Adam Liszt

As the second child of Georg Adam List and Katharina (née Baumann),[2] he was born in Nemesvölgy (today Edelstal, Austria), a village close to the Austrian border in the Kingdom of Hungary.

Franz tried to learn the common tongue of his kingdom in the 1870s, but in spite of his great language skills he could not reach fluency level.

An attempt by Liszt to continue as a student of philosophy at the Royal Academy in Pressburg (today Bratislava) ended in the first year due to financial reasons.

He started to compose music and dedicate it to the Prince in order to be transferred back to the Western part of Sopron County.

In his spare time, he played cello in the orchestra led by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, the successor of Haydn, and had the opportunity to work with many musicians who came to Kismarton to perform, including Cherubini and Beethoven.

This happy time ended when Liszt was transferred to the Esterházy estate of Doborján (today Raiding, Austria) in 1809, as an overseer of the herd of about 50,000 sheep (Rentmeister der Fürstlich Esterházyschen Schäferei).

So Liszt continued to teach his son, with a rigid schedule of practicing Bach and other composers on the piano, with transposition of fugues and other daily technique improving exercises.

After resigning from the Esterhazys' service Liszt spent most of his time as the manager of his son's career, with tours in many European countries.

Franz's full musical maturity was reached after his father died, when he heard the works of such composers as Mendelssohn, Schubert and Schumann.

Though he always honored the memory of Adam Liszt, who had been accused by the French gutter press of exploiting the child prodigy, he never visited his grave at Boulogne-sur-Mer.

The two were staying at a retreat centre for Franz to rest after a physician's order; however, the father became fatally ill with typhoid fever, died, and was buried there.