his life he divided his time between Rome,
Weimar, and Budapest. His music began to lose some of
its brilliant quality and became starker, more introverted,
and more experimental in style. His later works anticipate
the styles of Claude Debussy, Béla Bartók, and even Arnold
Schoenberg.
In 1886 Liszt left Rome for the last time. He attended
concerts of his works in Budapest, Liège, and Paris and
then went to London, where several concerts of his works
were given. He then went on to Antwerp, Paris, and Weimar,
and he played for the last time at a concert in Luxembourg
on July 19. Two days later he arrived in Bayreuth for the
annual Bayreuth festival. His health had not been good for
some months, and he went to bed with a high fever, though
he still managed to attend two performances. His final ill-
ness developed into pneumonia, and he died on July 31.