Once More, with Feeling!

Franz Liszt ; Hungarian: Liszt Ferencz, in modern use Liszt Ferenc was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher. Liszt... became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age. In the 1840s he was considered by some to be perhaps the greatest pianist of all time. He was also a well-known composer, piano teacher, and conductor. He was a benefactor to other composers, including Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg and Alexander Borodin. As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the "Neudeutsche Schule" . He left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated some 20th-century ideas and trends. Some of his most notable contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form and making radical departures in harmony.
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Ludwig van Beethoven ; baptized 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827 was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure... in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire, Beethoven moved to Vienna in his early 20s, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. His hearing began to deteriorate in his late twenties, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after becoming completely deaf. Beethoven was the grandson of a musician of Flemish origin named Ludwig van Beethoven who moved at the age of twenty to Bonn. who was employed as a bass singer at the court of the Elector of Cologne, rising to become Kapellmeister .
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