Franz Liszt is considered by many to be the prototype of the modern superstar. He was, and probably still is, the greatest keyboard artist to have ever walked the Earth. He was electrifying in concert and thrilled audiences all over Europe with his intense and unbelievably virtuosic stylings on piano. Women swooned and men were inspired; admirers would even pay good money for the water in which the great artist washed his hands before a performance. Like the amazing violinist/guitarist, Paganinni, Liszt was so dazzling in his abilities that it was often rumored he had made a “deal with the devil”. You may not be a fan of classical music, but you have probably heard at least a few of Liszt’s titles somewhere before...such as “Mephisto Waltz”, a piano tone poem depicting Lucifer dancing in the forest with his paramours. Yes, there is a band by that name, as well as a surprisingly good gothic horror film from the 1970’s starring Jaquiline Bissett and an impressively unMASH-like Alan Alda. Rent it sometime. Franz Liszt’s famous piece permeates the soundtrack and has a prominent place in the plot as well.

Liszt’s taste in women tended toward those of high birth. From 1833 to 1844, at the height of his fame as a concert pianist, he carried on a relationship with the French countess, Marie d’Agoult, who, as a writer, used the pseudonym Daniel Stern in order to get published in a male dominated era. Their relationship could not withstand the stress of Liszt’s constant touring and came to an end after little more than a decade, though they had three children. One of their offspring, Cosima, became reknowned in her own right as wife of Hans von BÄlow and, later on, the composer, Richard “Ride of the Valkyries“ Wagner. In 1847, Liszt met the Russian princess, Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, a sister of the Tsar. He also abandoned his concert career that same year and rarely performed in public after that. Some people blame the princess for this, but it might be suggested that Liszt was already tending in this direction, as he wished to pursue more orchestral composition and higher studies. Princess Carolyne was his perfect accomplice in this, a true muse of the artist. He remained with her for the rest of his life; they grew old together with their mutual affection undimmed by time. Franz achieved great prominence as music director at the grand ducal court at Weimar, where he conducted the orchestra and championed the radical new works of Berlioz, Wagner, et al. With Carolyne at his side he moved to Italy during the 1860s, partly due to an air of scandal at Weimar since Carolyne was, in fact, an already married woman. In Italy he studied theology and actually became a lay cleric of the Church.

The two lovers also attempted to marry, but were thwarted in this because Carolyne had failed to complete her divorce. Liszt eventually became one of the most eminent music educators in Europe and established the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. During this era he composed a number of orchestral works including the famous “Hungarian Rhapsodies”, as well as presaging the atonal music of later eras. The princess herself became even more reknowned in cultural circles than she had already been, becoming friends with many of the great artists and composers of the period. Is this not the stuff of high romance...the “great genius” and his most profound muse, a true life princess?

There was another female acquaintance of Franz Liszt who used a male pseudonym to publish novels and other writings: the notorious George Sand. Her real name was Aurore Dudevant, nee Amantine Aurore Lucille Dupin, and in her case use of the masculine alter ego went well beyond a mere formality in order to publish. Her notoriety as a radical oddball and a promoter of equal rights for women went throughout France, even assuming scandalous proportions in some circles. She would occasionally dress as a man and go alone to places like the opera, where a young lady should never go unescorted; smoking cigars and insisting that the men address her as “mon frere”, forcing them to treat her as “one of the guys”. She was not, however, a lesbian or cross-dresser. She merely desired equal footing in an era in which women were barred from many of the pursuits enjoyed by men, especially socially.

She had a handful of affairs with various men both during and after her marriage to a brutish husband, which was eventually dissolved in her favor by the courts. She is still known as perhaps the greatest female novelist of her era; her novels often dealt with feminist themes as well, though they were of more depth than to focus only on that subject. She alarmed many of her more conservative readers with frank depictions of female sexuality, but they were all drawn in by the power of her writing. She was a charismatic social presence, and her adamantine will may even have led her to be a “better man” than many of “the guys”. All in all she was quite an amazing person and an attractive woman too.

Of all the other pianists of the age, there were very, very few who were even in the same universe as Liszt. One of these few was the great Polish/French pianist/composer, Frédéric Chopin. Chopin wrote almost exclusively for his own instrument, composing only a smattering of works for orchestra (and two of these were piano concertos). He was extremely sensitive and only rarely performed his works for the general public, preferring the drawing rooms of wealthy patrons or sophisticated illuminati. He was quite famous nevertheless, and the toast of Paris from his published music alone. His persona and physical appearance would have him the envy of uber-goths everywhere were he alive today. His skin was extremely pale, almost like porcelain, with those sort of bluish or rose blushes where the veins and arteries pass beneath. He posessed graceful, almost feminine, limbs and was of a very delicate bearing overall. In spite of this, he still came off as masculine as well as handsome, and many women were crazy about him. Anyone who met him came away with an indelible impression of his immense refinement and astute knowledge of many of the higher pursuits; his every mannerism and the way he spoke were redolent with aesthetic virtue and high culture. He was the epitome of “the artist as a sensitive membrane”. In short, he was a beautiful man, marred only by the persistent cough that accompanied him wherever he went.

When, in 1837, Liszt introduced Chopin and George Sand to one another, they were both infatuated but Chopin was terrified of Aurore. He, the delicate, sensitive male, fled in something resembling abject terror from this powerful female. She was smitten though, and in a short time had captured him and made him her own. Their relationship was tempestuous, and for Chopin at least, the most devastating event of his life. In 1838 he was diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis), which ultimately killed him at the age of 39. He and Aurore travelled to Spain and the Balearics for his health where she nursed him and spoiled him with affection, all the while both continuing to work at their respective arts. They became a reknowned couple throughout cultural Europe. A severe falling out led Aurore to leave Chopin shortly before his death, prompting scathing criticism for her actions from some quarters. Their affair lasted barely a decade, but by most accounts was the most important relationship in the life of either, despite both having had other significant couplings. Today, George Sand is remembered for this relationship even more than for her writings, which are of considerable value.

Clara Josephine Wieck was a child prodigy on the piano. She was to become one of Europe’s leading concert pianists over a long and rewarding career. Her parents were music educators and among their students was an ambitious young man named Robert Schumann, who came to live with them in 1830. He had aspirations as a concert pianist at first, but was humbled by the maiming of one of his fingers in a freak accident. Nevertheless, he wote beautifully for piano as well as voice and would eventually become one of the romatic era’s leading composers, with four symphonies, many chamber works and piano pieces, and second only to Schubert in sheer output of songs.

In 1837 Robert proposed marriage to Clara. Her father was adamantly against it and fought to divide the lovers before Clara turned 21 and could marry without his permission. They took legal action to be allowed to marry, won their case, and married on the day before her 21st birthday just to rub it in. They were as close to blissful as a marriage can be and were blessed with a number of fine children. They rapidly became one of the era’s favorite couples and their home became almost a shrine for musicians from all over Europe. They were at the true heart of the age of romance, just as one might say Sam Rosenthal and Lisa Feuer reside within the vortex of today’s darkwave swirl. They were the fulfilled, rather than tormented, romantics. They were often visited by luminaries such as Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and the young Johannes Brahms. In fact Brahms lived with them for several years studying with Robert. His famous “Lullaby“ was written to put the Schumann children to sleep so he could attain the peace and concentration required for composition.

The cloud that accompanies this silver lining was Robert’s occasional heavy depression. In 1852/53 he suffered a serious psychological attack and plunged deeply into a fluctuating state of madness. By 1854 he began to suffer severe hallucinations and attempted suicide by leaping from a bridge into the river below. He was admitted to an asylum where he died in 1856. Several years after Robert’s death, Brahms got up the courage to propose marriage to Clara, who he had fallen quite in love with during his stay at the Schumann’s. She turned him down though, chosing rather to spend her remaining years championing her late husband’s works in concert. She finished her career as a sort of “Grande Dame“ of European culture who was warmly welcomed wherever she went. Clara Schumann was also something of a composer, with piano works being her forte of course. Lately, pianists have been recording her pieces and she is getting airplay on classical radio stations. Strangely, or perhaps not,all of her composing was done before Robert died. Something creative was missing without him there.

In 1797, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin gave birth to a daughter, Mary, who was destined to pen one of the most famous works of gothic horror fiction. The mother was a known author and feminist and the father a reknowned philosopher and novelist. Mary Wollstonecraft died shortly after her daughter’s birth, so little Mary was raised by her father, a somewhat gothish man who taught his daughter to read and spell by having her trace her mother’s name on the gravestone they would visit almost daily. He remarried quickly, so the family was again complete, and opened a children’s bookshop with his new wife. Little Mary had her head tantalized by left wing radical ideas from a very early age by her parents and their friends. Their home was frequented by many of the period’s leading poets, philosophers, and political thinkers. Mary was viewed as something of a prodigy, and began to write while still quite young.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792, the son of a wealthy country squire and member of Parliament. At 12, young Percy was sent to study at Eton, where he ruffled many conservative feathers by completely failing to embrace the traditional expectations for a young man of the upper classes. While there, he discovered the writings of William Godwin. He was also enamoured by the ideals of the American and French revolutions. After Eton he was sent to Oxford, where the ruffled feathers soon became outrage and he was expelled for radicalism. His most infamous Oxford infraction involved the publishing of a pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism, an attack on the idea of compulsory Christianity. At 19 he outraged his parents yet again by eloping with the daughter of an innkeeper/coffeehouse owner. They spent time spreading radical pamphlets all over Scotland and Ireland.

At 21 Percy Shelley fell madly in love with 16 year old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, whose father he had become friends with...and she loved him as madly. Shelley was an advocate of “free love“, and suggested to his wife, Harriet, that Mary come to live with them. Harriet, of course, had a fit, so Percy and Mary ran off to the Continent. They travelled for several years before returning to England; all the while Shelley was becoming famous as a poet and disseminator of radical ideas. After a brief return to Britain, they then travelled to Switzerland, accompanied by another famous poet/radical, George “Lord“ Byron, and his physician, John Polidori, as well as Mary’s step-sister, Claire Clairmont.

On the night of June 16th, 1816, the group was stranded by an incredibly powerful electrical storm and spent the night in a villa, entertaining themselves by reading aloud a collection of gothic German ghost stories, Fantasmagoriana. This prompted Byron to suggest that they all write a ghost or terror tale. Mary began work on her story, which later become the novel, Frankenstein; or The Modern Promethius. She was initially frustrated in her attempts untill a few days later, when she had a “waking nightmare“ that crystalized her swirl of emotions and thoughts. She wrote of this event

“I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life...His success would terrify the artist; he would rush away...hope that...this thing...would subside into dead matter...he opens his eyes; behold the horrid thing stands at his bedside, opening his curtains...“

The next morning she began to write. Meanwhile Polidori had already begun a tale, entitled The Vampyre, which was to become the first modern vampire story.

In December of this same year, Percy Shelley’s wife, Harriet, commited suicide in a grisley manner. Percy and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin married shortly after, which scandalized the couple to such an extent in England that they fled to Italy to live. During the ensuing years many of Percy’s most famous poems were written, but in 1822 he and a friend were drowned when their small craft was caught in a violent storm during a sailing excursion on an Italian lake. The violent thunderstorm is almost a symbol accompanying important events in the life of Mary Shelley. Her birth was attended by such an electrical storm, which many, including her parents, took as a portent. Her most famous work had its inception during the severe storm in Switzerland;now the great love of her life was taken from her by the same meteorological phenomenon. She lived on to nearly 60, becoming one of the more prominent novelists of her day. Though she still held fast to her radical left-wing ideals, she did spend some effort trying to downplay her wild youth in order to placate the more conservative factions of the highbrow literary milieu whose acceptance she needed.

Elizabeth Barrett was a precocious child who in 1819 was already publishing poetry at the age of 13. In 1821, however, her spine was seriously injured in a fall from a horse. Though her mobility was hampered by her condition, she remained reasonably active untill 1838, when her brother died. This event depressed Elizabeth to the extent that she went into the morbid state of a permanent invalid. She rarely left her chambers, preferring to stay alone in her gloom and write poetry.

In 1844 she recieved the most amazing fan letter. It was from another, younger, poet named Robert Browning. In the letter he proclaims his great fondness for her poetry and is convincingly sincere in his praise, but the most incredible thing is that by the end of the letter he is proclaiming his love for Elizabeth as well as her poetry. She was skeptical, as she was of all professions of love by other humans due to her father’s coldness and her general depression over her physical condition. But Robert was so earnest and passionate, after more letters she began to see him and agreed to marry him in 1845, despite her father’s protests. In 1846 the lovers married secretly and ran off to Italy. Robert doted on Elizabeth and fed her with love. Her health improved remarkably and they enjoyed travelling around the country together and living in their villa. They had a sort of reciprocal muse relationship as well, each feeding off the other’s poetry and constructive criticism. They, much like the Schumanns, became one of the romantic era’s favorite couples, not so much socially, but through their poetry. Elizabeth’s “Sonnets from the Portugese” was probably her most famous book. The title refers to one of Robert’s pet names for her, “my little Portugese”, which he used because of her dark complexion. This collection of poems charts her growing love for her husband and was immensely popular in its day.

In 1861 Elizabeth died at 55 years old, but not before leaving Robert a son. Browning and his son, Pen, returned to England and eventually Robert became one of the truly great poets of the 19th century. His relationship with Elizabeth Barrett was one of the sweetest of any century.

In the days following its premiere on December 5th, 1830, all of Paris was buzzing with talk of an astonishing new musical work, Symphonie Fantastique. This symphony is the first fully realized example of what is known as “program music”; something hinted at in Beethoven’s “Pastoral Symphony” and even in much earlier music such as Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”. This type of music depicts events and emotional states involving some kind of story or complex situation, like opera without the singing, sets, and players; a sound-track for a movie in an era before movies existed.

The tale of Symphonie Fantastique is that of a young artist passionately and desperately in love with a seemingly unattainable woman. His blissful reveries of love shattered by hopelessness and doubt, he attempts suicide via a massive overdose of opium. Instead of dying he falls into a deep, trancelike dream-state filled with apparitions and nightmarish visions; these include his own march to the scaffold after murdering his unreachable love in a jealous fit. The work’s final movement depicts a witches’ sabbat taking place in the hell he enters after being guillotined, complete with dancing spectres and abominations which, horrifically, are joined by his true love in their unholy display. What the Parisian audience did not then know was that this tale of woe was, in fact, a largely autobiographical account of real events in the life of its young composer, Hector Berlioz.

In September of 1827 Berlioz, a virtual unknown as a musician, attended a production of Romeo and Juliet which included the Irish actress, Harriet Smithson. He fell madly in love with her; the obsession was such that, were he to indulge in the same activities today he would likely be arrested for stalking, or at least served with a court restraining order. He tried, through various manipulations, to have his music performed at places where she was to be in attendance. She missed hearing it the couple of times he succeeded. He then engaged in following her around Paris as well as walking repeatedly past the rooms where she was lodging, hoping for a glimpse. All to no avail; she was famous and he was a nobody. When she finally became aware of him, she wrote him off as an obsessed nut-case and would have nothing to do with him. Poor Hector was crushed. The opium overdose depicted in his symphony likely occurred around this time.

Berlioz’s extremely passionate nature is amply displayed by events of a few years later. He had finally won the much coveted Prix du Rome, which included a two year trip to Rome for study. Shortly thereafter Symphonie Fantastique was produced. Hector had given up on Harriet Smithson as a love not meant to be and was engaged to one Camille Moke, who had actually gained his affections on something like a bet with a friend. Alas, he had to go to Italy as part of his Prix du Rome. While there he learned that Camille had dumped him for a rich, older piano maker. Berlioz flew into such a rage that he left for Paris with the insane plan to murder Camille, her new fiance, and her mother by disguising himself as a woman and concealing two double-barrelled pistols beneath the garments. He would then turn the remaining loaded barrel on himself. He actually was fitted for the costumes and had the guns, but was thwarted several times en route by fortunate delays in travel. He cooled off before arriving in Paris and returned to Italy to finish his studies.

When he returned to Paris he took up lodging in quarters that were only days before vacated by Harriet Smithson. When he found out, all his old obsession returned. This time, however, he succeeded in meeting with her and she accompanied him to a performance of Symphonie Fantastique. She was terribly impressed at having inspired this work; she was also low on funds, and her career as well as her looks were beginning to fade. In late 1833, with Franz Liszt as a witness, they were married and in 1834 she gave birth to a son. Unfortunately for Berlioz, she also took to drinking and became such an impossible shrew that he moved out and took a mistress. Harriet died in 1854, the mistress in 1862, and Hector in 1869. Perhaps this is a relationship that was better left unconsummated, but it did give us one of the more famous symphonic works of the Romantic Age.